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Published: April 2nd 2008
The flight from New Zealand was uneventful. I said goodbye to the spectacular Southern Alps and the West Coast and then got bored looking out of the window at the sea, although i swear i saw a whale breaching as we approached Australia. I was in a state of unreality during most of it - it just wouldnt sink in that i was going to be in Australia! As we neared the coast however i got a little excited and my nose was glued to the window until we landed. Mostly we saw lots of trees and hills, then the Syndey suburbs came into view - lots of little houses accompanied by little blue swimming pool diamonds. The plane banked and we flew right over the city and i got a good view of the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Reality hit fairly hard and fast after that. Christchurch had been cold and very wet when i left 3 hours earlier, but Syndey was hot and humid. i got stopped at immigration for carrying a knife and 3 pairs of shoes that had been on a farm AND some contraband food (though the vegemite was allowed through!). I took
the train to the Central Station and then found the YHA without too much getting lost and looking like a tourist. It was already about 6pm and we had been fed on the plane(pie and mash - how ozzie!), and i was feeling fairly intimidated by the city and doing everything alone, so i kind of hibernated that evening at the hostel. Because my mummy wasnt there i had ice cream for tea (lol) then watched the new Pride and Prejudice in the TV room with a Northern Irish girl, a German girl and a British guy who couldnt follow the story and kept asking who everyone was! I shared my room with 3 very friendly Swedish girls who called flip-flops "flib-flaaarbs" and loved my jillaroo hat. In the morning i only had enough time to have breakfast, check my emails and repack before heading back to the airport for my flight to Tamworth. The plane was fairly small - about 40 seats, but i got a window seat again which was nice. I couldnt see any farms or cattle from the air but the coast was beautiful with all these bars and spits that people had built houses on
in concentric shapes following the shape of the land.
Tamworth is a city but it is pretty small by European standards. There was no bus from the airport (one room building with some concrete outside - no shoe scanners here!!) but a very kind taxi man offered to come back for me after he droppped some businessmen off. The YHA here was almost empty when i arrived but after settling in i decided not to waste any time and set off to expore the city. That took about 10 minutes - there really isnt much there worth seeing, except the Golden Guitar, which i couldnt find on the map - so i decided to walk up to the "scenic lookout point". It was about 30-35 degrees that day so a bit of a slog uphill. A guy in a ute offered me a lift half way up, but i declined prefering the challenge and i DID listen at school about not accepting lifts from strange men! there were two guys trying to cycle up, struggling, but i think ahving a girl walking behind them kind of spurred them on. I was boiling when i got to the top but
it was worth it. They view was amazing - you could see the whole city spread across the plains with hills and mountains in the distance. There was a walking track at the top, and seeing as it was only early afternoon and i had made all that effort to get to the top i thought i would go for a wander. That thought didnt last long - it was boiling with no shade and the track kept going upwards. i thought i would try to cut across to the other half of the loop but couldnt find the track on the other side. i hadn't minded stepping over all the branches and rocks and going through bushes along the way, but turning back i had forgotten where i came from and suddenly remembered all about snakes and spiders and stuff, especially when i accidentally walked through a spiders web! i didnt really fancy staying the night on the hill so after a bit of fervent praying and apologising to God for being a bit arrogant and stupid for wandering off the trail, He found it again for me and i headed back down vowing never to do that again!
That afternoon i met Jack, a fellow Pom going to the Jackaroo School, and Sarah who had been to a rubbish one up north (seems i picked well!). Jack had been in town for 4 days (and was desperately bored) but had met some of the guys returning from the last school and had good the inside edge into what goes on there, including something intriguing called the "scream team".... The next day Jack took me to the Golden Guitar - about 45 minutes walk across town. It was indeed gold, and about 12 metres high, but i thought rather dissapointingly unrealistic, consderinigthat Tamworth is the country music capital of Australia. Jack posed for all of 3 seconds so i could take a picture but declined to go into the Hall of Fame and souvenir shop. On the way back we decided to cook tea together so stopped in at the supermarket, but back at the hostel someone stole our tuna during the afternoon!! Jack is really nice, very friendly and chatty. He also is looking for a station job and even wants to try bull riding. We discussed everything from family to favourite animals and even some politics!
i think we will get on well at the jackaroo school, he seems to want to learn like me and take it fairly seriously.
