Hanging on an Aussie Cattle Ranch
One of the most unique things I did when I was travelling through Australia, was stay on a cattle farm and drove just outside of Rockhampton in Queensland. The whole area is known for its beef production and there are several large statues of bulls all around town, in fact apparently the town has a problem with teens stealing the balls off the bulls so…cattle is definitely the vibe here. The family who’s farm we were staying at owns 26,000 acres of land! Wide open spaces, a few kangaroos hopping around, cows grazing, old school wind turbines, it was kind of exactly what I pictured Australia to be in my mind.
I felt like looking the part so I threw on some old jeans and western booties for our tractor ride around the property. I’m a city girl through and through, but there is something so calming about being on a ranch! So something that has never once really crossed my mind before is that cows don’t all look the same. This is something I have come to realize from our own classic black and white cows at home, to the super hairy highland cattle in Scotland, to the very hump backed, velvet looking cows of Australia! They were so weird to me! We were introduced to the alpha cow (do cows have alphas?) named Sausage. He was the oldest and had fathered the most calves and got to feed a bunch of the babies. I always find it so fascinating to learn about worlds so close in proximity, but so different than our own, so learning all about the history of cattle farming and droving in Australia was really cool! Cattle train droving was a huge part of Australian farming in the mid 1800’s, especially in the Outback and Queensland. When the railway started to get introduced in the 1860’s it created a more modern and affective way to move cattle. Queensland is now the only state in Australia that still runs cattle trains, but they don’t move them long distances anymore and the art of being a ‘drover’ is slowly dying out. After spending time with our hosts, what was apparent was not only how skilled they were, but how much this family adores their cows and how much they care for them.
After the ride I decided to take a little time to myself and wander around the grounds. The Australian landscape is so drastically different depending on where you are, but I swear they are all the most beautiful in the world. Out on the ranch I felt like I could breathe! Being Queensland in the summer the bugs were absolutely nuts, so if you find yourself here I suggest packing on the bug spray! I also had a lovely family of little green frogs that were hanging out on top of my door. So little and green! But so noisy…
We had a family style dinner that night of roast beef with all the trimmings. Honestly pretty mind-blowing and the wine kept flowing. After dinner we had a lesson on how to crack a bullwhip. The guy made it look so damn easy, but let me tell you it is not! I was terrible! I kept whipping myself in the back. More so than anyone else. Do I ever have a whole new appreciation for cow boys and Indiana Jones! In retrospect perhaps giving us this lesson after drinks wasn’t the best idea. After all that whip play we went back inside for a barn dance and karaoke which was probably safer and a lot more fun.
The first time I was woken up by the sound of a kookaburra laughing I nearly had a heart attack. This time it was the nicest alarm clock in the world. I woke up just before five so I could once again walk around by myself and watch the sun rise over the ranch. The sky lit up with a pink hue and the cows were hanging out around me. Some people would say ‘a farm is a farm’ no matter where you go, but knowing the history of the cattle trade in Australia, staying on an old school ranch in the heart of Queensland was so unforgettable and a must if you’re up for a a whip cracking adventure!
