When riding up the bumpy driveway I was bewildered by the chaos that lay ahead. With small buildings scattered all over the place and people running to and fro on foot, motorcycles and horse-back, it was going to be hard to find my way around. Eventually I was lead to the station owners house where I was welcomed warmly by Ray. I had met Ray at Hells Gate Roadhouse, when I was in the company of Sarah. Ray had been very polite and kindly invited me to stay on his property when passing through. He spoke softly with clean language and a charming smile. Now that we were sitting on his porch in the absence of Sarah, the chit-chat was harsh and crude. However one thing did remain, Ray's intention of showing me a good time on his property. The more I got to know this man I found his winning feature, he was not happy until everybody else was happy - he was a very busy man as a consequence.
He barked at his wife Judy (she was the exception) to cook some fresh barramundi, and we sat down to have a few cold beers and chat. The smell of cooking food lured the workers out from every direction, and soon I was meeting the farm crew, the jackaroo's, jillaroo's, the ringers, builders and general maintenance men. The porch was suddenly a blur of colourful working shirts, iconic Akubra hats, muddy boots and expensive jeans. We all sat down to huge plates of delicious barramundi (caught wild on the station) with a few beers and it was decided: I would stay on the station to work for at least one week.
I was thrilled with the opportunity to experience life as a jackaroo, if only for a short time, on this genuine outback Queensland cattle station.
I had conjured a romantic image of station life: riding horses down a dusty track, watching men ride bucking bulls, flying around the property in the back of a ute, etc. Very rarely does expectation meet reality, but to my surprise station life was all that I had predicted.
Admittedly I was assigned to helping the builders construct a shed which took up most of my time. Luckily I still managed to sneak out with the cattlemen occasionally to feed animals, fix wind-mill pumps and free the Brahman-cross cattle from deep mud or being stuck in the troughs. It was hard work.
However, after finishing our 11 hour days we would load the ute's with beer and fishing tackle and drive out to find promising water holes. If the fishing was unsuccessful after 10 to 20 minutes, we would drag nets across the entire river and leave them overnight as a fail-safe. Ray had paid over $100,000 for a licence allowing such activities, and employs men to fish his rivers for commercial sale.
Being the boss, Ray would insist on driving the land cruisers out with a tray full of us in the back. Unfortunately Ray's eye sight has deteriorated significantly, and we managed to hit every single kangaroo in sight. He didn't seem to notice.
I was able to witness the boys riding bulls in the yards and was scared even as a spectator. I was scared both because the bulls were raging with anger, and also because the boys were quite drunk, and managed some simple mistakes such as leaving the wrong gates open resulting in psychotic bulls rampaging out into where we were standing. We all took flight over the railings just in time as the bulls came thrashing their horns at the areas we had been standing only moments before. Everybody just laughed.
However nobody was seriously hurt during the riding, and I had a great time watching.
Inverleigh was a station swarming with working dogs. Dogs filled cages scattered around the property, and some were tied to trees where they could sleep in the shade during the heat of the day. Many dogs were pets, and ran around teasing the other dogs or pestering us at meal times. One Kelpie pup the size of a fist would come every night to my tent (all the quarters were full so I camped on the lawns) and cry for hours until I let her sleep on a tee-shirt scrunched up in the corner of my tent.
If the dogs were barking loudly when we were sitting for meal times, Ray would get up and produce a large pistol from nowhere to fire shots into the air from the window. It was very humorous to watch, and worked a charm. Many dogs that were not performing on the job were killed, even during my short time on the property.
I stayed at Inverleigh for just over a week, until I received the call that the trailer part I had been waiting on was ready for collection in Karumba. The timing was perfect. I had met some amazing people, had so many unique experiences and made some much needed money during my stay at Inverleigh Station. But now my attention turned once more to the ride at hand, and my biggest challenge loomed just around the corner - nearly 600km's of empty, rough dirt road...
Not a great look
Revenge
Morning Tom, What an amazing experience you had at Inverleigh Station! I loved the Kangaroo bit. Good look with the next 600 k's of Dirt road. Which Christmas were you talking about getting home for - 2012 or 2013:-)
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