We arrived at Goodwood station not quite knowing what we were doing ( very very common these days ). Louise very gently let us know that normally people would have rung ahead re accommodation . Soon however she realise we were ok despite being a couple of greenhorns. She then gave us a tour of the sheep station which was fantastic ! This included the whole process and family history. Danes grandparents hat bought the station through a ballot after the first world war and lived in a one room building for a few years – cant get my head round how they would survive !
The station or ranch is 90,000 acres (normal sized apparently ) with 10,000 sheep . Louise is married to Dane and they have a 7 year old boy and 6 year old girl. Their nearest neighbour is 25k away and nearest friends 45 minutes drive away ! Kids are home schooled but on a Friday go to White cliff to meet their classmates.
We had arrived as the station was revving up for shearing. Most of the farms income is generated over the following 3 to 4 weeks. The shearing is done by 12 man teams who are paid mainly on piece work. Sounds arduous work especially for the musterers who herd the sheep (this includes Dane ) who work from 4a m through until 9pm. They utilise planes , gyrocopters and motorcycles for the muster . Sounds like real hard graft for those three weeks.
Louise had a firm ( read strong) hand shake and her husbands reminded me of a professional rugby players . When she was talking us through the woolshed operation she mentioned that they had seen a brown snake around the shearers quarters (where our van would be ). As we parted company she said ” oh and there is a python that lives around her but because he is so big and fat he is slow so nothing to worry about ……… you can imagine our reaction to that one after she left with he kids in the car !
We had a quick look at the yard and found a snake trail that would make the 2004 film Anaconda proud “when you cant breathe you cant scream ” ?
I loved the shearers quarters with a heady mix of indoor/outdoor old/new going on ?
The flies were annoying !
