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Add to favoritesFor our first 6 months full time on the road, we enjoying the freedom our savings brought.
Staying at great free camps and doing a few farm sits helped extend this. We use Aussie House Sitter and are never short on requests to farm/house sit.
Although we had some savings left we thought it best to look for work. We still wanted to have some savings in the bank.
Larry applied for cattle station positions online at The Job Shop and on Gumtree. Receiving multiple phone calls for different jobs in various places.
Larry chose a job that included water technician/bore runner and mechanic.
Larry had always wanted to work on a cattle station therefore this job had given him the chance.
For three months we lived on a 880,000 acres cattle station. Which runs 10,500 head of cattle.
Driving to the mail box took 10 minutes. Although we only had to do this once a week as that’s how often we got mail delivered.
The nearest town was 140km away, a long way to drive if you forget something.
Part of Larry’s job was to make sure the cattle had water. He drove around 250km on each bore run.
Checking water, pumps and pipelines.
As well as checking the water supply to the cattle, if he noticed dead cattle or roos he had the task of removing them. Not a pretty job.
Likewise, neither was the mud and manure he got to stand in, to clean out the troughs 😉
As he is the kind of guy that likes to get in and do what ever is needed, he’s happy. A bit of muck never hurt anyone and he has some good yet gross stories to tell.
This was an older cattle station and it had an amazing homestead!
Unfortunately it was dilapidated so no one could live in it.
One day, hopefully they will restore it to its former glory. Walking around inside was like stepping back in time.
Apart from the homestead, the red dust was another main feature. Both classic Australian and I love it!
Parking our van on the cattle station.. We chose a spot to set up so we could see the sunset each night.
Moreover parking in a place we could hook up to power, which is a luxury we like.
Water, was bore water. We would fill a few large containers from a station water tank (this was slightly better filtered water) then we would manually fill our fresh water tanks.
A new 70,000 litre a day reverse osmosis plant was being installed when we were there. As the bore runner and water technician, Larry had a great interest.
During his time working on Hayman Island he had worked on something on a larger scale. This was a lot smaller then the 1,000,000 litre a day plant he had last worked with.
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I love that we had animals literally at our door. Cows, chickens, sheep, emu and goanna regularly wandered by.
The chicken hung around more than the others. I think we become friends. I feel it may only wanted me for my food though 😉
Many variety of birds can be found in trees and troughs. From eagles to tiny bright green flocks of birds. The property also has horse’s, pigs and goats.
There was so much land around us yet all the animals that pass (and I mean all) seem to poop outside the van. Thankful its only the chicken that shared its droppings on our mat. Hmmm… Maybe weren’t friends after all 🙁
A lot of different work went on at mustering time. Mustering cattle to the yards, tagging, welding, changing horse shoes, checking for pregnant cows, the list goes on.
Once mustering ended and the jackaroos and jillaroos had gone, Larry was happy to have had a few new experiences.
New tanks and fences were being installed so more contractors turned up for a short time. They stayed in the cattle station dongers.
I had a few little jobs to do whilst the mustering and the contractors were there. During their stay I had the opportunity to help out a little. Making beds, cleaning, gardening and a bit of cooking.
Not as out and about on the station as Larry but good to be doing something 😀
Check Out How Larry’s Found & worked On The Cattle Station Here
After three and a bit months it was time to get back on the road. We loved our time on the cattle station and would work on other station’s and farms in the future.
Larry Had a call from our old jobs on Hayman Island in the Whitsundays. Asking if he would return in a management position. We decided to head back for a year to top up the savings a bit more.
Heading back to Queensland we had the opportunity to check out new free camps along the way. Travelling up Western Australia to NT and across back to Queensland.
Larry has written Working on a cattle station (See here) from his perspective. .
If you have any questions that we might be able to answer or talk about in his future post please leave a comment below 😀
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11 thoughts on “Three Months On A Cattle Station”
Thank you, enjoying your posts.
Thanks Cheryl, we appreciate your comment 😀
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