DECISION TIME

Well after a very short stint on Murchison Downs Station, (12 Days - not long enough), we made a spur of the moment decision to head back to Victoria. We discussed it with the owners, and then decided to leave on Monday 22nd December. As we started on our way, we decided it would be quicker, cheaper and easier if we could leave the bus in W.A. We rang the owners of Bundear at Mullewa and asked if we could leave the bus in the shed. They said "Yep, anytime", so we parked the bus, threw the swags and the dogs in the back of the ute, and headed back. We didn't tell anyone apart from my mum and dad as we wanted to surprise the kids. Originally, we were not sure how long it would take us. We thought we might arrive a couple of days after Christmas. As we got travelling, (and those that know what Steve is like when he gets driving), we realised that we could get to my mum and dads Christmas day if we pushed it - so we did. We drove 5,000 kms in 3-1/2 days starting at 8.30am Monday and arrived at Drouin 1.30pm on Thursday (Christmas Day).

We probably only had approx 8 hours sleep the whole trip. We slept for an hour or so the first night in the car as we had to wait for a petrol station to open in Southern Cross. The second night we jumped into the swags at Eucla for a few hours and the third night we slept in the swags on the side of the road just out of Mildura. The dogs probably got the best deal out of it all as they could sleep whenever they liked and move around in the back of the tray when then liked, on top of that whenever we stopped they got a run, I don't think it was too good for Steve, his legs swelled up pretty bad and buggered him for a couple of days. Bit of a wake up call Ha Ha!! (getting old).

MURCHISON DOWNS STATION

We took two days to travel up here. The station is approx 50kms south east of Meekatharra. The road out from town is dirt but is in good condition so it was a slow trip in the bus.

The homestead is a little oasis in the middle of very very dry desert. It hasn’t rained here properly for about seven years so there is no undergrowth and they have sold most of their cattle. There is approximately 100 head left on this station and they have another 300 head on their other station, Yarrabubba, which is approximately 50kms away.

The owner is Ross Howden who is about our age and he lives on Yarrabubba Station with his parents and daughter Lauren who is 24yrs old. She had a life and good job in Geraldton but gave it all away to support her dad on the property. Ross doesn’t say a lot but I think he’s very appreciative of her support, she seems to organise most things that need attention to detail around the property. They also have a son who is 21 yrs old that comes home every three weeks as he is working in the mines.

The house has five bedrooms and there are also numerous bunk houses that were once used for the shearers, a workshop and the original old house (a whole two rooms). There is an old shearing shed with 5 stands. We even have a large concrete and rock above ground swimming pool. You are probably thinking “what’s the good of having a swimming pool when there is no water”. Well, the water doesn’t drop down out of the sky, it comes up through the ground. There are windmills everywhere and approx 40 wells. The swimming pool has it’s own windmill and so does the house. When the house tank is full, it also overflows into the swimming pool. When the pool is full, it overflows to the garden. Our job is to get the gardens looking good again as they have been neglected of late. There is plenty of water, so it is just a matter of managing the sprinklers. It is very hot here - thank god for the pool. We knew that it would be hot coming here in the middle of summer, but we thought we would give it a go. When you get too hot - "you just slip off yer gear and jump right in".

We don’t get paid but we have free food, fuel, rent, power and phone. The house runs on a very modern solar system with a backup diesel generator. The solar system is all automatically controlled with a computer and the solar panels turn automatically travelling with the sun. The generator will also operate a submersible pump if there is a wind drought so you can always pump water up.

We were invited to the local Elders Christmas break up last week. It was on a neighbours property – a 200km round trip. Got to meet all the other neighbours as well, closest is 20 kms, furtherest is your guess. They all talk about the better days when rain was reasonably predictable and how shearing and the sale of wool was a big event, but sadly, these days there are very few sheep and those that still have some probably won’t next year.

We went for a drive down the track about 20kms (halfway to one boundary) and saw Emus, wild goats, a Kangaroo but no cows. Some finally showed up at the house a couple of days ago. We also have had a couple of visits from a Bungarra ( a goanna type lizard).

He came and climbed up the palm tree trying to get to a nest. They say where there are Bungarras there aren’t snakes. Lauren said Ross has only ever seen about 4 snakes around here which is great news!!!!!

END OF HARVEST

Finally, after approx 10 weeks and driving for nearly 600 hours, harvest is finally finished. Over that 10 weeks we had 17 days that we couldn’t work due to rain and moisture.

So we are going to pack up and head off to our next ADVENTURE.

We are heading up to Meekatharra as we have a job as caretakers of Murchison Downs Station.