Wild Wild Western Queensland!

OMG, so much has been going on since my last report here on the blog but hey, I have all the details to share now!

I have significantly improved my cattle work skills in the past few weeks. I do not feel as scared as I used to feel. The last few weeks have been hectic – bull sale yards, then big 60th party at the farm, then long drive into the outback to work on a 60,000 acre property. I swear this is the real outback. There is no one to be seen in 30km radius. There’s “bush” everywhere. The property itself is so big that cattle need to mustered by choppers and moving cattle from the yards to the paddocks can easily take a few hours!

So much had been going on in the past week that I do not know where to start!!

Ok, the party I suppose – it was held on a paddock under beautiful green trees. The whole set up was quite amazing. Round hay bales were used as tables, square hay bales used as seats.  There were also normal chairs but it all looked so nice and cozy in the end. Of course prior to all of this we had to go and pick up cow shit from the area the party was planned for. I was quite happy to dress up for the party as I have not worn make up or nice clothes for almost three months. I was really looking forward to it! We stayed up almost all night and slept in swags (pretty much roll out sleeping bag but could be placed directly on the ground). We had arranged square hay bales and used these as a bed though, just to be slightly elevated from the ground and to keep it nice and soft. Isn’t it amazing o sleep under the stars and wake up in the morning fresh as a daisy unless you’ve been drinking of course!

There were visitors arriving at the house already a week before, so we were lucky to get a day off and go to Bundaberg rum distillery. As the locals call it Bundy, probably 90% of its produce is sold domestically. It must be very famous in Australia.

Bundy is about three hours drive each way. That was sort of a day trip for us but we really enjoyed it! It was a day off but we still had to get up at 5 to be ready to leave at 5.45am. I have to say I do not know what it feels like to wake up at 7 anymore. I would consider it a lie in and half day’s work would already be done by then!

On Friday, another guest arrived at the farm who had a massive truck parked in front of the house. I happened to have a chat with him and mentioned how cool the truck looked. He was very kind to offer to take me for a drive AND let me drive it myself. I could not believe my luck when I sat in that fancy machine. It is Western Star and made in the USA. The pedals were very sensitive and it was quite an exercise to keep the accelerator stable + my legs were too short for a truckie! Obviously we did not have a trailer with us. I drove across a narrow bridge as well as made a U turn on the highway. To my surprise the vehicle turns really well (better than my old Peugeot 206!). I was very proud of myself and grateful to the owner for allowing me to try to drive it.

The party did not finish on Saturday - there was a further chilled out barbie on the next day as well as clay pigeon shooting. I got a few hits and also got a massive bruise on my shoulder. It hurt as hell, so I stopped shooting. Otherwise great fun!!

Although everyone was pretty much as a veggie on Sunday, we all enjoyed the day and evening after. It was a nice way to finish off a Sunday and to get ready for a drive into the outback Monday morning at 6am. All stuff packed we headed for the outback farm in Wharton Creek. It took us around five hours to get there. The last two hours we did not see a single vehicle on the road and the last hour was only dirt roads. Oh, and their mailbox is actually half an hour drive away from the house! The closest town is two hours away. You’d wonder how they get their food. Everything gets frozen, even milk and cream!

On our way towards the farm we saw a fridge on the side of the road. I assumed this was left there for anyone who needed one but apparently that was a mailbox too.

While on the dirt roads we spotted a lot of kangaroos and emus wondering around in the area.

