Our next destination was a cattle stationu in the Northern Territory. With a father who had spent his life working in the beef industry, I was extremely fortunate to be put in touch with Col and Alison, the owners of Waterloo Station. Col had been a one time colleague of my old man, and had spent his working life dedicated to achieving his goal of owning a station in the Top End. Col and Alison kindly invited us to come and stay a few days on their half million acre patch of the NT.
I have no experience of working with beef cattle, other than our four head on our hundred acre block at home. It turns out that we had at least one thing in common with Waterloo.
We were greeted by fine looking Brahman cattle at the front gate
We pulled up at the homestead not sure what to expect. We eventually deduced which building was the homestead and went to knock on the door, when who should appear but my parents! I was completely taken aback. Col and Alison had suggested that my parents should come and visit Waterloo at the same time as we did. It was a complete and delightful ambush!
We were made to feel right at home and had a wonderful couple of days getting to know not only Col and Alison, but also their grandkids who were thrilled to have friends to play with, until they sadly packed and left for a School-Of-The-Air camp at Katherine. With the day to day running of the property handed over to son Dougal, Col was only too happy to show us around.
Waterloo is all about beef cattle, and the beautiful Brahman is the breed of choice up here. These magnificent animals (bos indicus) are quite different from the European breeds common down south (bos taurus) such as Angus or Hereford. Col was only too happy to chat about his cattle and how they're managed.
A bull poses for a photo
As we drove around the station we often came across mobs of cattle. Apprently they will feed during the night and morning, heading to water when it warms up. Often the afternoon will find the cattle chewing their cud in the shade, near water making them relatively easy to find and muster.
Mustering up here is a whole lot different to back at home. With no boundary fences on part of the property, inaccesible terrain and huge distances there are several sets of holding yards scattered throughout. Cattle are mustered using helicopters, horses and motorbikes and brought into the yards. There the calves are marked, and the cattle drafted or sorted. Those to be sold will be then trucked to the main yards, where they will be handled and taught to feed before being exported.
The main yards were a sight to behold, with a double decker loading ramp allowing road trains to be filled with cattle remarkably quickly. They represented the best in modern cattle yards, designed around the way cattle behave and also with the safety of the operators in mind.
The main feral animals up here are donkeys, horses and camels. On such a huge place it is almost impossible to muster or cull the feral animals, and we came across a small mob of camels. The camels tend to eat woody weeds and are generally left pretty much alone. They have no traffic sense, taking off down the road at full gallop when startled. The only way to get past them is to overtake them
With over 500km of tracks on the station, economies of scale come into play. Waterloo operate two helicopters, and we were extremely lucky to go for a quick flight around the homestead in one. The boys were thrilled with their second helicopter ride in nearly as many weeks!
The Little Helper about to get airborne
But the real highlight was to go for a spin around the block in a Kenworth C509. These massive trucks are the king of the road, too big for the roads on the east coast. Waterloo have three of these trucks, allowing them to subsidise their freight costs. With 6 decks (3 stock trailers) attached, the rig weighs in at 65 tonnes empty. That is as much as a B-Double plying most eastern seaboard freight runs weighs fully laden. The trucks were immaculate, obviously the pride of the men who drive them.
With the dry season comes the majority of stockwork and fencework. We arrrived just after a shipment of cattle left, and the staff were enjoying a couple of days off before they were going to muster a different area. The Little Fisherman jumped at the opportunity to join these wonderful people for a spot of fishing at a local waterhole. The first bite of the day was a cause for much consternation as a small freshwater crocodile took the bait! Thankfully he spat the hook out before anyone had to get too close to his mouth full of teeth!
The Little Fisherman almost caught a barramundi (it would have broken his line if it did take the bait) but then he did catch a handy little black bream. As I dashed to get the camera, it also spat out the hook and flip flopped its way back down the bank into the water, much to his disappointment. It wasn't long though until the first barra of the day was landed - a beauty!
It was all good fun, and we returned to the homestead to more wonderful hospitality.
The next day we went for a drive around the place with Col. There are not many places in Australia you can drive for over 160km and still not see half of the place. We paused near the southern boundary and looked north. Everything we could see was Waterloo.
Col was justifiably proud to be here as the custodian of this land for now. This is not a journey you chose to come on for a whim. Farming at the best of times is a hard won game, and Col had certainally had his fair share of knocks and set backs to get here.
It was inspirational to hear Col and Alison's story, and hear Col's reminisces with my old man. It was enjoyable in every way. We were extremely lucky to share a little bit of Waterloo on our adventure around Australia.
As I said earlier, our hundred acre block of 'light Gunning country' had one thing in common with Waterloo. What could that be? Well we did a quick bit of maths and determined that if we are running four head per hundred acres, then Col should be running around 20 000 head per half million acres. We weren't far off - we have a similar stocking rate! Now I just need to work on that extra 499 900 acres!
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