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Those on the mailing list would know by now that this blog isn’t updated often, weekly or even monthly but whenever we can get around to it. With some time off we thought now is the perfect time to give an update and share some photos on what’s been happening.
Since our last post, we’ve been and left the station by December, been down and back up the West Coast spending the most part of Summer at home in and around Carnarvon. We are now based on Victoria River Downs Station in the Northern Territory. Before we get to talking about what goes on up here, a mention of Jess landing her first meter plus barramundi with her first barra for the new year, a new years goal ticked off early for her and a memorable morning for the both of us.
So, the station, it didn’t take long after leaving late last year experiencing what Jess and I describe as some of the most fun we’ve had and that we would be back to do it all again in 2015. Deciding factors for us were the fun, the crew, employment and of course the fishing. It took us
6 and a half hours to drive from Kununurra to the station, across the WA/NT border and down the Buchanan Highway with the newly acquired tinny in tow and Sam riding in the back. We caught up with the permanent residents and good friends of ours that night and settled in the first couple of days before Jess started work as the Governess. The rest of the crew arrived in the following weeks along with some new faces and that familiar rhythm of early to rise and early in the sack unfolded. We, the stock camp, carried out a solid two weeks fencing before commencing our cattle work with a couple of days spent running fence lines in the machines or commonly known R22 helicopters, a first for myself. It’s still amazing how persistent our stock are at getting in to neighboring paddocks. From the beginning of April up until the middle of June we’ve been flat out with all aspects of the cattle – mustering, draphting, branding, tailing, walking, weighing and trucking. It’s not uncommon to get rubbed up or completely flipped by angry speyed cows! In between all this we’ve been on bore runs, shod horses, sprayed weeds,
welded up various projects, getting our NT gun licenses and had a visit from Tash and Jaxon. I got to spend 9 days during a 16 day stint out at camp, Larry’s Lake, our furthest reaching paddock where we draphted roughly 4000 head, chased pigs, shot my first pig, turned out cattle and educated weaners on both foot and horseback. We walked shy of a thousand weaners to various paddocks in total about 50kms in a few days.
Jess and I attended a dog trapping school here on the station with previous and current rangelands managers, along with guys from surrounding stations. Wild dogs out here are enemy number 1 and trapping them can be a solution. We were shown how to set traps and lure in the dogs. We set maybe a dozen traps over the course of the day in likely locations and a steady catch rate of dogs were caught in the following weeks. Jess’ occupation claim is now Governess/Dog Trapper.
The Mataranka Rodeo in May was a highlight with a few of the boys including myself nominating to ride a bull for the first time. We were all showing different signs of nervousness the
night before and on the day up until the point our bulls jumped from the chutes. The feeling of riding was pure adrenaline even though we lasted all of 3 seconds. All of us now can’t wait to ride again after saying this is only a one-time thing. Mum and Dayna came to see the event and made for good company over the weekend. We also visited Bitter Springs within the township.
The fishing. We had a reasonable run earlier in the year up until May before the cold set in. The wet season just passed was less than average which has made it harder. It’s been great having the boat to get out on the water and explore different waterways on both the Victoria and Wickham rivers. Jess’ biggest from the station measured 79cm, I’ve caught two 82cm models and the biggest caught by the crew measured 85. We’ve had encounters with bigger fish although these particular barra won their freedom. We had a croc trap set in the junction of our rivers for about a month after sightings from pilots, one particular with an unsuspecting calf being taken. Word got around that the boreman had wired the
gate on one and the entire station, along with rangers removed the 3.75m male and sent it on its way to the taxidermist. We also made the Katherine Times.
At this moment we are in Darwin on holidays. More to come…
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Jaxon
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Cool story bro
Great story guys, thanks for the mention ?