5- Visit to a Bush Property (Station)

November 1^st

Today we drove westward toward the interior, with Margaret our hostess in MacKay and Tricia. It was about a 2.5 hour drive with at least 60 km of dirt road. Our route took us through land occupied by massive properties (cattle farms). This is the Bush or the beginning of the Outback.

We travelled to the Terang farm property owned by Margaret’s daughter and her husband Jason. They live there with their four remarkable sons. These boys are confident, capable and doing the work of men on the farm. They greeted us with a firm handshake and self-assured conversation.

The station has 40 working horses and 4000 head of cattle. The cattle are mainly Braham or Wagyu. The Wagyu are prime beef on the Australian market. The farm has 59,000 acres. It is broken up into separate paddocks through which they rotate the cattle through as they graze the grass.

Megan’s and Jason’s station is an amazing enterprise. It is not a 9-5 job and there are so many factors to contend with. They muster (herd and relocate) their cattle using horses. The whole family are excellent riders and the boys work as a team with their parents. Megan took us on a tour of part of the farm and in conversation explained the scientific basis which enables them to run such an efficient property. Technology plays a huge part in the farm management. Every animal on the property is tracked as to fertility, diet, health and carcass quality.

The property maintains Australia’s killer animal reputation, as it has pythons, dingos, taipan snakes and deadly brown snakes. Megan recounted to us the adventures of her cat Ruby. The kitten was seized by a python while under the front step of the house. To rescue her from the jaws of the python, Jason had crawl under the house, while listening to the screams and cries of his children to save their Ruby. He unwrapped the her from its coils and passed the unresponsive cat to Meagan who revived Ruby with her emergency rescue skills. After this they shot the snake, but at the same time, shot out their water pressure pump, which cost $480 to replace. Such is the life on an Australian bush property. Ruby used one of her nine lives, but was basking in the sun on the front porch when we left.