After a drive of about 100kms south, from Mt Garnet (even some bitumen road too!) we arrived at Kinrara Station. Home to the O’Brien Family - Robyn, Shane and their sons, Angus, Stirling and Corbett.
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| The O'Brien Family of Kinrara Station |
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| Kinrara home paddock |
Mt Garnet is a small community with a few limited services, and the O’Brien’s nearest town. Station life is different to what we are used to, that’s for sure. Robyn shops twice yearly for non-perishables and once per month, if she can ‘get out,’ cross creeks etc, she heads to Cairns or Townsville (3 or 4 hours away) for perishable stuff and fresh fruit and veg. Their mail/papers come to the front gate, (6 kms) from the homestead, delivered by a contractor on Tuesdays and Fridays.
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| Cyclone damaged paddock |
The property is about 23,000 hectares, and their main rainfall happens from December til April. Their rainfall for this last year was 1.8 metres (none of this talking in millimetres!). And the country is heavily wooded, basalt country. This means there is not a square metre of the station without a football size volcanic rock, or bigger, on it! This makes it very difficult country to look after, and rear stock on. This is due to the volcanic activity that has happened in history. Kinrara surrounds the Kinrara NP, which encompasses the second youngest volcanic crater in Australia, the first being Mount Gambier. We knew where that was!
As the crow flies, Kinrara is about 100kms from the coast, but the ranges in between have prohibited a more direct travel route from the populated towns. It is on the western side of the Atherton Tablelands and still quite high, with an elevation of about 600m. It seems very isolated. There are several cleared areas around the house and shed yard, but the whole place is very rocky and wooded - “Basalt Country”, as it is affectionately called by the locals!
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| Waterlogged and windswept! |
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| Lagoon in the front paddock - and it's the dry season |
There are lots of creeks, a couple of springs and quite an area of lagoons around the house paddock and lack of water isn’t a problem – a lot of the time it is very much the opposite, with not being able to cross creeks and water damage to established tracks. This last wet season, when a lot of Qld flooded, they spent 9 weeks unable to leave the station.
Kinrara was directly in line of Cyclone Yasi’s path, through from Innisfail, causing much stress and heartache, not to mention the physical impact on the station. Six trees were uprooted in the house/shed yard with one tree wrecking the shed, and a branch of another just catching the corner of the house. Insurance payments are very slow!! As well as this, thousands upon thousands of trees thoughout the whole station have been torn down and others stripped of leaves. Nature is amazing tho’, and many of these are reshooting.
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| Shed damaged by Cyclone Yasi |
The trees that fell have made this family’s livelihood “challenging”, as they have cut access routes/tracks and damaged heaps of fencing (it is estimated that there are 500 kms of fence lines to replace). This makes checking herds of cattle time consuming and difficult, if not dangerous. Most of the cattle work is done on motor bike and horse back. Even the boys aged 8, 6 and 4 years old are used to riding horses (and motorbikes). Consequently, station life has taken a severe disruption, just doing the immediate “clean-up”, and getting some access tracks re-established. Seemingly small things like cattle getting out and having to be retrieved from neighbours (some miles away) just add to the huge job at hand. Mobs of cattle have been able to mix with lack of fences and bulls and cows “mixing” at inconvenient times have made a real mess of a structured “stocking” schedule! Currently, a series of frosty, cold weather has impaired the nutritional value of the pasture and this places increased demands on animal husbandry.
This was the scenario we arrived into, to lend a hand where could.
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| The O'Brien cowboys! |
The boys, who were on school holidays, are heavily involved in the daily running of the station too. Robyn and Shane, also have a few other challenges, as the older of the two boys are autistic. Consequently, they employ a trained teacher, with experience in autism, and the boys do school in the schoolroom from 8.00am – 3.00pm. Robyn has also done her fair share of driving to big centres over the years for treatment, appointments, training and maximising the opportunities of the boys. They have so far done an amazing job! The boys are making great ‘strides’ and I can only take my hat off to their dedication and commitment to providing these kids with skills of independence and socialisation, among other things. Educating children with learning difficulties is hard work at any time, but when the situation is compounded by isolation and distance, that is another ball game altogether.
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| Lily "swimming" in the lagoon with the boys on a cool, wet day! |
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| Angus and Jed, at Kinrara's own spring fed creek and waterfall |
We were welcomed warmly, and Jed and Lily were really appreciated for their interactions and patience with the three boys. (I also think Jed and Lily liked having their own extra space and other kids to socialise with, after the time in the van!). Angus ‘cottoned on’ to Jed and they had plenty of “raucous” playing, and Lily and Corbett developed a bit of a partnership, with Lily enjoying a bit of mothering and leadership. I can just imagine Corbett and our “Miss Iz” having a grand old time together. However, it would be debatable about who would win in the “chatting” stakes! Stirling is more of a ‘loner’, but Robyn couldn’t believe it when he was playing “hide & seek” during the time we spent there, and even contributing to ‘pretend’ games. Social games are definitely a harder concept for him.
