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Simple Life of a Station Wife

Published on Wednesday, June 26, 2013 in General

by Emma Miller - featured in the Winter Edition of the Horse Downunder Magazine

Emma and "Sprinkles" on her third ride

 

Emma and Neil - Christmas 2012 at home Margaret Downs

 

Emma's first big barra

 

The girls and Emma on one of their many exploring trips around Margaret Downs

 

Neil and Emma fighting their first fire on Margaret Downs 2004

 

The girls talking to Delta

 

One of many family fishing trips

 

Getting to town after being flooded in

 

Jessie sitting on one of our first herd bulls called

"Can Pat Me"

If someone told me years ago that I would be where I am today at this very moment, I would have seriously laughed at them.

There are hundreds of women who are just like me and they have the same passion as I. We are all different in our unique ways, yet we all must share some sort of common ground to live where we live and do the things we do. 

I guess a lot of rural wives may have started out in the rural scene as a Jillaroo, I did. I worked for many years around Julia Creek for a private family operation. It was while working at Julia Creek that I met my future husband Neil, he too was working on a cattle station. He had the upper hand as he was born and raised on one.

When we moved to his parents place, Undilla Station outside of Mt Isa I was totally lost. I’d never been so isolated, not having a town close, learning to buy my personal things in bulk, there was so much to learn. Lucky Neil’s family were patient as finding my feet took me a while, I was not used to being by myself much back then and Neil did a lot of travelling and working out and about by himself.

Neil taught me a lot about all the basis of living on a bigger station, around Julia creek we never had to pump water anywhere; it just flowed around bore drains. The country was open, flat and hardly a tree in sight. Undilla is full of gorges, hills, massive river system, things I’d thought I’d only see if I travelled overseas somewhere. In my mind I had to learn a whole new way of life, it slowly worked over time.

Learning to live without 24hour power was really weird at first, going to turn a switch on to use something and wondering why it would not work. Getting hot water was the funniest thing I’d come across, Neil had asked me to, “go and light the donkey Em”; I looked at him like, “What the hell?” He and his whole family laughed and laughed at me, they still do to this day. The donkey is a 44 gallon drum on its side, full of water with fire under it to warm it up.

I never thought that you could live in the same country, yet the language was so different. Around Undilla the terms, Cleanskin, Mickey bull, feral, bull catcher, bronco branding, had never entered my mind. My first experience in the bull catcher was with Neil, we went over to Norfolk station, where Neil’s Uncle and Aunt used to live. We were mustering right down the back of their river system. The helicopter would bring the cattle up to the portable panel yards while we all hid in the scrub somewhere.

We headed back out early to start to draft and brand the calves we had in the yards. As Neil and I were driving up to the yards a good size Mickey bull was standing outside, just hanging around. Neil got the other crew to move the cattle up a few yards and open up the panels. It was on, we were after this Mickey, I was pretty much screaming, Neil was laughing and telling me to hold on. The short wheel base Toyota we were driving was going guns, at one stage I looked up to see that the Mickey was pretty much sitting on the bulbar, it was awesome. We got him in the yards after a few spins of circle work and dust flying about everywhere, I was totally lost for words and that hardly ever happens.

I’d never been in a drought situation before, when we had it at Undilla I remember looking at the cattle as we would drive around and you’d see nothing but heartache. Not being able to make it rain was the worst. We had that year’s weaners in one of the smaller paddocks, we had to move them into a different paddock where there was a bit more grass. The only way we could muster the little fellas in was for Neil’s dad Lindsay to drive in front of the mob with a huge round bale on the back of his Toyota tray back.

Lindsay drove in front, they simply followed him it was amazing to me. Watching those little weaners follow Neil’s dad and the care Lindsay was taking as he drove the Toyota along slowly, just looking back making sure they were all still poking along and none had dropped through weakness. It really is a heartbreaking time for station owners to see their stock struggle through a drought, we want our cattle to be fat and healthy all year round, but when mother nature throws a drought your way, you have to just hang on and fight it through with your hungry herd.

After the drought, I then had my first taste of a flood; this was so damaging it wiped out fences, wrecked machinery, up rooted massive trees, just made one hell of a muddy mess. The cattle too went through hell, freezing rain and wind, no grass worth eating for a while until the sun could come out once again.

Neil’s mum and dad bought Margaret Downs in the Northern Territory (another station) as a safety net if there were to be more droughts or floods at Undilla. In a drought you tend to have enough warning to move cattle, sometimes the floods hit that quick that moving your beloved cattle isn’t quite that easy. The cattle that would need to move in a drought would only be weaners and young heifers as the older cattle would never make the trip, and Neil and his Dad would not put them through the stress for no real point.

I never wanted to move up to the Territory for the fear of crocodiles and wild buffalo. I must say that I’m totally in love with it up here and will be all my life. And thank goodness fingers crossed there are no saltwater Croc’s on our place yet.

