I love it when I come upon properties that are still in the hands of their original owners, stations that have been passed down from one generation to the next, kept alive and preserved so they can continue to share their captivating tales of dedication, love and toil. Bungaree Station in South Australia is one [...]
Our first agricultural college was established in 1883 at Roseworthy in South Australia. Gradually, other farm schools sprung up across the country, with women admitted to some during World War I to develop farming skills while the men were away at war. However not everyone received the training required when it came to learning how to [...]
Standing the test of time, Gorrin Woolshed is located about 20km south-south-east of Ararat, a Victorian town with an economy dominated by the wool and beef industries. The area is steeped in history, enriched with stories from its gold mining past and its flourishing pastoral land. Land that now sustains a number of well-known wineries. [...]
The big three in agriculture have had an impressive year. Mining and property is clearly where the money is when it comes to investing those spare shingles and diversifying into beef. The big story of the year on the purchasing front was of course, the doyenne of mining, Gina Rinehart, who, thanks to a solid [...]
If the stone walls of the Cordillo Downs Woolshed could talk… Throughout the years the station has witnessed many significant events; Shearers chalked up an impressive 85,000 sheep shearing record, it was once regarded as the largest shearing shed in the world, was overrun with rats and in 1952, was even the location of an [...]
At a time when the Australian wool export industry was firing on all cylinders, many of our colonial ancestors drifted across country Victoria in search of fertile pastoral land to run their sheep. Squatters and pastoralists were cashing in on the flourishing wool business, exporting their product to England, and becoming very wealthy along the [...]
Sunrise and sunset. These are my favourite times of the day, when the sun is near the horizon straddling the rim of the earth, as it either embarks on bringing us a new day or dwindles towards nightfall. The best photos are taken at this time when sunlight travels through a greater depth of atmosphere, [...]
Is this the golden era for Australian agriculture? That depends on where your business is located, what you produce and taking a short-term view, how well your commodities withstood this summer’s hot temperatures. Of course farming is a long-term game with history pointing to more downward fluctuations than up. However there are standout periods. Some [...]
Deep within the grazing country of Central Queensland sits the heritage listed Isis Downs Woolshed. It’s located 20km east of the small township of Isisford, bordered by the Barcoo river, a system that flows towards the expansive Lake Eyre in central Australia. The waterway forms a natural dividing line between the outback and the remoter [...]
This year I’ve thoroughly enjoyed remembering some of Australia’s most influential pastoral artists, painters who have left a significant imprint on Australian history through their depictions and reflections of rural life. To wrap up this series of blog posts I’m going to take a look at one final artist, well-known painter Russell Drysdale. Above [...]