The first day at Kinrara we went on an all day muster with the whole family in tow. We travelled out about 34 kms, to the back cattle yards, with two vehicles – one with stock-crated trailer and one with the horse float and three horses, and a motor bike. We drafted off some “weaners”, dipped some cows and calves, slaughtered a cow with a broken leg, skinned it and cut it up (using it for dingo baits) and ‘droved’ some cows from one paddock down to a holding yard, to be shifted further on the next day. Smoko was out in the back paddock and lunch by the stock yards at about three o’clock, after a couple of hold ups and changes of plan during the day! Definitely “outback time” in operation! But all hands on deck were required with a day like this. Robyn and two boys rode horses droving, Shane was on motorbike, Jon drove one vehicle and I drove another for a while. Was a great day! Gave us a great feel for “a day in the life of the O’Briens”. |
| Frances, from Holland, riding muster |
The second day, Jon accompanied Robyn and Shane to sort the rest of the cattle. It was decided it was going to be quicker and less stressful to leave everyone else at home and have the experienced horseriders on the job. (Jon was the driver!! Oh, and Jed went too. He was the “sidekick”). Frances and I stayed at the homestead with all the other kids and did some baking etc and got the dinner ready. Sunday was dedicated to be the “day off”, except escaped cows required a bit of straining up fences, must the straying cattle, feeding some weaners, getting fire wood, cleaning the stove and oven and a few other “odds and sods”, before finally, having a few hours off!. Even hard working station owners like Shane have to watch their “footy” – just the wrong kind! The “Cowboys”, however, lost by 10 points.
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| Baking with the boys! |
We shared meals with the O’Briens, except for breakfast. So this is a bit of a circus, but fun. There is a lot of food involved in feeding a “family” of ten!! (and sometimes more, depending on who is visiting, which contractor is around, any new workers etc … )
The middle of our time at Kinrara it got a bit cooler and the rain set in for a few days – they scored a an inch or so, of rain. It actually reminded us of winter at home, but not quite as cold – we did have jumpers on for several days tho’.
The following days involved fencing, feeding “Lick” (nutritional supplement) to cattle, doing odd jobs and readying for several days of mustering, drafting, branding and castrating weaners and droving them back to new paddocks. We females and kids took the opportunity, by staying out of the rain, to assist Robyn with a job she likes to do quarterly – demoulding the walls in the lounge and dining room and then the kitchen. The damp, tropical conditions of Northern Queensland cause this to grow on walls and ceilings, and everywhere… really well! We had a couple of really hard working, but satisfyingly productive days which left these rooms ‘sparkling’!
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Lily and Jed helped with the the "demoulding" project too!
One highlight was the arrival of “Jack, Jacky, Jason ….” (depending on who introduced you to him), the helicopter musterer, and a good friend of Shane’s. The fellas had put in few hard days of fencing, so that cattle could be mustered by the helicopter from inaccessible areas to a lane way and then droved the rest of the way to the home cattle yards. What a fantastic sight to see the helicopter ‘buzzing’ around, making the stubborn cattle and ‘fiery’ bulls head the right way, and then to see a huge mob of 600 plus bulls, cows and weaners come into the home paddock ready to be yarded.
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| "Jacky" arrived in his helicopter for a spot of aerial mustering |
A big "Brangus" bull testing the pilot's skill, and part of the huge mob of cows being mustered into the home paddock
Other highlights:
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| Jed droving, all his horse wanted to do was follow the other horses. |
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| Lily, droving on 'Sweetheart' |
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| Nearing the home yards L-R: Robyn, Lily, Shane, Jed and Frances |
Other highlights:
· Kids being involved in another lot of droving and being able to participate on horseback
· Drafting and branding “weaners” – even Jed got to apply a “AAA”
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| 'AAA' branding iron |
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| A cow having it's brand applied |
· Killing the ‘fatted calf’- what a lesson in anatomy! It’s a long time since I used to accompany my Dad while he butchered a sheep for the freezer!
- Chook adventures - boy, do those chooks lead a charmed life. Harriet, or was it Henrietta??, was particularly lucky to escape with her life, when the dogs came for a walk with us too!!
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| "The Girls" 7 eggs from 7 chooks - not bad! |
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| Stirling giving his beloved "Henrietta" a cuddle! |
Suffice to say… we had an absolutely marvellous time! We worked quite hard at times, which was really satisfying. However, for everything we put in, I'm sure we got back more! The O'Briens were a fantastic family to share experiences with, appreciative of our efforts and yet willing, in all their busy-ness, to give us a range of station experiences too.
Some other favourite photos:
| Ready for a day's mustering - "F-truck", weaner trailer, Toyota, horsefloat (with horses!), motor bikes, smoko, lunch. All taken 32 kms to back of station where another set of cattle yards were. |
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| 'Can I eat that camera?' |
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| Jed being the "plug", so that Stirling didn't swim down the waterfall, at the spring fed creek. |
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| Fiesty bulls!! |
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| Coco |
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| The "Titanic" windmill, at the homestead - made a noise like the horn of a steam ship, over an eerie, still sea! |
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| One of the goat family, accompanying us to the chook yard |
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| Drinks all round - beers for the adults as they 'killed the fatted calf' at the end of a long day, softies for the kids, of course! |
The sun sets on yet another fantastic Australian experience!
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