What A FANtastic Adventure This Is

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(First published 13th Sept 2013)

What a brilliant way to see Australia! And well off the beaten track. I am enjoying this just so much – tiring, yes, but I would not miss any of it for anything.

I am now over half way through the Qld leg of the research trips for our book. The first couple of weeks were nothing short of wonderful – five very different stations in their individual ways (mostly cattle). A new station came onboard literally just prior to my flight to Brisbane and yet another has joined in since then. More are talking about it. Unfortunately, at the 11th hour a couple did have to pull out of the actual physical visits but remain very much part of the book – will be covered by email instead. They will not be missed out.

I cannot thank these wonderful and amazing station people enough for their hospitality, friendship and support for both the book and for me. They are all bending over backwards in their efforts to support the book.

Ulcanbah homestead, where I stayed. Sadly, this house has since burned down.

To add to the excitement, it seemed that most town between Mt Isa and Brisbane have a claim to fame. The first of these is the famous ‘Walkabout-Creek-Pub’ made famous by the ‘Crocodile Dundee’ movie. I could almost see Linda, Hoges and friends walking over the verandah. Sadly as these coaches are there to serve their passengers for one purpose, to get them from ‘A’ to ‘B’ safely and on time, I could not ask the wonderful driver to stop for photos. Another famous town in Winton, home of our wonderful song ‘Waltzing Matilda’. Then of course came Longreach, home of Qantas – which I had known but completely forgotten, probably because I was still recovering from Walkabout Creek. But lo and behold, talk about reality – there, right beside the road, was a Qantas jumbo! I would have loved to have a good look at the cockpit but that time restraint came into play again. As each town came into view, I kept wondering what this one would be would be famous for – and then getting angry with myself because I felt I should have known. Even little Tambo, which I am told (and should have known) is the site of the first Qantas crash. Hmmm…I fly with Qantas all the time.

There were more towns with their claims to fame as we travelled further down the track toward Brisbane but this was an overnight trip so I didn’t see a lot of it. Not that I slept well – but it was dark. Then on our way from Brisbane up the coast to Cairns, our first tea break was at ‘Matilda’ – and there was Matilda in full bloom – the kangaroo made famous at the Commonwealth Games some years ago. Might have made an appearance at the Sydney Olympics too. From then on, I saw the big pineapple, the big mango, several big birds and lots of other big things. I gave up listing them but all were worth seeing.

Close up on School of the Air lesson in progress. A station in Queensland.

The stations that I have had the absolute pleasure to visit in Qld (and the other two states thus far) were all equally wonderful and all had their own tales to tell. Number one for the Qld leg was one out of Charters Towers, which actually withdrew for personal reasons. The next was ‘Ulcanbah’, home to the Hollingsworth brothers and families, is a true Queenslander, under renovation. More unforgettable hospitality and friendship – even managed to sit in on a School of the Air (now known as Distance Education in many parts, I think) in action. Absolutely amazing. As I watched I was taken back a ‘few’ years to my own SotA days – oh-so-different. I even unintentionally found myself becoming part of one lesson – I was trying to make a landline phone call and became part of a lesson in progress instead. All part of the fun.

Torquay Station. This country is covered in bauxite.

Third station was ‘Torquay’, home of Beryl Hunter, station owner and author. Beryl has even been good enough to give me a copy of her book, which I am looking forward to reading. As has happened all along this ‘learning curve’I found myself with a couple of new perspectives for the book – I was there for three nights (little mistake with dates) instead of the normal two. So the first was spent in ‘Torquay’s’ Queenslander, the second in their town house in Hughenden and the third in the Hughenden hotel/motel. I was able to briefly meet Beryl’s outgoing caretaker, Gary Greenwood, who was about to leave on a nationwide trip with his lovely wife, Wendy. Garry and I had quite a chat (he was a cameraman for one of the the major networks in a ‘past life’ and is also an author/writer) and we hope to work in conjunction with each other in the future. Hughenden is also where I did have a short chance to put my feet up and watch a tiny bit of TV (having seen very little on this trip – no loss). But this just happened to occur on the 7th – yup, federal election day. The TV only had one channel – or should I say, it had a large number number of them but all airing the same thing. No prizes for guessing – election coverage from go to wo. Could have done without that and I know I could have turned it off – pretty simple really. But curiosity did get the better of me and I watched it, in between catching up on registering photos etc for the book. Anyway, the result? Well, let’s just say that given the reaction of these true country folk after the event – my support and loyalties have only been cemented. Enough said!

Winton hills.

Fourth station (as it has turned out) for this stretch was ‘Judith Royl’, home to Barry Keough, of Keough Cattle Company Pty Ltd. Apart from this station, there are five others in this company and two of them have also now come onboard. Again a wonderful time at ‘Judith Royl’ – I even met the mail man, Arthur Crapp. He is not your ‘regular’ main man and more about him, including a pic, will be in the book. I also met one of Barry’s daughters, Leigh – and her family who live on ‘Windsor Park’, neighbouring Judith Roy. Quite a few of Barry’s family now appear to be coming onboard, in some way or another. While his wife does not live on the station, I did have a quick telephone chat to her – she does the most amazing bark paintings. Hope to have further chats in the future. The other member who spoke with me and we also plan to work with each other, is Klancie, a singer of growing repute – she actually made it to the final six in ‘Idol’ some years ago. I believe she has an amazing voice (as does her mother) and we have established contact by email.

The next station I cover is ‘Abingdon Downs’, a huge property north of Georgetown, out of Cairns. It is managed by Barry’s son, Campbell and is the powerhouse of the Keough Cattle Company. There is one more after that – ‘Old Glenore’, the Beard’s property out of Normanton. Again there are a couple more on this part, but both are now being covered by email.

My last station on the first part of this trip was ‘Lumeah’, home of Tori Carroll and partner, Alex. Finally, I have seen wild pigs (they are big), deer, camels, dingoes (albeit from afar), many different birds and of course, the inevitable million or so kangaroos, emus and rabbits. Probably a lot more. Even a snake – well, I didn’t exactly see it but sure as hell knew about it. This was on ‘Lumeah’- my host, Alex, found it curled up in a sack full of fodder for their domestic animals, in a back shed. A sack, I might add, that both Tori and Alex delve a hand into regularly to feed their animals. Gives me the shudders. We had just returned from another wonderful trip around the station looking at things (getting photos etc) when Alex suddenly screamed blue murder – to Tori and me, it could only mean one thing – SNAKE. The ensuing scene? Alex ran off, trying to find something to grab it, Tori running around madly grabbing Roger the Jack Russell and speeding up the nearest, high object (which happened to be an old couch) while I ran around trying to positions for great photos while trying to stay out of the way of one very angry snake. Guess it was a good way of cleaning out the little shed – the snake didn’t show itself again (sensible thing) but there were endless hiding places, most of which have been removed now. I do take my hat off to Alex for that effort.

Sadly, dingoes are prevalent in the areas I have visited and evidence of their destruction is clear in many places on these stations – other animals that have been caught and brought down – some not killed but just left to die a very slow and painful death. Koalas have all but been wiped out up here – not thanks to humans, nor fires, nor floods – but dingoes. Enough said. The adventure and excitement just didn’t case – and nor should it.

And I continue to absolutely thrive on it.