leopold downs cattle station

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After a 3 hour flight from darwin on the tinyest plane we arrived in broome. Hannah full of flu and me with some sort of weird rash on my arm looking like id been taken over by aliens! We were picked up by our new boss ned and taken to the offie to get a crate of beer...good start!!!

Leopold Downs is the name of our new home its about 3.5 hours away from broome and the nearest town fitzroy crossing is about an hour away. I have since discovered fitzroy is tiny with a few grocery stores, petrol station, and ofcourse a pub...i am wondering why its even on the map! leopold is owned by aboriginals..the bunaba people and is set on 1.2 million acres of the kimberleys, there are about 10000 head of cattle which is growing and hopes to reach to 30000. there are 2 stations leopold and fairfield however fairfield station is a run down haunted homested, there was a large guanna living there but unfortinutley someone from one of the comunities ate him the other day oh dear!

So life here is great, im loving every minute, i can honestley say its a wonderfull life out here a little quite but i like it. We have great food..obviousley because hannah and i cook it, bbq's once or twice a week theres a never ending supply of beef so its steaks and roasts galor, i can honestley say i am getting a little steaked out though.

I live with ned my boss who is the best boss in the world, hes very funny and looks after all us girls. Theres brenden who works as a mechanic who is very patient especially when hannah is about to blow up the lawn mower...he gives us icecreem oh yay. I live with lisa who is an ozzie, we go out riding together, angelica who is here for only 1 month and comes from germany, shes doing the same as us backpacking. there is 2 aboriginal guys snowy and mozzie, i like them they are a good laugh but most of the time i cant understand what they are saying so im just nodding and smiling ...i later found out they cant understand my accent either so its tit for tat there really. Theres a guy called stoney out real live cowboy...now what can i say..i thought i could talk the hind leg of a donkey but this boy is a real gas bag when it comes to chatting especially after drinking too much cordial...its the sugar you see it sends him wappy.

People are always dropping in too to stay so theres always a full house and plenty of banta, rob the helicopter pilot who does the mustering has been roped into taking us girls out for a ride to see everything from above.

When there is no one to talk too there are plenty of animals to chat too, i like the chickens they are my friends, they came after i arrived from a battery farm, there are 22 in total, some people think im crazy and stoney has named me the chicken whisperer, i have started to name them, one had bad legs and couldnt walk, i made is a special sling to sit in so it could practice stretching its legs....quite funnily its doing well and can walk, i go and have chicken time with them every day he he ....ok so maybe i am going crazy out here in the middle of nowhere.

We feed 9 poddie calves every morning and night time, they ike their milk and again have started to name them and have requested they have ther own paddock when they get big so no one takes them away to cow heaven...my favourite calf is buttons, and there is another called whitey who fell of the back of the truck when he was little and hurt himself badly...hannah and i want to keep them.

Now heres a character Brian, this is our pet bull, Salty (family friend)is his mum and she gave him to ned to look after as he was an orphan too, hes now about 2 years old and big, im sure if he was able too he would sit on your knee, hes very lovable and has a big gray tongue and when he licks you it feels like sand paper...he has bad breath though!! hannah actually sat ontop of him the other day, he went shooting off wondering what the hell was happening....again if you want you can put sunglasses and hats on him, i think he might like getting dressed up.

Ollie is neds dog, hes very protective of us and will bite strangers given the chance, with us hes a complete softie though, rolling over to have his tummy scratched and wagging his tail. theres also 3 dogs of stonys tupper, duke and josie, they are a livley bunch and love attention.

There are about 60 horses here which are used for mustering cattle and riding, my horse is called nobby, i love going out at sunset for a ride, its the best time and the horses love it. I went out with ned, brenden, angelica and stoney to muster the cattle the other day, we walked about 700 of them 8k's accross the land zigzagging up and down to keep them all together, it was hard work and boiling hot but a great experience...needless to say i was walking like john wayne the next day.

One of the best experiences so far with the horses has been the 2 days we spent branding and gelding them (for those of you who arnt sure this means taking away there um manhood). ned,stoney and snowy were inside the pen with the horse they had to lassoo the horse round its neck and then rope each foot so the horse could be pulled down onto its side, my job was to wrap one of the leg ropes around the bars of the pen and hold it tightley so the horses legs were stretched, it is so important that you get it right as if the rope gets slack the horse could end up kicking one of the guys that were in the pen doing the branding and gelding.

It wasnt as bad as i thought watching the horses being cut, its a job that has to be done and they do it when the horse is young, the branding has to be done to identify the horse incase it is stolen.

Now we get up at 5.30 so get to see the sunrise and set these are the best times of the day, sitting out on the porch watching the sun come up sipping my cup of tea is a great start to the day, watching the sun set drinking a cold beer is even better, the sky goes the most incredible colours of purple,pink and blues with the burning orange sun its really perfect.

Hanah, lisa me and brenden went to the fitzroy ball, was free drink and yes we did make the most of it!! we stayed at saltys house who is the most amazing host and has become a good friend over the time ive stayed at leopold.

Ive been out with rob in the helicopter a few times fishing, the secenary around here is amazing, rob caught a huge barramundi for tea the other day, i thought it was going to jump out of the helicopter, frightened me to death!!! ive flown upm the fiztroy rived and over to diomand gorge, its great looking for a good water hole however picking one without crocks is a avit of a task as they are everywhere!!

All in all ive have a great experience working here, i would deffinatley come back as it feels like home.

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Photos

sunrise at leopold
i saw alot of these

the boys
brendan, adrian,henry,ned

Comments

[Rikki Gilbey]

I want to go there!
Hey, great blog! ive been looking into the leopold downs station for a few days now and was wandering how you contacted them and organised getting out there? i really want to work on a cattle station, and this looks perfect. any info would be greatly appreciated. thanks rikki.