Well we spent a total of 6 full weeks working on a remote cattle station in the heart of Australia! We were located in the Northern Territory's south/east corner, approx 5 hours out of Alice and pretty much bordering the Simpson Desert!
We got to learn the bore runs, feed the baby poddy's, do general station jobs, along with routine maintenance and upgrades. Initially it was a struggle with the 5:30am starts and long days, as both of us had not worked for a good 6 months, but we soon got into the rhythm and settled right in. All our meals were provided, which was great - Amz loved getting out of her cooking duties. Our experience was definitely interesting and we soon realised it was a completely different way of life out on the station...
We learnt many things, such as how important water is out here for not only humans but the cattle aswell. A lot of problems we came across, we had to troubleshoot and use our creative imagination to work out a solution. Realizing how remote we were and how far away basic supplies and help was a big one! When someone says, just popping down the road to the neighbours, that can be a 2-5hour drive one way!
There was never a 'boring' day, there was always something to do, fix etc. One morning whilst out on a bore run, we donned our CSI hats, as we had a missing water tank! (Yes a big arse water tank disappeared!) We found it 1km away and had actually blown off its foundations and over a sand dune from a big arse wind storm the previous night. [Check out our video to see the footage]. Every Wednesday we watched the 'mail plane' land on the stations very own airstrip, which was pretty cool.
Be assured it wasn't all smooth sailing! There were some parts and jobs that were a real eye opener! For example; having to drag dead cattle [generally died of natural causes or dingo attacks] away from water troughs, otherwise the other cattle won't drink! Putting in time & effort hand feeding baby poddy's, only for them to give up on drinking and sadly pass away. Amz got pretty sick for a few days, and had to speak with a doctor via satellite phone to diagnose her symptoms.
It has definitely made us value living near a city and being so close to not only emergency services and hospitals, but also supermarkets, hardware stores and general retail outlets! You can't just pop' to the shop if you forget an ingredient or needed a part urgently.
People have asked us how we lined up our station experience. We placed an Ad on a Facebook group, stating who we were, what we wanted and what we had to offer. Over 30 people contacted us, so we were lucky to be able to choose which station would suit us in regards to location and fit in with our traveling time frame. There are also websites such as gumtree and job seeking sites which people advertise positions on.
Overall, we wanted a real outback station experience and that is what we got. Would we do it again? Yes - we are both walking away from this experience with more knowledge, some great friends, positive memories and a new found respect for people who own and work on outback stations.
That’s a wrap! Amz & Kurt
Have any questions for us? Leave us a comment or send us a message
Also make sure you check out of Video on YouTube!