I wanted to watch The Man From Snowy River that evening, for some education, but in the end we watched City Slickers (american city guys being cowboys!) which was not quite so useful but fairly funny. Loads of other people arrived then as the school started the next day so we met Stefan and Corinna from Germany, Mathijs from The Netherlands and Liz from the UK, playing cards outside that evening. There was a whole bunch of guys also going on the 5 day course but rumour had it the 11 day course was better. Before i had been really nervous about meeting people and not making a total idiot of myself at the ranch, but it seemed Jack and i were the only experienced people there and everyone was very friendly and spoke good English, which always helps.
The next morning we set off early en masse to the opshop to get work clothes. The boys had plenty to choose from and Mathijs even got some nearly-new RM Williams (big country brand) jeans.
In the womens section we found plenty of flowery blouses and several PVC miniskirts....but not a lot of work clothes. luckily i already had enough shirts and singlets and managed to find one pair of (ridiculously high-waisted) jeans that fit. after a quick stop for beer and goon (a kind of very fruity wine) we headed back to the hostel so everyone else could buy their jackaroo hats before piling into the minibus. it took about an hour, in very hot weather over bumpy tracks, to get to the property but we got a very warm reception from Kat, Rachel and Darcy and also met Chris and Joost who are the main staff. they are all around our age and awesome fun and great teachers. tehre are several bunkhouses at Leconfield - Sandra and Liz got the Penthouse, being the more 'senior' (in their 40s) of the group, most of the girls where in the main house while Carinna, Kirke, Bianca and i were bunked in "Pinky's" along with the only couple, Ronnie and Nina, and several of the staff. The rest of the boys were in the woolshed. Our bunkroom was really nice - a few worrying cobwebs but
nice comfy beds, plenty of space, with the washroom and toilet outside. Pinky's is also the social house so we had a verandah and lounge where we went each evening to watch DVDs, play poker and have parties. The woolshed was kind of primative - some bunks and a screen of material from the shearing bays and woolpress! at one point there were actually sheep in the pens on the other side!
After unpacking we had lunch then sat under the tree in the garden for our intro - lots of health and safety, which was actually worth listening to for once, regarding snakes, spiders and wild cattle. the basic motto is everyting in australia will try to kill you! everyone has to speak english for safety and to be polite and the punishment for not is eating vegemite! ironically i was the only one who liked it and obviously i can already speak it! we also learn all about cows, bulls, steers and heifers, which totally went over everyone's head so i had to do some lessons later on, including some very badly drawn pictures to demonstrate. Likewise after our tack and saddlery lesson! i felt sorry for
half the guys - its hard enough being a total novice and having to learn all this stuff when you already speak english! afterwards we had free time to get to know eachother until dinner, so we played cards again.
