Day 142 - Lets Stay Another Day

We decided early that we'd stay another day.  I think Jude and I could easily spend a lot more time here.  Had a great time today playing with Judy's grandkids and getting to know the other visitors a little better.  I went out with Jeff and John this morning to visit a couple of bores to do some repairs - Jeff is an electrician who spent some time as bore man.

In the afternoon we played games with the kids around the homestead with the dogs chasing us the whole time.  The kids call their grandmother Judy Mounie (comes from the name of an aboriginal woman in Mataranka) and they call their grandfather Gungu (meaning father of my father in local aboriginal dialect).

Then gathered everyone together on the lawn for dinner.

Left to Right - John from Melb, Judy, Michaela, Jack, Dianne and Jude

The Kids having a ball with sparklers

Jack in his dad's hat

The Campbells

Day 141 - Station Life

28/08/11

This morning was spent doing the daily chores around the homestead - feeding the animals and cleaning up in the house and our van.  Sean and I got the tennis rackets out and had a game in the big open area in front of the house - all the dogs came and played with us fetching the ball for us.

The country is quite flat with light scrub but lots of grass which we're told is a very nutritious type the cattle love. Even though the grass looks very dry it still retains much of its nutrition - even more so this year cause of the big wet.

These camels come up to the back fence regularly - apparently its quite rare for wild camels to venture this far north however these two have been around the station for the last couple of years.


I managed to finish off the recovery of the station laptop and get it back to working order (whew - what a relief!).

After lunch I went with Johnno again to check on a couple more bores - we had to use his large compressor to clear the line of a couple of them, as well as dig around to find some leaks - didn't get back to the house until after 7pm.  By then there was quite a crowd there.

Judy had arrived back from Katherine with her two grandchildren Michaela and Jack.  Her husband Timmy also arrived back from his trip to town.  Also they had further visitors including Jeff and Dianne (who had spent 2 months here working a couple of years back) as well as their friends John and Christine.  We had a BBQ on the lawn under the stars.

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Day 140 - This Place is Cool

27/08/11

Woke up to a beautiful outback sunrise then I started working on the station laptop - trying to add a couple of things that Judy wanted on there.  Unfortunately after adding a windows update the computer crashed so I spent all day recovering data and rebuilding it - was able to get it going late in the evening.


Meanwhile Sean and Jude were doing the daily tasks around the homestead - feeding the horses, pigs, chooks and turkeys as well as picking some fresh veggies.


Also admired these sculptures done by a guy who worked on the station for a while - they're very good and Judy just loves them.


Judy goes on the NT Variety Bash each year (for the past eight years) and drives this old Fairlane with some added extras - cool car.


Judy had to go to Katherine today - she left about 2pm and won't be back until tomorrow.  With her husband Timmy still away that means just Jude, Sean and I left her to look after the homestead (Johnno is here but away all day checking the bores).  Amazing that we met this lady 2 days ago and now we're house sitting for them - isn't country life great because of the people!

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Day 139 - Tanumbirini Station

26/08/11

Left Daly Waters heading across the Carpentaria Highway towards Cape Crawford.  140km in we stopped at Tanumbirini Station to say hello to Judy MacFarlane whom Jude had met at Leonie's place in Katherine about 6 weeks ago.  Even though that was their first meeting they hit it off and Judy invited us to stop by.  Not sure what to expect we rang ahead from Daly Waters and were told to come on in.  On the 4km drive to the homestead spotted easily 500 head of cattle in these paddocks.



Met Judy who is home by herself - her husband Tim (Station Manager) has gone to Katherine with their mustering team as they have just completed muster - all via helicopter!  After greetings we were into a full chat with Judy and Johnno (the bore man) like we'd known each other for years.  Johnno proceeds to fill me in that the station is approx 1.2million acres, about 70km x 90km, and has approx 28,000 head of cattle - WOW!  The 500 we saw on the way in was a fraction of the 20,000 plus which are now in the home paddock ready to be sorted and shipped to another station owned by the the same guy 400km south at Barkley Homestead.  There they are fattened for market.

After a cuppa etc I had the privilege of going along with Jonno to check on 2 of the 28 bores on the property - the furthest being nearly 100km of rough road from the homestead.  The bores vary from being enclosed as in the first picture below to standing in the open as per the second (this one with a 44gall drum for fuel).  The amount of fuel required and hence the frequency of checking depends on the bore itself and it's rate of flow, the size of the tank and expected fill time as well as an estimate of how quickly the cattle will drain it - Jonno has many years under his belt doing this work so he can assess all these variables to keep things going.  While checking the bores he also runs a critical eye over the stock hanging around - looking for unbranded cattle, sick or dead animals etc.  Theoretically there should have been no cattle today cause they'd just finished mustering but when one considers the area and the number of beasts its understandable that some get missed.

