Mustering is Nearly Upon Us

It is that time of the year when we are waiting around for the start of mustering.  It is a bit like the feeling you get when playing cricket and you are next in to bat or when you are waiting for a flight at the airport and your plane gets delayed.  Everyone just wants to get on with it. 

Commencement of mustering is dictated by a number of factors.  If it is too wet then you cannot drive around the property so mustering is delayed.  The commencement of the live export boats is also critical as this is our main market for cattle. 

Everyone starts getting itchy – helicopter pilots want to start flying, cattle agents want to start selling, truckies want to start trucking.  And the long suffering pastoralist such as me who hasn’t any income for six months wants to get some cash flow happening. 

On the station at this time, it is all about preparation.  There is a long list to complete:

·         Making sure all vehicles are serviced and ready to go.

·         Ensuring all cattle supplies are ordered such as vaccines, drenches, tags,

·         Ensuring truck is ready to go to move cattle around the property

·         Repairing all the fences

Much of the work that we do all year round on the property prepares us for the onslaught of mustering like grading the roads.  All of our roads we grade ourselves which is a massive job given that we have nearly 1000km of roads. 

Of course the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence – once we are into the thick of mustering we will be longing for the relative peace and quiet of the wet season. 

Impending Cyclone

The impending cyclone – that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when something significant and unknown is about to happen.  It is a bit like the feeling you get before going to a job interview or going to the dentist. 

That ominous white blob on the satellite photographs that slowly crawls in your general direction.  It is a time when you give thanks to the modern marvels of technology such as the internet so you can follow every centimetre of the cyclone’s progress. 

Of course a good way of dealing with this concern is to keep as busy as possible so you don’t have time to think about things too much.  That is generally fairly easy as there are always plenty of jobs to do: 

-          Tying down the windmills around the property

-          Tying down the sheds

-          Putting all the vehicles undercover

-          Cleaning up around the homestead so that there is no debris lying around.

Our animals are always our primary consideration on the station.  The cattle generally do a good job of looking after themselves.  They get in amongst the trees to shelter from the wind where possible. 

As the cyclone approaches we all start to sweat on each update from the weather bureau – has the cyclone changed direction?  Will we get more wind or less?  How much rain will we get? 

The weather bureau issued a warning about storm surges along the coast.  Our homestead is situated about 7 kilometres from the ocean.  Prior to the commencement of the strong winds, we could hear the ocean from the homestead – the constant roar sounded much like an aircraft in the distance. 

Tropical Cyclone Lua passed near us without causing too many problems.  It was certainly very windy with the house I was sheltering feeling like it was shaking in the wind.  The photos of the palm trees give a good idea that it was very windy. 

The biggest problem turned out to be all the debris which accumulated around the homestead. 

Cyclones are part of the fabric of life in the north of Western Australia.  Between Broome and Exmouth is the most cyclone prone coastline in Australia. 

It doesn’t make it any less frightening when it happens but at least we know we can prepare well when the next one happens.