I live on a station called ‘Brunchilly Station,’ which is 5,136km square and holds 22,000 head of cattle. Brunchilly Station is in the middle of the Northern Territory, 1 ½ hours north of Tennant Creek which is our nearest small town.  Brunchilly is one of fifteen properties owned by Sir Sidney Kidman & Co.

Baby CuddlesMy family and I came here in 2004, when I just turned six. Originally my Nan and Grandad were managing the property and we were just doing the family trip up to visit them for a couple of weeks. During this time my dad was helping around on the station and got offered a job as the machinery operator, so he accepted and we moved all the way from ‘Emu Creek, QLD’ to ‘Brunchilly Station, NT.’ I didn’t think it was anything very big until we got back to QLD and had to pack up everything and say goodbye to our school friends, which I didn’t realize I was actually leaving until we had left.

We moved into our new house over two weeks. I didn’t find it so hard to be in such a remote place after we saw all the things that we could do out here. We were allowed to help with the weaner branding and we got to rear the poddy calves. Not to mention in the first year I was loaned a white Albino mare called Mystery, who I later bought off my aunty. During the first year dad went from the ‘Machinery Operator’ to the ‘Bore Mechanic.’

View from the BoreWe had a completely new way of doing school work; it was a thing called ‘Distance Education’ and our mum was teaching us. When we first started we had paper based work books and we did all of our classes that we once did face to face over the radio. This was a lot harder than I first thought it would be. Not to mention the only friend my age on the station was my older sister.

I appreciate living remotely because I appreciate what I have. Everything that I have, I have bought myself through birthday money and pocket money. The biggest things that I own that I have paid for myself are my two horses and my camera and accessories.

In January last year I bought a Pentax K-r DSLR, I learnt how to use it and then I decided to start up my photography page with the goal to show everyone, the place where I live and why I like it so much. At the age of 14 it seemed like a pretty big goal to take photos of a rural place that people actually liked. My business ‘A Little Piece of Heart Photography’ has grown so much over a year, I have bought myself 3 different lenses, a tripod and I have been gifted a bigger camera bag and heaps of props for my 15th birthday!!

Liam Weller DraftingI am in year 10 now and currently doing school through NTOEC (Northern Territory Open Education Centre) which is located in Darwin, I am doing a VET course in Photography to further my skills in that area. At the start of term one and term three we have a Residential school where we travel on the bus for 14 hours to participate in classes for a week.

The only downside to living remotely is when you go to town to go shopping the shop assistants always wonder why you are buying 10 pairs of shorts in one go!