We parked the van next to the chooks and the pigs.

We settled in to a great country dinner of steak butchered on site, and fresh veggies from a large veggie garden then Sean settled with Rosie and Dolly (7 week old pup born here).


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Day 138 - Daly Waters

25/08/11

A leisurely departure from our free camp to travel 10km down the road to Daly Waters.  We fare welled Bob and Mary-Ann next door to us in this set up with the bike - yes all of that does fold down to fit into a small trailer towed behind the bike - what a way to travel!

First stop along the way Larrimah.  We visited here on the way up but only briefly.  This time we had a look at the museum where there is a lot of local information accumulated.  Larrimah's main claim to fame centres around the WWII build up of troops in this area when the town was formally recognised.  A great display (hard to see in these photos) is of a world record road train established by Brambles in 1993 with a whopping 21 trailers on a Mack prime mover.


Then at the free zoo which surrounds the pub and is looked after by the proprietor and co.  Includes several crocs, emus and wallabies as well as lots of local birds.


Also this rail link built in the 1940s only used sparingly over 20 years before becoming redundant in 1960s is gradually being taken over by the termites.


Then off to Daly Waters where we will be having their famed "Beef and Barra" tonight.  Just near our campsite is the Stuart Tree where Stuart was reported to have carved a big S - the tree itself is no longer living but preserved none the less and with some pretty flowers growing adjacent to it.

Then just down the track had a look at the Daly Waters airstrip and hanger.  Within the hanger is a collection of information about the place which was placed there in 1992 at the same time as the hanger was refurbished - although run down again now.  The airstrip was first built in 1930s to be used as a stop on the mail run to the north but was not used as intended until the war when it along with many others in the north were used by Aussie and US troops.  One US plane was lost here when the pilot lost control on landing and was killed - not sure if this wreck is his plane or not?


After a relaxing afternoon including a swim in the pool we went to have our Beef and Barra dinner, which was very nice although the portions small.  Then we were entertained by Chillie who lives here with his wife and runs a quirky store across the road from the pub.  Turns out he's quite a character with a history of horse breaking and rodeo riding.  Many great stories and songs that gave 1.5hrs of fun which we all enjoyed - Sean especially.


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Day 137 - Bitter Springs

24/08/11

After packing up at Mataranka we backtracked 10km to the Territory Manor to see the barramundi feeding which occurs twice every day.  The first thing we noticed was that this place looked much nicer than where we stayed at Mataranka Homestead including the peacocks strutting around - but thems the breaks.


The guy doing the barra feeding show has been doing it for a while and spoke very well and informatively. He showed us one of the long necked turtle that come into their waterways during the dry when other holes dry up.  This one was here last dry season and not concerned at being handled.


Then he offered each of us to have a go at fishing for the eight male barras in the pond.  Sean had a go first then myself - astonishing how fast these fish are once they home in on the bait.  Then he showed us how he is able to handle and pick up these fish without complaint.  It was during this session that we ran into Tex and Julie and their 3 girls - we'd last seen them near Alice Springs some 8 weeks ago.


After this down the road 5km to Bitter Springs.  Expecting something similar to Mataranka Hot Springs, instead this area is a 150m long series of natural spring pools ranging from 1m to 3m in depth.  One can simply float along with the current from one end to the other - hop out walk back and do it all again with water temp around 32C.  We got the snorkeling gear out and had a great time for a couple of hours floating downstream then swimming back.


With Mataranka being he heart of the "We of the Never Never" film, there are plenty of references to the film around town including these statues in the park of the main characters.


Also int he park in the middle of town is these huge trees giving great shelter for locals and travellers alike.


Next down the road from Mataranka 12km down the road to Elsey Station Cemetery where lie the graves of many of the real characters upon whom the film was made.  Includes Aenaes and Jeannie Gunn (the author of the original book).


Also includes the grave of the person upon whom the little black girl Bet Bet was based - she lived to a ripe old age of 95.


Then just down the road a bit from here is the original site of the Elsey Station.

Now late afternoon we went only 40km down the road to a free camp called Warloch to spend the night.

The Campbells