Our first few years on Margaret Downs were mainly us finding our place and our feet, as managers. It is a massive change from being told what to do, to try to work out what is needed yourself. When we first arrived the cattle markets were pretty good, in saying that, you could get around $1.90 per kg. Nowadays like Neil says, “we are price takers, not price makers”. We are now required to sell cattle between the weights of 270kg and 350kg, so when we muster them in Neil drafts them into correct weight lots and they go into different paddocks, making it easier to muster them again when the buyers ask to buy lighter or heavier weighing steers.

We treat our cattle like family, I always say to people, “If we did not have the cattle we would not be here, they are the sole reason we are here, on Margaret Downs”. Yes it’s how we make a living, but it doesn’t mean we don’t love our cattle. Over the years we have had quite a number of poddy calves, to this day I still have some around the homestead, they are great for when visitors come and want to pat a cow, Delta is one of my older poddies, she has had her own calf now, who is not as quiet as her mum but she must find us intriguing because when I’m hugging or patting Delta, she comes up close for a sniff. My poddies from last year, Bullseye and Pearly are with Delta near the house.

Often when Neil is mustering he will come and get me out of the classroom, or at smoko time and say “your poddies are in the yards”. These poddies are a few years old now and are on their third or fourth calf, they walk up to me but no more pats, I usually give them a mouthful or two of horse feed while they are in just so they remember me next time.

It was not just finding our way around the station; it was around the town of Katherine. We are about 160k west of Katherine, if you drove past our dirt turn off you’d be heading towards Kunnanara in Western Australia. Katherine did not have a great deal of shops when we first moved up here, but over the years it has grown a lot. Our main shopping for our food is Woolworths; there is also a wholesaler who we do often get quite a lot of dry food from.

We go to Mitre Ten a lot, Landmark, Elders, Territory Rural, all those sort of stores. We were pretty excited when Katherine got a McDonalds, we go there sometimes but the kids like subway as well, Neil often takes us to the Chinese restaurant for lunch when we are in town, and the kids are starting to enjoy the different tastes, not like what we get out on the station.

We often go to Katherine every second week during the dry season, or every Thursday for the kids and I once the netball season starts, as that is where the netball is held. A lot of people think that I am crazy for driving in every week, I just think it gives the kids and I time to our selves, to interact, to enjoy the simple things in life. The girls have made so many new friends, they get involved with team spirit, and we become closer as mother and daughters.

Neil does his fair share of doing the town thing, much to his disgust. During the wet season we get locked in, so to speak, by the little river on the north side of us, it is called Dry river but we have seen just how much it can spread out, one year we had to travel to Mataranka, which is about a 114k east of us to the bitumen, then another 100k to get to Katherine.

In the 2011 wet season, we had so much rain we got stuck on both sides of us at Margaret Downs and Larrazonia station. All the neighbours decided to go to this huge deep sink hole in the middle of the main dirt road and have a wet season party. Some of the neighbours drove to the spot, then they had to be choppered in, we bought the BBQ, beers, food, chairs, blow up animals the kids could swim with, there was even a bogie board for the kids to be towed behind one of the tinny’s that was tied to a tree. If you had driven down that main road and seen all of us mob, beer in hand, shorts, thongs, BBQ going, all having a great time like we were at some park or party you’d think, “These folks had too much rain by the look of this”. It was an awesome day and it will always be remembered.

Neil was able to study to get his helicopter licence, away in Perth at the end of 2007. The helicopter is slowly growing on me, I always quote to people, “I have skin not feathers”. It is not that I do not like the Helicopter it just scares the hell out of me, I trust Neil with my life, I do not trust the machine. Neil always points out to me that, “More people Em are killed in car accidents, than in a Helicopter.”

It is a lovely and different view of the station, when you are up flying and it does come in handy if we are flooded in, you would be amazed how much food you can fit into an R22 Helicopter.

In 2006 Neil and I had the wonderful news that we were going to be parents, how awesome was this. The Katherine hospital was wonderful; I was a bit worried at first thinking, “Oh small town, and not too many doctors, what if something happens?” It turned out to be just perfect, we got all the attention and help we needed as first time parents.

We both laugh now at the fact that, when you have your first born, all the flowers, cards, gifts they fill the room to the roof. When you are on your second, you only get a few cards and some phone calls. Jessie is our eldest girl, she is seven and Becky is our youngest, five. I tell Neil, “When they hit their teenage stage, mate they are all yours”, he just laughs at me.

At the moment we have two new colt foals on the ground. Our stallion so far has had three fillies and two colts; I’m currently riding and educating his first daughter, “Sprinkles”. My main mustering horse is the stallion, he is handy right here near the house so I just run and grab him the night before. I shoe all my horses, even though I’m flat out walking the next day.

I have taught a little bit to the kids, it is funny when they are cleaning out their horses hooves, you can hear them through closed teeth, “stand up, ahhh, ahhh, NO, that will do,” Neil just laughs and says, “you don’t think they listen to you hey?”

While living at Margaret Downs my roles have changed so much over the years.

I do most of the cooking for the staff and family. I really hate to admit this, but Neil actually taught me how to cook, I know it is so sad but true. Neil often chips in, when he has not had a huge busy day; I think it is wonderful I love his food. He makes this beautiful pepper sauce, not gravy and it makes your mouth go crazy. Over time I’m proud to say that I have mastered cooking lasagne, crumb steak, potatoes lorraine and plenty more. The kids and I do a lot of cooking for school and for the work crew, the girls love making cup cakes, biscuits, slices anything really.

