Lets talk roads. I know, you are just beside yourself with excitement aren’t you? I can tell. Outback roads – they are our life. We travel more on dirt roads than we do on bitumen so it is important they are well maintained.
Most cattle stations up here employ a full time grader driver. We used to, but when our grader driver left years ago we decided to get a contractor in to do the job. One less employee to have to worry about. John is our grader man, he is the main man and it just so happens that he knows this place like the back of his hand. Before we arrived here John used to managed the place for about 10 years. So he knows where he is going and what to do, low maintenance and just an all round top bloke.
He usually has all the roads on the station (which is 1.7 million acres) graded in about 4 weeks – which makes our Bore Runner’s very happy indeed – lovely roads to travel around on day in, day out. It isn’t much fun bashing over ungraded roads after the wet season, not to mention hard on the vehicles. We also need the roads well maintained so the road train can travel out to the various cattle yards without any hassle. They also form fire breaks during the fire season.
John and his offsider – Badger – arrived on the weekend. Here is his set up, quite impressive isn’t it?!
First things first… unload everything from the road train. 2 graders, 1 water tank, a diesel tank, and a ute. They camp out where ever it is they are grading.
Once everything is unloaded they hook up a bit of a convoy and get ready to head out. The water tank trailer is connected to the grader, the ute it connected to the water tank trailer and the diesel trailer is connected to the ute. The second grader travels along behind, check it out…
Off they go, bound for their first camp base, along the road somewhere. They will throw their swags on camp stretchers. This is what the stretchers look like…
The stretchers keep them up out of the dirt and away from the snakes. I give this a 2 boot out of 5 rating in the luxury stakes my friends… very fancy indeed. They cook their dinner in a camp oven over a fire or use a gas hot plate. Roasts & corned beef are their main meals, which also means they have cold meat for lunches. To shower they use a bucket and tip the water over themselves somewhere behind the grader. Like I said – luxury at it’s best. Of course they do come into the station every now and then and I could only imagine that a hot shower would be very welcome.
They will work from dawn until dusk grading the roads. The grader in front will make the first cut and the second grader will come along for the second cut of the road. Anyone who lives on dirt roads will know how important road maintenance is.
Often they are a long way from the station which is why they take the Toyota out with them. This way they can make trips back in if need be. They may need to do repairs or stock up on food. They also have UHF radio’s and a satellite phone. Someone always checks in on them to make sure they are going along ok – fit and well – and often our Bore Runner will deliver bread or other staples out to them…. home delivery, doesn’t get much better my friends.
Although we don’t have a grader driver employed here we do have a grader and would be lost without it. The grader is an essential part of fire fighting. Without the grader fires would wipe out the entire place.
Grader drivers who work full time on stations – employed by the station – usually camp out. They take a whole convoy of gear out which usually consists of: A grader that tows a caravan that tows a diesel tank. A caravan… that’s a bit fancy isn’t it! They live out by themselves for most of the time, cooking their own meals. A great job if you love your own company.
So there you have it: Road Grading. Any questions? Fire away!
Wow that’s amazing! Could be a lonely life for them. Who knew? Not this coast dweller! Miss Chardy I hope you send them out a freshly baked cake with the Bore Runners occasionally! Who makes the bread? There another story!
So glad we could enlighten you on Road Maintenance Michele, ha ha ha. Now as for the bread…. Cloncurry Bakery bakes our bread, we get a box or two in each week on the mail plane. So it comes from a bakery 6.5 hours away, my kids are afraid of fresh bread… they like “our” bread… the bread that isn’t so fresh once it gets here, ha ha ha ha. Yes we do try to get some cakes and biscuits out to John when we can.
Hi great story. I get to talk to John on occasions ( via the HF radio ) never met John personally. So it was good to see him. I live in Innisfail 1 hour south of Cairns one of the wettest parts of Australia. Say hi to for us keep up the great stories thanks from gary
Oh how funny, I will tell him you said Hi!
Where do they fill that diesel tank up Chards? What’s your fuel set up at the station?
We have a huge diesel supply here at the station…. if you read this post: https://misschardy.com/2014/04/14/fuel-truck/ you can have a look at our diesel tanks etc.
Hello Miss chardy I just love reading your blogs although as you know I’m a country girl and lived in the Diamantina so understand. As I have been a dairy farmer a few moons ago in country Victoria, when I was living in Sydney, some did not understand where milk came from – they just bought it in the supermaket, WOW some people need to be educated and that’s exactly what you are doing educating a lot of your readers. Keep it up your amazing.
