A VERY different LIFE
Written: Dec 08 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Space, space space
Cons: nil
The Bottom Line: The explorers went out and looked at the Outback and came back with glowing reports
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| SMITHSWOODSIDE's Full Review: Australia |
There is just no doubt about old paleface, white chops, the white man. For tens of thousand of years the Aboriginals had kept Australia pristine. They understood the land. They new fire was essential to the propagation of many Australian trees - and they knew much more.
Good old Capitan Cook and his merry men invaded via Sydney Harbour and dropped anchor at a place now called Circular Quay. Why Circular Quay. Very simple - here was near level land with a stream running through lush green grass and beautiful native gums. "We can turn this into a cesspool in less than a year" maybe Cook declared - and it was done.
While tents were erected along both sides of the stream and the population swelled, they tested their stomachs progressively with the water. They drank it, bathed in it, washed their cloths in it, piddled in it and worse. Then, having developed cast iron stomachs, they committed an even bigger sin. There were simply too many people so to ensure the stream had enough water available at all times they put dams across it. The word dam apparently had not been invented so they called them Tanks, and the stream became known as the Tank Stream.
Of course the damming of the stream further ensured the water was even more polluted, but that was beside the point. After all germs hadn't yet been discovered either. So just push the "floaters" aside and have a drink - no problem. The Tank Stream still flows in all its concreted glory under Pitt Street in Sydney.
About forty years later a way was found over the mountains and I reckon the creator decided to teach these monkeys a lesson. The explorers went out and looked at the Outback and came back with glowing reports as to how green it was. See the Creator gave it the best drink we now think in about eighty years. It happened again in the 1970's.
So some characters were selected to go out and set up farms, thereby populating the country, or at least beginning too. They all had different aspirations but some thought they would grab five thousand acres and really grow some tomatoes. But when they got their something was wrong. The reports of lush green areas could not be found. Well, hell, they were going to be there again in seventy years or so time. But these geezers didn't know that.
More land might be a good idea so they grabbed around 50,000 acres, built a house, turned loose some sheep or cattle and promptly went broke. The neighbouring farm would grab the abandoned one and this went on until viable land holdings were reached.
One of the early successes came in 1875 with a place called Cardilla Downs, since changed to Cordillo Downs. At that time the stock was ten thousand sheep and five hundred and eighty cattle. In 1905 the Station was amalgamated with Cadelga and Haddon Downs and ran over eighty five thousand sheep.
A hundred and twenty shearers worked the shearing sheds and the wool was taken by camel train the seven hundred mile round trip to be sold. This trek took two months. By 1898 the Sheep Station had more people and buildings than the town of Innamincka.
The people on these Sheep and Cattle stations were true pioneers. Even today with the nearest neighbour a hundred or more miles away that pioneering spirit lives on. The size of these stations is measured in square kilometres with some approaching eight million acres. In the better parts of the Outback Stations of five to six million acres support up to sixty thousand head of cattle. Not exactly intensive farming, that equates to about a hundred acres per animal. But this is in the pristine sections.
Many areas work on two to three hundred acres per animal. It is difficult to appreciate the size of say a six million acre Station. But to drive around the boundary is a trip of nearly four hundred miles. The homestead is typically about thirty miles, or a third of the way into the station area so that it is more or less central to operations. The States of Delaware, Hawaii, New Jersey or Connecticut is about the size of a medium sized Cattle Station. Sheep Stations are south of the "Dog Fence" to avoid losses incurred by Dingos'. These stations are usually only a few hundred miles from a city on mostly good sealed roads.
But Cattle Stations are very different. They are all beyond the dog fence and most are in very remote locations. For many the nearest city is in the centre of Australia, Alice Springs. To reach "The Alice" can easily involve a trip of five hundred miles each way on very rough desert tracks that are marked only by sign posts every few hundred yards. There is often no road, or at best a single vehicle width track.
However, the stations themselves are fully self contained in most respects. Usually the main house or homestead is large especially as it is also the office and school for the station residents. There will be several smaller houses and a dormitory for the about thirty inhabitants. Naturally there is shedding and so on making a typical station resemble a small town.
Nearby all these buildings will be an all weather airstrip big enough to take at least a Flying Doctor aircraft. These aircraft are about the size that would normally carry fifteen or twenty passengers but are fully fitted out as ambulances with operating facilities. They are crewed by a pilot, doctor and at least one nurse. Operations are often performed on site to stabilise a patient sufficiently for the return journey.
Each station has its own aircraft and especially helicopters. The aircraft is used for trips to the city for food just as we would drive. But the air is preferable to a thousand mile return journey over rough bush tracks and a great deal faster - a few hours instead of two or three days. It is also used to visit the neighbours. The helicopters are used to muster stock and to keep an eye on their whereabouts. No stations have fences. Instead the stock are encouraged into areas by the location of water.
On school days the children "go to school" just like anywhere else. The only difference is it’s the "School of the Air". The teacher is hundreds of miles away and the next student is not sitting at a desk a foot or two away but often a hundred miles away! The teacher makes sure they here every voice regularly and the students work to a standard curriculum. They meet two or three times a year just to familiarise themselves with each other. This School works well until about year seven but after that the children have to board in the city and attend school there.
Cattle Stations are very well equipped with communications equipment including in many cases the internet. They have to do all the things we take for granted such as generating their own power and providing their own water supplies.
I know many people who have lived some years on Cattle Stations and very much enjoyed the experience.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Friends
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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Epinions.com ID:
SMITHSWOODSIDE
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Member: Peter Smith
Location: South Australia
Reviews written: 521
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