We got to the property at around 12.30pm and two choppers were ordered to be here at 3pm. They were one hour early, so we had to rush on the quads to an area where the lady discussed the strategy with the pilots of how she wanted the cattle mustered. We got into a truck and sort of followed the choppers and watched how they moved cattle. It was pretty amazing seeing them just metres above our car and making crazy manoeuvres. They’d just dive towards the ground and then pull up again really fast. After a while we got the green light to get into a chopper too. It is a Robinson R-22. It only has two seats and no doors, just seat belts. I sat into the passenger seat right next to the pilot and prayed for my life. To be honest, it was not scary at all. It was sooooo much fun. Especially the wicked turns and dives that it made while trying to make a run away cow return to the herd. At some stage I saw the cow crashing into a ute, twice! We were just a metre above the cow and at that stage I thought this was it. I was hoping it would not throw its back legs or jump onto the chopper. We were that close to it. Damn hard core mustering! Besides, the chopper is probably the size of a two seater car. Best experience of my life. The views from above are priceless and it would be difficult to capture a photo of what I saw. I do have a couple of cool pics though.

The next day was very busy. We got up at 5.30 and headed out to draft cows. Drafting equals to sorting. We separated weaners (calves taken off their mother as they are old enough to survive without milk), calves, steers, bulls, dry cows, wet cows etc. There was a clean skin bull in the yards (clean skin means that he has never been in a yard and never seen a human before). Getting him into the right place was not easy. We were told to stay away as it could attack any time. Most of the cattle would be pretty feral and not used to humans. We have to be aware of them at all times when working with them. We drafted the cows and them later on in the evening went back to brand the cows. These would have been calves and weaners that got branded, dehorned and rubber bands put on their nuts for them to fall off. Branding would be similar to a tattoo but it would be the farm logo and it would get burned on the cow’s bum. We also moved cattle from a paddock into the yards. That was some serious shit. At first everything went well but as we were getting closer to the yards one bull got loose. Jaysus, that was the real wild wild Western Queensland. Utes bumping into each other, running into the bull (making it even more angry!) trying to make it go in the right direction. I was in the passenger seat at the time and I swear I could not see anything around us but the bull squeezed in between the ute and another one. And it all happened on my side. My worst fear though was that the ute would tip over as we were not on the road and anything on the ground could have thrown us off. Bloody hell, there was so much dust everywhere that I could not even breathe. In the end we got the bull into the yard but the new English girl there who had arrived less than a week ago was shitting herself. She said she is not sure if she can do the whole 88 days if this it what it’s going to be like. I do not blame her! Unfortunately, one of the calves got killed in the race for catching the bull. One of the utes must have hit her so hard that it died. It was the colour of the soil, so no wonder no one saw her. Poor thing. It was not tiny any more. It was pretty big but would still be called a calf.

We did not finish until 7.30pm that night. It was a damn long day packed with excitement.

The next day was pretty much similar to the previous one. We drafted another group of cows and took them back out to the paddock. It took us probably 2 hours to move them back to where the chopper brought them from. Seriously long way away! We had four utes and two quads all guiding the cows in the right direction. We’d have to keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t run off in a random direction into the bush. Initially I was in the ute with one man but then I was asked to get on the quad since I have some cattle experience and I understand instructions. Doris was on a high and proud of herself again J. Had to do a few fast moves to get the cow back on track. It is a bit scary when riding really close to them and they just look at you and won’t move! I literally hoped for them to not run towards me and turn around instead and keep going. I managed. All good.

Oh, and I branded a few cows yesterday evening. I burned their “tattoos” all by myself. I am becoming a real cowgirl soon!

Today was not as mad as previous days. We got onto a truck and ear tagged all the calves that we were taking back to the other farm with us. They did not have a mother so they really needed extra help. As I was trying to pierce one’s ear, it ripped the tag out while I still had the ply’s that are used for tagging. The ear ripped into two slightly. Nothing too dramatic. We still had to be careful and try to avoid getting kicked by the calves.

The rest of the morning was quite ok and relaxed. Did not do much.It got closer to leave again, so I hopped on a road train truck to be the gate opener for the driver. The property had about 4-5 gates to open. It was a long walk from the gate back to the truck. Got a ride into nearest town. It took us more than two hours to get there and 1.5 of it were dirt roads. I was dropped off into town where I waited for another two cattle trucks (smaller) to pick me up and head back home.

The only downside of it all is that I would have wanted to spend a few extra days out there.