Day 2 was our first official day at the school and started off with breakfast at half 7. we were all there on time but the Germans and Danish were appauled at the quality of the bread, compared to waht they are used to at home, and had some fun making it into balls and hiding things in it! everyone initially baulked at the milk, which came straight from the cow via a sieve but wasnt properly filtered or pasturised. most people refused to drink it until i skimmed the cream off, which had gone a little ahrd in the fridge, and picked out the black spots, but then curiousity got the better of them! once we got into the routine of milking each morning and therefore drinking the product of our own efforts and early morning starts everyone got used to it and decided it was actually quite nice on cornflakes! during the morning we were split into
2 groups - half to learn milking and the other half to learn how to catch and tack up a horse. we had western saddles so even people who ahd done it before had to learn again, and because its so hilly each saddle also had a breastplate and cropper (ass strap as Canadian Rachel called it!) to keep it on place. they weighed a tonne and some of the smaller guys really struggled to lift them high enough. in the afternoon we met Cole, the station manager. He's a bit scary - quite grumpy and aggressive, doesnt take any nonsense and constantly threatens to take you off your horse and send you home if you dont do things right. i think a lot of people we intimidated by him to start with but he needed to be scary so that people would listen and take him seriously. we got paired up with our horses and i got Jewels, a really gorgeous flea-bitten grey i would guess around 14hh ish. she's a bit of a handful as she doesnt like being caught but does enjoy biting and kicking other horses, so i was told to keep a safe distance from
everyone else while working and be very bossy with her - no worries! She actually loves people and is very affectionate, but mostly falls asleep as soon as i tie her up, which is why i have hardly any pictures of her with her ears forward! there were about 35 horses in the yard and lots that were similar looking (Jewels looks a lot like Mathijs' horse jessie) so i took some photos of her so i could identify her for the muster the next day! Once we had caught our horses, groomed and tacked them up we had our first riding lesson in a small paddock by the yards. for most of the group this was their first time on a horse and they were fairly scared, mostly by Cole, and he took it pretty seriously but he said he would have everyone riding properly within the 11 days and he was right. His main saying is, "where are your brass balls?" - we were not allowed to be scared, wussy or lack confidence, simply to strap on and polish our brass balls each morning and get on with the job. Mounting was a joy as Ralph tried to
pig-buck Sandra off, Oliver couldnt get into the saddle without standing on the water trough and plenty of others didnt hold their reins tight enough so their horse wandered off as soon as they put a foot in teh saddle. Jewels and i were safe, well away from the rest of the group, and it was nice to be riding a pony for a change and not be so far off the ground! Cole borrowed Bianca's pony Claire to demonstrate how to go, stop, steer, etc then he let us loose to wander all over the hill and practice. Mostly we did ok and i learnt pretty quickly how to keep Jewels and her teeth away from other horses! A few didnt quite get the "lean forward for uphill and back for downhill" bit but soon worked it out when they nearly fell off! Once Cole was suitably convinced that we had got the hang of it, and had a bit of a rant about crossing our reins (we'd be made to get off and walk if we didn't!) we headed out of the yards and off across the station on our first ride. The whole thing was at a
walk but it was our first opportunity to see the property away from the house. we rode along the river, which was gorgeous, and it was nice to be able to ride along side eachother and chat, unlike when trekking when you have to stay in single file. Everyone had a really good time and the beginners really enjoyed it and werent half so nervous about the muster the next day. We were supposed to be going to Pinky's that evening to hang out with the staff, but with our first muster at 8 am we chickened out at 10pm and went to bed! That evening we discovered several Huntsman spiders in the showers (big, ugly things like brown tarantulas but harmless) and 5-6 redbacks in the toilet (small, black spiddys with a red stripe that can kill you!) so we were well adopted into Australian wildlife by then! nobody wanted to disturb the redbacks and as they were just hidden in a corner not doing anything we decided to leave them alone.
