Windmills, they are so much a part of our rural landscape. A vital source of power for pumping water they are also a monument to our pastoral development, to the tenacity of our pioneers and to the establishment of the iconic Southern Cross Windmill brand. In 1876 Griffiths Bros & Co of Toowoomba manufactured four [...]
The landscape is dominated by the presence of the rustic Windy Station Woolshed near Quirindi, a small town on the North West Slopes region of New South Wales. Said to resemble the Finger Wharves of Sydney that were built around the same time, with its federation carpenter style construction and rich history it is one of the [...]
Women were granted the right to vote in Australia in 1902 - we were far more forward thinking than some of our Northern hemisphere contemporaries, and the wave of feminism that followed continued through the first and second world war and onwards. The Great War increased independence for some, with women taking on the roles [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
When you live remotely providing first aid at an accident is not a matter of if you might be called upon, but rather when. Recently the Bourke Walgett School of Distance Education P&C Association raised funds to hold a free St John’s Ambulance NSW First Aid course for parents, teachers, supervisors, governesses and other community members [...]
