Dogs, Sheep and Kangeroos

It was time to transfer to a new set of hosts. Reluctantly, I left the home of my new friends, Heather and Peter…but I will be able to see them again in Melbourne. Our meeting place to transfer to the new host was at Irwin House, their daughter and son-in-law’s sheep and cattle farm…my first visit to a farm!

Each farm or station has a name, which is posted at their entrance gate. The names are usually kept by new owners of the properties but some change it to fit their own concept of the place.

Touring their homestead was a lesson in the early days of Western Australia. The oldest part of their stunning house dated from 1849 and had been added onto many times since. It had the typical wide veranda often found in Australia. One of the picturesque stone outbuildings had been used by the region’s post office in days gone by and had been turned into a little private farm museum. I felt privileged to get to see the antiques from the early days. 

We took a spin around the acreage…or rather…the hectare-age. (Yeah, yeah, I know that's not a word.) Farms are vast compared to ours in Illinois. One paddock (fenced field) might be the size of our entire farm! We drove past cattle that were an Angus/Santa Gertrudis mix, with a few other genes thrown in. 

After crossing their permanent river, we went past their water tanks. I ask everyone about water. Some areas have aquafers, some have bore holes (wells), and some pump water from far away. To water the animals on this farm, water was pumped into two 30,000 tanks, and then gravity fed to water stations in about 8000 acres.

This farm had gently rolling hills. In addition to cattle, they have about 6000 sheep, if I remember. (If I’m wrong, they are welcome to correct me. As of this writing, I’ve visited three sheep stations and the details are getting mixed up in my head.) Sheep at these stations are most often merino, grown primarily for their fine wool.

This station had blue lupins growing on it. These are not planted nor harvested, however, the sheep can graze on them for a source of protein. To my Illinois eyes, the plant did not look like it could sustain life, but the sheep do quite well eating them.

I was quite interested in their dog, who was at the ready at any moment. This dog had a brown-reddish color. I asked what the breed was…a kelpie and dingo mix! Before I learned about AU, I assumed everyone had one of those Australian black and white longhaired sheep herding dogs. Nope! So far, everyone has had kelpies. I asked this owner about the training of the dog. He said that his philosophy is that the dog already possesses the skills and knowledge needed to be a herding dog. The owner only needs to teach the dog when to do each skill.

My new hosts, Sara and Mike Kenny soon whisked me away for my next adventures. Sara, of course, was the AU lady who came to visit Illinois a year ago and is the organizer of my trip here. On our way to their station, we stopped at Judy and John Brown's Breakaway station, which is 1800 hectares and has about 3000 sheep. They have at least 450 species of wildflowers on The Hill.

(Western Australia is known for their wildflowers but, alas, I am not here during that time. I have gotten a good look at the bush, however, the low scrub tree, bush and plant growth that covered this land. It contains more species of plants per acre than any other place in the world.)

This station gets their water solely from the underground. They have no rain in the summer (December, January and February) so this is a very important source. Their best lambs are shipped live to the USA or Canada. They feel their best employees are their sheep dogs.

Lucky for us, they happened to be shearing that day. As you could imagine, shearing this number of sheep can be a daunting task. There is a raised platform on which four shearers stand. Behind and below their stations are sheep pens, chutes and alleyways to manage the sheep before and after shearing. The station owner provides a motor for each shearer, but each shearer brings their own handpiece. A sheep is grabbed and positioned in a very specific way so that the shearer can control it and it can’t struggle. The shearer has a support that they can lean over as they shear. As you can imagine, this is very hard and demanding work! The boy on the left is 15. The man on the right is the crew boss.

The sheep is sheared very quickly and shoved down a chute to a pen below the platform where it quickly joins its mates in the sheep yard. The fleece is picked up by one of two assistants who spreads it on a slatted table and then keeps the floor tidy. Three other workers quickly pull off soiled wool and inspect the fleece. In an instant, the fleece is shoved into the wool press and packed into a rectangular bag, ready for shipping.

This is repeated 700 times in one day.

The team works for two hours, and then takes a break for half an hour. In the old days, the station fed the workers, who might be there for several days. Nowadays, the crew chief provides the food. One station owner told me that it costs $7-$8 to have a sheep shorn. Half goes to the shearer and the other half pays the rest of the team and covers the other expenses.

On our way home, we stopped at the Pinnacles to watch the sunset over the Indian Ocean. No words needed:

Soon, I was at Sara and Mike’s sheep farm, Rubicon. (I've learned that stations are further east and that one never calls it a "ranch.") Mike had bought the first block of land in the 1950s, and then the couple have expanded it over the years. The land, having been under the sea at one time wasn’t suitable for farming until it was discovered it needed phosphorous, potash and a few other things added. It was covered with bush, which was cleared by pulling a chain between two tractors or by being burned and then cleared. It must have been very hard work!

The land is called a sandy plain. To look at the soil, having come from Illinois with its black soil, one would think, “How could anything grow in this sand?” Hm, that is exactly what I thought! Well, with the soil additives, it grows wheat, canola, lupins (more about those later) and barley quite nicely, thank you! There is not one corn or soybean plant in sight! The stubble is not baled for straw, but is left in the fields for the animals to forage on.

The growing season in Australia is June, July and August, the same as ours in Illinois, but it is their winter. This is when they get enough rain and cooperative weather to grow their crop