Thanks Barbie, lovely to hear. Hope all is well in your part of the world. x
Thanks Danielle, that was so interesting, I had no idea someone did that for a living. Did Bobbie tell you that we have a relative that was a ‘Pioneering Woman of the Territory’? No? Bless her cotton socks she is hard to get any info out of, unless you give her a couple of slippers! haha Annie D’Arcy was the first woman drover in the territory, she was born in Camooweal in 1911 and she and Stan Fowler managed Gallipoli Station for 10 years. Her photo is in the Daly Waters pub apparently, I hope to visit there one day, cheers Meredith
Ha ha ha ha, you are too funny. Wow, that is so interesting about Annie, thanks so much for sharing that. Right I am off to spike Bobbies drink to get some info out of her, ha ha ha.
I just cannot fathom 1.7 million acres?! Do you have a map or something to scale that you could share to show how big your station is?
It is very small compared to the neighbours to our south and west. Sorry prefer not to share maps/station names etc on here. Our neighbours are 5 million acres… not sure if that is perhaps the size of Vic or Tas???
Yeah I totally understand that! It just seems so huge! I love reading ☺
Hi Dan,
I’ve been meaning to contact you ever since you wrote the blog on the anniversary of Mick’s death, but it’s taken me a while. It’s Di Fulton here, (Mick’s aunty) Your words were heartfelt and really displayed the emotion and terrible sadness on the occasion this tragic accident. Your family welcomed total strangers into your house at this very traumatic time and your friendly, caring nature was a comfort to all.
I read your blogs with interest and find them very informative and entertaining – I always get a few laughs out of them! I hope you and your family are all well and Ian wants to know how your little dog is going! (I’m having a senior’s moment and can’t remember his name!!) Hope he is keeping away from those snakes!! Di x
Hi Di,thanks for saying hi. Everyone who came up here for Mick’s memorial were all just too lovely for words and a comfort to us as well. Rosie is our dog and I think she was just depressed … Ian sure did take good care of her – thank goodness for our out of date medical kit. She is going great guns. There have been so many snakes around lately and yes, she has been sniffing them out (god love her – such a great little snake dog) but hasn’t been bitten thank goodness. I was sorry to hear about Ian’s Mum. Hope you are all doing ok down there. Take care. 🙂
Enjoyed hearing about John’s grader plant Miss a hardy. One forgets about all those jobs that have to be done on a property. I think you should nominate yourself as guest speaker at the next Barkly Ladies Day and give us a few tips on “blogging”.
Ha ha ha ha, would my intro go something like this… “Hi ladies, welcome to Barkly Women’s Day… today your guest speaker is…. me” ha ha ha ha. So glad you enjoyed the grading blog. See you soon!! x
Great story! John is my uncle! So great to see photos of him! As you can imagine he doesn’t get into QLD very often and we miss him! I live in Victoria so I NEVER get to see him! He really is a top guy! Always smiling and laughing. Even when he gets angry it doesn’t seem very real. I came to live with him for a few months when I was 18 and he was managing Broadmere station. I’m now 46 but I will never forget my NT experience and talk about it often. Thanks for sharing those pictures and say Hi to my Unc for me! Peita Collard
Sure will say hi to him for you Peita! He is a great bloke – gentle giant!!! He is very funny too, cracks me up. Loves pranking people.
Thanks for this insight Miss Chardy!
How often do the roads on the station get graded? 🙂
Only once a year, unless we take our grader out to do some touch ups.
1.7 Million Acres…that’s bigger than some towns!!!
Sounds like a tough job and it looks like you’ve got tough men to do it too. Thanks for teaching me something about living in Bum Truck Nowhere 🙂
Ha ha ha, you are welcome. And yes, I am thinking 1.7 million acres would be bigger than most towns and possibly bigger than some countries. 🙂
Hi! I’m an American who recently moved to Australia. After months of nagging I finally convinced my husband to drag me to the outback here in WA. And I’m just so fascinated! I’m so glad I found your blog. I grew up on a 78 acre farm and jeez I thought we lived in the middle of nowhere. But we were living the high life compared to this lol! My one question (if you can answer) how on earth do you guys afford all this. The diesel? The special people who come all the way out there to do this just for you guys. I can’t imagine the cost.
The cost of everything is very high. We work for a large Company, so it isn’t coming out of our pocket directly. It is a lot of hard work but in the end the cattle do make you a fair bit of money. But yes – things are very expensive. Just to truck the cattle down to Brisbane costs a small fortune.