We had an early start this morning, to go on a tour of the property with Adam taking us out in the mini bus, and we had on board this beautiful young family, with the most delightful 2 girls and their equally lovely parents. This is the family travelling and doing school with the girls and working for Queensland Tourism at the same time. They have been travelling the world and now Australia for the past couple of years. We have really enjoyed their company and had some great chats with the girls and their parents. We all enjoyed the tour. Adam took us out to see where the watering of stock would happen on big cattle droves back in the late 1870’s until mid 1970’s, when road trains took over cattle transport. It was where the Durack family had land, and had started to drove their 6000 head of cattle all the way to Kununurra in WA, to the property that is now where Lake Argyle is situated. We found the connection to be very interesting, as we had learned about the Durack family back when we had visited Lake Argyle. It took them over 2 years to move them there, with many adventures and disasters along the way, and only 2000 of the cattle survived the venture. There were a few posts left standing from that era, and further along Adam showed us where the Cobb and Co coaches would stop and change horses, for fresh horses. They would do this every 20 miles or so back in the day. Again, there was some old posts where they would tie the horses up, and on the ground were a few pieces of glass, metal, and buttons like a time capsule to what had once gone on there.
We had flocks of budgies flying about, kangaroos bouncing along near us, in this area. The girls were keen explorers to find more relics. Adam then took us over through their own property, and to where there had been an old opal mine, for boulder opal, and to show us the cluster fence built to keep wild dogs and dingoes off the property. Dingoes are a real problem to sheep farmers, as they often don’t kill the sheep entirely, but maim them, and apparently the sheep just never heal from dingo bites and damage, and hence the dingoes can destroy a flock quite easily. The cluster fence gets its name as it runs through adjoining properties and the farmers worked together to erect it and to benefit them all.
From here, Adam drove us in the mini bus to the Shearing shed. When we walked in, a Barn Owl flew out. Adam explained how they grade the wool and what qualities they look for and assess and how that system all works. Adam has very high grade Merino wool, from years of breeding to get the ideal fleece. They are currently running 4-7,000 head of sheep and 400 cattle on the 130,000 acre property. We returned back to the farmstay for lunch, before we headed back to Bridget to sort out my TPN delivery. Fortunately, we have worked out a solution to the situation, and Jolyon will receive the delivery and we will collect it from him upon our return. We headed out to Quilpie to explore a bit and also to let the Pharmacy know that my delivery that they were to receive next week, was no longer coming. It was great to see the green paddocks along the way, and to see the area looking so much better than the drought conditions we had always seen it in previously.
Tonight we enjoyed another group dinner that Fiona had cooked, some very tender lamb shanks and mash. We had had more good chats with this beautiful family, before dinner was served, as we watched the night sky darken. But after dinner, the wind picked up and we could see some lightning on the horizon. Then the rain began in big drops at first, so Matt and I raced into the borrowed car and drove back to Bridget. We raced between the drops and into Bridget. We turned off the lights and watched the occasional lightning, and listened to the wind blowing around us. Eventually there was a bit of thunder as well, and then it all settled and the storm calmed. There has been a little bit of rain, there may be more overnight, but hoping it helps refresh the ground and post flood growth and not wash out the freshly graded dirt roads. Not sure what tomorrow will bring.
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