Sheep and Wheat

Yours truly driving the header, watching out for rocks

The pet Roo

The tip - some old family cars and old wrecks which were thrashed around in the fields by the farmers sons. One was totalled in a rear end smash which left the 12 year old driver a bit worse for wear.

Giant tyres used as stands for water tanks.

I am spending some more time farming and have moved down the the wheat belt East of Geraldton, a town called Perenjori.

The farm is 20kms from town and smaller than the last I visited with about 12'000 acres of wheat, lupins and 3000 sheep. Harvest has just finished on this farm and it has been a relatively good year. 4 years ago there was a 2 year drought and many of the farmers had to get jobs in the mines up North as they were not taking a yield they could survive on.

So I managed to get a drive in the neighbours combine harvester or 'header' as they call them here. That was the last day of harvest so I think I was pretty lucky. The yield was around 2 to 3 tonnes per hectare and I didnt hit any rocks. Phew!

Cape Range National Park, Exmouth

Yardie Creek, Cape Range NAtional PArk

Aussie bloke Shannon with a handstand on a termite mound - original!
The Cape Range

The mighty Gascoyne River - not so mighty at the moment but still an impressive sight. There is an underground water course here which supports several fruit and veg farms. I bought a crate of mangos. mmm!Taken on my way South. I actually crossed the tropic 4 times during my stay up here!

more farm country pics

Contrasting colours on the ridge near the homestead.
This is the Minilya river again showing the house bore and pump. The old Lister diesel engine is switched on and off every day - it can run for around 18 hours on a single fuel tank. This is the supply of drinking water for the house, gardens and several hundred cows on this part of the farm
One of the farm roads with picturesque Gooch range in the distance.
Again, the Gooch range.
It got quite warm at times, well pretty hot to tell the truth!
There is no shortage of steak on a cattle farm. I ate it almost every day and now know a rib eye from a T bone with my eyes closed and hands behind my back.
A windmill that was used for pumping bore water was turned inside out by the tropical cyclone a year or two ago.

A few weeks on a Cattle Farm

Here are a few pics of my recent adventure - working on a Cattle station over Christmas. The farm is larger than what we are used to in the UK - 100 kms North to South and 60 kms East to West. They have several thosand cattle and some goats all depending on bore water which is actually very drinkable on this particular farm. Some other places have salty water which is treated before human consumption.
It is also a very picturesque area with a naional park on the boundary - the Kennedy Range. Jobs I have been doing so far include fence work, cattle mustering on motorbikes and 4x4's, checking and maintaing bore water and pumps / tanks and some gardening.


Using a variety of vehicles to gather the cattle on this farm of half a million acres

Dog teasing the bungy and about to get a tail whip!

The neighbour dropped by in his plane to help locate some cattle to direct the ground crew on bikes and in 4x4's. One day they hope to move back to horses the old fashioned way!

After 12 hours and 28kms cattle mustering in up to 40 degree heat - not a pretty sight! I drank 10 litres of water. Then some beer.

A godsend!

The family road train - delivers some hay for Christmas!

Crossing the river - no wellies required as it only runs for a few weeks a year. However under the sand there is a useful supply of drinking water which does not need to be treated and is oumped to the house.

The mountains are part of the farm.

My hat didnt last ling after it proved popular with the farm dogs!

Cattle mustering - behaving themselves at this point so not much input required. However later in the day they hide from the sun under every tree/bush and moving them long becomes a chore.

Dust storm approaching.

Coral Bay Pier - water is pure aquamarine!

I took a day diving trip and swam with several Reef Sharks, beautiful coral and plenty of Rays.
Coral Bay - 1000 kms North of Perth. If my car breaks down here, well I wouldn't mind that much! Carnarvon

Carnarvon, Western Australia - no Castle or decent old pubs! but the weather makes up for that fact!

A friend of our neighbours at home in Swansea moved up to Geraldton and this is his specially made stained glass window. Nice touch!

A submarine that never made it past testing due to gas that was emitted by the fuel cells. Somebody with a sense of humour decided yellow was a good colour. "We all live..."

This is Fremantle early in the morning - a great little port town down the river from Perth.

You can stand on this street and watch the ships pass up the dock at the far end. You might make out the superstructure of a ship in the photograph under the cranes. This is where I landed on the cargo ship MSC Basel and iI booked into a hostel on this street also. (Pakenham St)

I looked around for a day or two and spotted this 1986 Toyota Corolla for sale. It had 270'000 kms on the clock but pretty much rust free and seemed to run well. So I bought it for around 500 pounds and spent a couple of hundred sorting out the odd mechanical fault, bought some provisons and camping gear and I have transport! This said, there is a chance I could break down so all necessary precautions have been taken - lucky horseshoe, fluffy dice...etc

Perth skyline taken from the Swan River. From here I am told it is around hours flight to Brisbane on the East coast. Similar distance to Singapore!

Indian Ocean voyage

The voyage from Singapore to Fremantle took 10 days via Jakarta. We spent a few days loading and unloading in Singapore and Jakarta so actual travel time was about 6.5 days. I ate with the officers 3 times a day and the food was abundant! I was the only passenger as a couple from Bristol had to cancel last minute. The crew were a mix of Russian, German, Estonian and the deck crew were from the Pacific Islands.

Here are some photos of the ship, the enormous engine (literally as big as my old terraced house in South Wales!) and the beautiful views from the ship. I watched a school of 20 dolphins swim with the ship at one point but didn't manage to spot any whales unfortunately.

This was the view from my cabin on the port side. We were passing through the islands of Indonesia at this point.
The view from the bridge - the ship was about 2/3 loaded going to Australia. It holds nearly 3000 containers, each of which is the size of a lorry trailer.
Sunset in the middle of Indian Ocean
2nd Engineer Sergei checking the fuel heaters. The ship runs on Heavy Fuel Oil that is heated to over 100 degrees prior to burning. It carried 3000 tons for this journey which took over 8 hours of refuelling.
Above is the rudder apparatus. Large hydraulic pistons linked with the on board navigation system to keep an accurate course.
Prop shaft.
Engine control lever! I was tempted to give it a tweak when the engineer wasn't looking but my common sense got the better of me.
Bottom end of the engine - gives around 20'000 horsepower. 6 cylinders, water cooled.
Top end of engine. A man could easily fit inside each of the huge cylinders. THey have a diameter of several feet.
My cabin!