Our first muster was of a paddock called Woolcheque (where the sheep used to be) but now had around 50 head of cattle, plus calves and
a couple of bulls. it took around 2 hours to ride there, almost entirely up and down hills so a good workout for the horses and our thighs. it was about 25-30 degrees so we were already fairly hot and sweaty when we arrived (and the novices were a little saddle sore) and we hadnt even started work yet! we were split into three groups - one for the left side of the paddock, one for the right and a few for the middle. the aim is to walk across the paddock, yellling like a nutter, to scare the cattle away from you and down the hill (they naturally head down the spurs and gullies to the bottom). They gather at the lowest point so you form a horseshoe around them so that they cant escape around the sides, and the "scream team" at the back keeps them moving. usually they are mustered to a dam or waterhole (the middle group form a block at the top so the cattle are surrounded while they drink) before being moved to the yards. I was part of the left side team, with Anja, Corinna, Bianca, Liz, Mat, Laura and stationhand Darcy. We
set off at a good pace and fully exercised our lungs but the paddock wasnt all that hilly and we could clearly see that there were no cattle on our side of the hill! still, as this was our first muster we had to 'practice' our yelling and so did manage to scare a whole bunch of kangaroos! Anja had some trouble keeping her old gentleman pony Blazer moving, so she joined the middle group forming a block at the dam while the rest of us regrouped to find some cattle! There was a bunch of 5 or so cows by the fence so we pushed them along to the far top corner to join another 20 or so. By this time the right side team had caught up at the same point on their side, but with their cattle already in the gully back towards the dam, so we formed a funnel to chase the cows from the corner to the gully. Laura, Darcy and i headed down the hill to form a line while the rest of the team attempted to force them down, but they were rather stubborn and would only move when Bianca screamed blue murder
at them and rode right into them (from then on Bianca was notorious for her abilities in the scream team!). Eventually they cam hurtling down the hill and we formed the horseshoe with Jewels and I in the scream team. because the cattle are kept in small numbers and mustered regularly they are fairly calm and know where they were going so some people didnt really get why we had to keep yelling at them, but with a bit of encouragement we kept them going and managed to block off the holes that appeared between horses so the cattle couldnt escape. The right side team (which i had half joined on the right side of the scream team) veered off half way along to pick up the rest of the cattle and we brought the whole lot up to the dam, where the middle team were waiting. We werent really sure how well we had done but Kat seemed pretty pleased and stationhands Darcy and Rachel said it was the first time in a while that they hadnt had to do all the work on the first muster and no cattle had escaped!
After pushing the cattle on into the yards we took the horses back for a drink before typing them up around the yard in the shade. Cole arrived with the ute and our lunch so we flopped out in the shade for an hour to cool off and consume as much water as possible before the yard work started. Once the branding gear had been set up we all climbed the rails, were told that "cows and calves are not cute, they WILL kill you," and that if we didnt give 100% to the job we wouldnt be allowed to participate and we'd probably break bones or lose teeth anyway. We were then let into the main yard where the stock were gathered and told to remove the two smallest calves and one mikey bull that hadnt been castrated and tagged, with no further instruction! As expected the boys duly threw themselves into the job, catching the first of the smaller calves around the middle and neck between two of them and almost bodily carrying it to the gate! i used to more conventional method of tail and ear alone to walk the second one over. The mikey (means escaped, as in should have been done ages ago so is now rather large and wild!) bull was harder because he was the same size as most of the others that had been done, and he was a lot bigger. So we formed a line around the cattle, with a gap at one end, allowing them out one at a time until we had the one we wanted. Unfortunately not everyone quite understood how this worked and so grabbed at the mikey bull, making the 600kg cows surge towards the edge of the circle, trying to escape. We stood our ground but i got my left foot trodden on in the process. It was fairly painful but not so much that i couldnt complete the job and i was too busy concetrating on the task to worry too much. Once we had all 3 in the smaller pen Cole and Darcy demonstrated the correct way to throw a calf, so that it can be castrated (as necessary), branded and ear tagged and notched. The Leconfield is a 7X, with the year of birth below for heifers, and each calf gets 3 notches in its ears and 1 tag. To start with we only had to catch and throw them, to practice. Oliver and Jack did a great job on the first little one, then Stefan and Mat on the second. Bianca and I tried but she couldnt get hold of its head. I did throw one with Oliver though, after we had been shouted at for not knowing our left from our right! Finally Jack, Oliver, Stefan, Mat and I decided to tackle the mikey bull. We got hold of him ok, after a bit of a chase, but just as we were about to throw him Cole told the boys to let go so that "the girls could have a go", which left just me holding on like grim death to its tail! thankfully Kirke, Bianca and a couple of others threw themselves on and eventually we got him on the ground. He wasnt happy about it though, and charged about like a loony after we let him up again. Finally we were actually allowed to tag them and we didnt do a bad job. Quite a few people were a bit scared of having a go so Cole told them best to watch the first time and have a go on the next muster. We had a few extra people helping with the mikey just to add extra weight to hold him down, but mostly it was me and the boys throwing them. Cole is a difficult man to please, but he seemed satisfied enough by our efforts, after the obligatory lecture on safety, knowing left from right and listening to instructions properly! (he had a point - it is generally easier to throw them when you are all on the correct side of the calf, and when people throw by the head and flank and dont try to grab random body parts!). We then had a slight incident where we didnt realise Jack didnt have the gate open yet before we ran the calves straight at him (oops!) but he didnt get hurt and we let the cattle back out to graze again. Its not so comfortable riding back for 2 hours when you are covered in sweat and dust and all your muscles hurt and your foot is swelling up inside your boot (adrenalin high over, the pain kicked in big time!), but we had all really enjoyed it and everyone was pretty chilled out dawdling back, possibly slightly slumped in the saddle with fatigue! I was quite impressed with all the people who had no horse or livestock experience, those who had joined in had really thrown themselves in.
