Letterbox’s fondness for green frogs.

Hereford cattle at Cardenyabba Lagoon, Kilcowera Station.

Another interesting person we had here was Letterbox.  A very capable man, a big burly bloke, very smart and a top musterer.  He had a little weakness though which sometimes prevented him from turning up for the job.  If he wasn’t here on time you just knew that he wasn’t coming.

 

When he first started coming out and doing a few days mustering for us we thought we had really struck it lucky with Letterbox as he was so good at the job and he and Greg got along really well.  After he’d been here awhile he took it upon himself to look after the grass around the shearers’ quarters where he bunked down.  We would often hear “I’ll just slip down and move the sprinklers around the quarters” What a diligent man! A gem!  Or it was “I’ll move the sprinklers in the sheep yard or the cattle yard”  Righto Letterbox!

 

Well it transpired that L was a fairly thirsty sort of a fellow who was mightily fond of what he called his green frogs – cans of VB and he just needed a few to get through the day – and he did move the sprinklers too.

 

One Melbourne Cup day we were bringing a mob of cattle in to the yard and still had 5 or 6 kms to go before the race, I had resigned myself to not seeing it and was a bit glum.  I love the champions of the turf and horse racing.  Looking around at the mob of cattle I saw that Letterbox was nowhere to be seen.  “Huh, b*st*rds gone off to move the sprinklers, I’ll bet!” flashed through my brain.  About a half hour later he returned with a couple of green frogs for everyone and a radio so we could hear the race that stops a nation out in the middle of the paddock.  What a good man!

 

Changes through the years Part 1

 

Old Crown stove – Kilcowera Station – Outback Queensland – Station Stay – Farm Stay

Changes through the years.  Part 1

 

I was poking around the shearers quarters yard this morning, moving sprinklers and spreading the poddies manure about on the lawn (they move in over summer to keep the grass down) and thinking of some of the things that have changed over the years.

 

I suppose the biggest in your face change is the shearers quarters itself.  When we first married and moved to Kilcowera, Greg and I, closely followed by 2 daughters, lived in the quarters.  But not the nice building there today.  Oh no, the one we lived in was drafty, freezing cold, or super hot and was a major conduit for the inflow of dust. 

 

We had 32 volt power supplied by a big old diesel Lister engine and a bank of second hand Telecom batteries for lighting at night after the engine was turned off.  The lights were pretty dim too.  In winter the diesel would freeze in the fuel tank overnight and the engine could not be started till about 10 am.  This old engine below is similar to the one we hadin our engine room.  That old engine room has been scrubbed up and made into an extra bathroom now.

 

                   

 

                                                      

 

 I was extremely lucky in so much as I had a 32 volt vacuum cleaner to suck up the dust, a 32 v mix master, 3 evaporative coolers that worked some of the time and best of all a 32 volt Simpson agitator washing machine complete with a wringer!  Honestly they were fantastic old machines, simple to use and to fix.  Every time one washing machine would die Greg seemed to have another one nearby to cannibalize for parts and bingo! I’d have a washing machine again.  The old machines are still lined up at the old dump near the quarters.  And we also have a new line up now of dead automatic  machines that only seem to last about 2 years.  They’re in the hanger.  I don’t know why.  Spare parts?

 

The kitchen was interesting. We had an old Crown wood stove which had a state of the art hot water system attached to it.  I had a lot to learn in the cooking department on this wood burning beast!  Now actually I wasn’t a bad cook except for one whole class of food….. no make that two.  Cakes and biscuits and deserts were my problem.  The savoury stuff was all go – even though I did blanch a bit at tongues, hearts, livers, sweet breads and brains!  I had been a city girl – my Mum had made me eat tripe when I was a kid but after I threw up she gave up on trying to improve my palate and I never developed a taste for offal.  But people in the bush love it. All those aforementioned things are a treat and certainly not to be wasted.  Not much is wasted in the bush.  Anyway being the young bride and eager to please, I learned how to cook the offally bits.

 

But I also had to tackle the sweet things cause the blokes out here sneer at Arnotts biscuits! Suffice to say I did learn and developed a bit of a sweet tooth too.  This is the kitchen in the new shearers quarters.

 

 

                                      

 

 

                                                      

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday morning at Kilcowera

Tales of broken down planes and brown snakes in outback Queensland part 1.

 

 

 

 

 I always take myself for a little fly on my birthday so as that’s tomorrow I thought today was close enough.  I had fuelled the plane up yesterday, checked the oil, coolant and tyres. Dawn saw me doing the daily inspection all over and around the plane, every things OK, so I start her up. 

 

As soon as I moved off and used a little brake I felt something was wrong.  I attempted to run the engine to 3800 rpm to check the CDI’s while keeping the plane stationary with the brakes, but the brakes wouldn’t hold.  The left hand brake line has a crack in it and is letting the brake fluid out.

 

Now the thought did cross my mind that the wind was straight down the longest airstrip and I really could get away with no brakes if I really needed to go for a fly.  But it’s an unnecessary risk seeing as I don’t really have to go.  So put the plane back in the hanger.  Our maintenance man flies out from Gympie to do any work that needs to be done on my little bus, so when he’ll be able to fit in a trip out here to fix it is in the lap of the gods, especially at this time of the year.

 

Me fueling up my Skyfox

Meet some outback characters.

 

 

Jilleroos on Kilcowera Station – Outback Australia

 

You get to meet some very interesting people out here and your often thrown together for longish periods of time, so you learn their stories and their foibles.

 

No too many years after we married, the running of both properties fell on my husbands shoulders.  He was ready for the job but did need an overseer type of bloke to manage and live on our second property. We found Bob and Sue, a local couple in their late 40’s or early 50’s.  They had been managing another place in the district but it had been sold and they were looking for a new place to live.

 

To say they were a Godsend would not be exaggerating.  They knew their stock, windmills, pumps, they looked after our gear and were frugal, kind hearted people.  They also loved children and had none of their own, so became wonderful baby sitters to our 2 girls who were about 6 and 4 at the time.  The kids adored Bob and Sue.

 

 

                                   

 

 

Bob was fairly deaf and saw no reason to wear his hearing aid when there was only the two of them around the place most of the time.  Sue knew which was his good ear!  We were invited over to lunch one day and in deference to the occasion Bob puts his hearing aid in.  A family of lousyjacks had moved into the garden and were squabbling  and screeching all around the house and the dogs were barking at them all creating a fair amount of noise.  Too much for Bob “Bloody hell! I can’t put up with that! “ and ripped it back out.

 

I had been a city girl and only been in the bush 5 or 6 years, I had learned a lot but it seemed there was always more and more to learn.  Sue helped in so many ways – I was in awe of her – she was so capable at just about anything!  She could repair tubes and tyres on the Toyotas and bikes – all on her own!  Even out in the paddock if she had too.  She could also castrate lambs with her teeth!  I saw her do it!

 

                                    

 

 

She was a really good bush cook and could whip up things like Jam Roley Poley, Johnny Cakes and scones, pies and pasties as quick as she did the tyres. She opened my eyes to the fact that we sometimes place limits on ourselves when we really shouldn’t especially out here where we really have to be self reliant.

 

Bob and Sue stayed with us for 5 or 6 years and then moved on, we were lucky to have had them work for us at that time.