Gold! Liquid or the precious metal kind: Ayr to Charters Towers.

From the cane fields of the Burdekin Shire to the vibrant, historical town of Charters Towers. The last leg of my North QLD visit has been entertaining, fun and hugely interesting. At Ayr I was treated to a close-up of a cane field burning courtesy of John Scott of the Burdekin Library and the delightful [...]

Floods still haunt us.

Nearly everywhere I travelled last week stories of the recent floods of 2011 and 2012 still abound. From Miles and Charleville to St George and Goondiwindi, everyone has a story, rising water, stranded livestock and pets, water sucking up living room walls, infrastructure and erosion and the greasy, smelly silt left behind in the waters wake. Today [...]

Spring Haze, pig hunters & weather woes.

Well it's been another  busy week on-farm. Suddenly the weather conditions are looking ordinary again which goes to show how quickly things change out here. We did have good rain during July with a very welcome 50 mm falling however we've had a freezing winter. At one point we had seven consequtive frosts which is [...]

Red dirt & scrub – A Youth Not Wasted

Today, Ian Park visits. Some of you may have already read A Youth Not Wasted, his highly enjoyable memoir-cum-autobiography of his outback experiences as a young man. I've already previously profiled the book, however in speaking with Ian some months ago I really wanted to hear from him personally and he graciously agreed. In reading A Youth [...]

Lightning Ridge- Bush Video Blog

Lightning Ridge is one of those places that gets into your soul. It has a stillness about it despite the myriad of activities that take place there on a daily basis. The 'Ridge' as it's fondly known is less than 2 hours drive west of us, making it a perfect spot and my favourite 'outback [...]

Wet Stuff.

What a start to the season! With 50mil falling over the past 10 days it's still pretty soggy here. The falls have been staggered which has meant there's been a little bit of time inbetween 'wet stuff'' to get out and about to check crops. Today I'm off to Goondiwindi to collect chemical in anticipation [...]

By | July 24th, 2012|COUNTRY LIFE, MOTHER NATURE|0 Comments

This flying life. Helene Young talks about her love of flying, oh & she writes a damn good yarn too.

A big welcome to Helene Young. Helene has a new novel out, Burning Lies. How she manages to write when she's an aviator amazes me. I asked Helene to share a little of her flying life ... Every flight’s a joyflight! After dreaming of flying for many years I was twenty-four before I finally had my [...]

By | July 11th, 2012|A WRITERS LIFE, Inspiration, MOTHER NATURE|0 Comments

Lollies, photo shoots & cattle…

Most weeks blur together for me. Inbetween writing and working on-farm usually I get to friday wishing for a day off, but of course that's a rare luxury when you literally have two full-time jobs. This week we started weaning the calves. It's late for us, however our calendar has been out since the floods earlier [...]

Jennifer Scoullar, author & rural environmentalist visits.

A big welcome to author and enviromentalist Jennifer Scoullar. Thanks Nicole, for giving me this terrific opportunity to talk about my passion for conservation. As a child I always felt a very special connection with animals and plants. This feeling grew stronger, as I grew older. My father, Doug Scoullar, was a great influence in this [...]

By | June 27th, 2012|A WRITERS LIFE, Inspiration, MOTHER NATURE|0 Comments

The end of the line – bush style.

The 'end of the line' can mean anything or anywhere. From long queues for event tickets to major sporting games, festivals, concerts or perhaps historic monuments. Then there is the literal 'end of the line' destination wise, the last stop. Historically this could referr to the last station on a railway line or the last staging [...]

By | June 19th, 2012|COUNTRY LIFE, Inspiration, MOTHER NATURE|0 Comments
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