Somehow i managed to dismount on one foot, back at the yard, untack and wash Jewels down before hobbling back to the mainhouse. I wasnt trying to play the victim but i got rather a lot of sympathy and many offers of painkillers, ibuprofen gel and even a massage! I was only worried that i wouldnt be allowed to work the next day if i was still limping. That evening we had a bonfire at Pinkys and met the staff properly. We discovered that Joost is a bit of a pyro and Chris knows lots of English football songs but has an incomprehensible Scottish accent most of the time!
Day three was entitled "fencing" so wasnt met with quite so much enthusiasm, and considerable saddle soreness from the day before. i wasnt saddle sore and limping less that the previous evening having amazingly remembered not to jump down onto my foot from my bunk. In the end it was quite a good day. After wandering down the drive and wading across the river (without our boots on) we set to work on a couple of fallen trees that were blocking the utes from getting along the bank. We were joined by the neighbouring station manager, Dave, from Echo Hills as we were to rebuild the floodgate that separates Leconfield from his property. The last one had been destroyed in the flood and half the cattle were on the wrong side (a mustering job for another day!). We were to make panels out of chickenwire, stitch them together in pairs then hang them from a wire across the river. Each pair of panels was joined by thin wire hooks so that if one panel was hit by a tree or rock in the flood it would move without ripping out half the floodgate. there werent enough pairs of pliers to go around but we worked pretty well in teams letting everyone have a go at everything. Cole wanted the entire thing to be at his eye level, and as we were the same height, i got the job of going along measuring the height of each panel as it was hung up. A few people were nominated to shed their boots to hang the panels directly in the river. We were all done by about 2 pm, after a lot of machismo story telling from Cole and Dave, trying to out-do each other infront of so many girls, and throwing Dorien in the river - i am not entirely sure why, but it was very funny! As we had done a good job and finished early Cole gave us the afternoon off to swim in the creek. We were supposed to walk down to the swimming hole but everyone was too hot to bother so we swam in the section directly below Pinkys. All was fine until someone spotted a leach, at which point everyone who could dashed for the bank and the rest of us stood on rocks looking nervous. Despite Liz, Sandra and a few others insisting that leaches were harmless and didnt hurt anyway, it didnt persuade us to get back into the water, and after i spotted one by my foot i gave in and legged it for dry land too! We did eventually calm down and spent the rest of the afternoon sunning ourselves on rocks like mermaids while the boys dried to drown each other. We had dinner outside that evening, BBQ lamb from a slaughter the week before (our slaughter on Sunday would feed the next school). While everyone was reclining in a post-prandial stupor Joost asked if anyone wanted to play poker that evening. Before anyone could reply, Kirke replied that she would only play if it was NOT strip poker as we had already seen plenty of Joost for one day! Everyone errupted into laughter that lasted quite a while and poor Joost retreated to the staff table, clutching his shirt (the first time we had seen him in one!) around him! We did play that evening though - a couple of practice games so that novices like me could learn, then a big game with most of the school joining in. It was good fun though i kept forgetting all the possible combinations, but i had Joost as dealer beside me giving me advice. We had a good start as Nikki got a Royal Flush but i didnt win a single hand (too scared to bluff!). I turned in, having lost, around midnight, but i think Joost, Nikki, Mat and Lisa played until past 1 am!!