When Neil is away at Undilla, I get to play care taker this involves looking after the cattle’s water, putting lick blocks out, checking fences and much more. Last year the girls and I had finished school and headed out on our usual bore run, we arrived at one of the further turkeys nest from the house to find a dead cow in the middle of the road. We got out and had a little look around, then all of a sudden a little white calf popped up on the other side, she was the whitest cleanest looking calf I’d ever seen. It took a little plan of how we were going to catch her. I drove closer to her dead mother and just sat in the car, all the cows came up to see if we had lick on the back. As the calf came closer I jumped out of the ute and grabbed her around the body, well the bellows and kicks and bucking came out of her, I went bum up in the air still holding the calf, somehow the girls and I managed to get her onto the back of the Toyota. To this day that is my darling little poddy, “Pearly”.

Our usual bore run is pretty good, sometimes the cattle for some unknown reason break their troughs and drain the turkeys nest and tanks, and I just pump more water and fix them all up. It is an easy simple place to run, no big motor that I cannot start, my brain is not mechanically minded so if I do need help, I either ring Neil at Undilla, or I ring the neighbours.

We have never had anything major happen, one year we were checking one of the troughs and I noticed a white cow looking rather thin, she was half dragging her feet. I drove closer to reveal she had a bone stuck in her throat. “Ohh great, how I am going to get this out”, “Ohh mum come on, we can’t leave her”, my two little off siders convinced me. I drove the Toyota up close to her, I did not need to knock her over very hard as she pretty much fell over, I tied her to the closest tree and the bulbar, so I could work out how to get this bone out. I opened her mouth to have a look, oh man the smell was rotten.

I sat on this cow while I worked my hand into her mouth, a few moments and out came this bone, she was moving her jaw and she looked a bit more relieved until I took the rope off her neck, she was that quick she gave me the biggest push and squeezed me up against the bulbar, I had nothing to hunt her away, she just held me there. I thought to myself, “you ungrateful ** %(#$” but I knew she was really stressed. I just waited, then the girls started hitting the tray of the Toyota, that was enough for her to move back a bit and I was able to dive in under the bulbar in the dirt.

She ran off then, after we came back past, it was great to see her at the trough getting a big drink she might not have had one for days. My rib cage was purple for about two weeks..

One of my newest and greatest roles in my life so far, is home schooling the kids, I never imagined that I would be back in the class room, with the chalk in my hand. We do school through Katherine school of the air, it has opened my eyes up and I love it. Some days are full on while others are breezy. We do school all over the house, out on the lawn, in the classroom or the kitchen. Ever since starting school we have made a lot of great friends, the kids and I travel to a lot of school functions, Neil comes when he is not flat out.

Having my sister Sarah and her partner Rodney-lee back up here in the Northern Territory has been a blessing. The girls love spending time with them. We often get out and about to functions and events, we need to travel around school holiday time as I put a massive importance on that part of our lives, and missing school does not happen with our kids.

Fishing has become a big part of our lives too, it is a great way for us to relax and have family time. I am very alert at all times when we go out and about; the water up here has teeth. On our way to town we cross a little bridge on the Dry river, Neil often takes us down there for a muck around fish, one year we did catch the odd Barra, Black brim and a lot of little crabs. The kids love going down there. I still keep my eyes peeled for crocs.

My father Danny Riordan lives in Nhulunbuy or Gove as it is also known. It is a tradition that every year Dad comes down for the annual Katherine show, we go into town for the weekend and do the whole show rides, walking through the stalls, show bags, way too much show food and it is great, the kids look forward to seeing, “Poppy Dan” every year.

We are not all hard and rough out here, most station owners love their animals, they are our extended family. We have often had the odd young person work with us, who has not lasted long for the simple fact they do not show the love, care and respect that is needed. It is not a huge thing to ask, Neil simply says to them, “Treat our animals, equipment, home, family and each other as a team and you’ll learn a good thing or two”. The staff we have at the moment are great, it is a real family environment as we all share our kitchen, eat together, work together and they even play games with the kids.

To be honest being an everyday station wife, has its up and downs. I often think to myself some days, “why are you here?” There has been a few times over the years where I could have quite easily packed up and gone somewhere, anywhere but Margaret Downs. Yet other days I would not change it for the world; it is a testing life, it is always throwing things at you no matter what role you play, just to see how good you have prepared yourself.

The things you learn living out here are endless. Inner strength, to adapt, to respect, to love, to care, to cope, to accept loss, to survive, too often stand your ground in what you believe in and so much more.

As for the station wife, my mother told me a quote when I was younger and I strongly still believe it, “Rural woman, Rural”.

Horsezone is pleased to be working with the Horse Downunder Magazine and welcomes their contributions on a regular basis. Downunder is Australia’s leading horse, cattle and country lifestyle publication.

The Winter Edition of The Horse Downunder Magazine is out on the news stands now or can be purchased online as an e-mag. Go to www.horsedownunder.com.au

 


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