The much anticipated "walk, trot, canter lesson" started the next morning with an hour long ride along the river. Even the experienced people were a bit nervous, as Cole was to teach us and his fierce reputation was well known by now. Jewels had lost a shoe the previous day but as it was a back one Kat said i could ride without it. This was fine, but it did give her a slight limp, creating a very odd trotting rhythm. Irritatingly i lost a stirrup on my first go, but after shortening them a hole i did better on the second go. Cole's main gripe is when we dont cross our reins as he is afraid we will lose control (true in many cases) so if he catches you he makes you dismount and walk! He had Bianca off at one point but only made her walk for 10 minutes. We were all very careful after that. I could barely get Jewels into a canter, i think because she was a bit foot sore without the shoe, but we managed it eventually. Having only ever been taught to canter western style i found it fairly easy but most of the other experienced riders got yelled at for not putting their heels forward or not keeping their backside in the saddle. The novices got plenty of slightly graphic analogies about how to move their hips while cantering, but most did really well, especially Ronny who seems to be a natural at everything jackaroo! Laura and Nikki had some trouble with their horses trying to charge off with them and of course Jewels tried to bite everything within range, but it was good fun. We had lunch by the river under the trees before unsaddling the horses ready for the swim. Kat demonstrated with her horse Polly - first we had to swim along side them, holding onto the reins, then second time around we were allowed to mount up while they were under water, as long as we were in the proper riding position when the horse touched the bottom. I was pretty nervous about it all, and as predicted Jewels was a little stubborn about entering the water, but eventually she gave in. it was awesome swimming with them, although she was much faster than me and almost left me behind. The second time around, when we were allowed to get on, i found her back ok but couldnt work out how far along i was. When she surfaced i was sprawled along her back (as graceful as an elephant, according to Kirke!) but she didnt seem to mind and i eventually found my seat. It was so exhilerating and Jewels was really good once she was in the water. We had a few more goes then everyone saddled up and we headed back home. It was a bit slippery on a wet horse but quite fun. On the way Jewels and Stefan's horse Bay stopped to grind chunks off of a cattle mineral block and it was really hard to get them away from it!
It being Friday, and our first Friday, we had a party that evening. Every school has a party with a different theme. We had been deliberating all week as to what theme to choose, including 'dress like your horse's name', but eventually we went with superheroes. There are a whole heap of discarded clothes stored in black binbags in the woolshed so we raided them for capes, hats, masks and other accessories. i went as the kungfu cow, in cow pyjamas, cowprint bandana, horns made of cardboard and black socks pinned to the bandana, workboots, yellow marigold for an udder and black eyeliner patches on my face! The boys (apart from Ronny who came as Catwoman) did an amazing impression of the A Team, including Oliver covered in shoe polish, shaved mohawk and work chains around his neck! Some of the girls did the Power Puff Girls and Sandra came as Super Cleaner after all her ranting during chores and telling everyone off for not hanging the tea towels properly! Usually the stationhands dont dress up but Joost and Chris came in a rather minimalist Chipendale's outfit! I managed to persuade Laura to come as SuperVegemite, with a yellow V and cape and my jar of vegemite as a weapon (because everyone else hated it!) hanging from her belt! It was an awesome party and we all had a good time. there was a lot of bad dancing, especially from Ronny who kept telling girlfriend Nina off for not dancing, saying it wasnt embarassing at all (it is the way he does it!). As we had the following day off the party went on, and on, and on well past the week small hours....
And thus concludes the first week of jillaroo school. More adventures to follow......
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Sandra
non-member comment
Brings it all back
Well done you - really enjoyed reading your diary of the first week and looking forward to the next episode. I may even pinch some of it for when I eventually get round to doing my own. xx