Jackarooing in Oakhampton

The second major activity Maren and I did, whilst she was over here, was our five day Jackaroo & Jillaroo course on the Oakhampton station, near Manilla, NSW. We got the train up the day before and hung out in Tamworth (typical country town) and the next day we headed to the station. At first we thought we would be inundated with young, German backpacker girls, as these filled the YHA, but luckily they were heading to Leconfield, which is the station advertised in the Lonely Planet. Our station was much quieter and the group consisted of a S.A. family, Maren and myself - much better!

There were many activities planned for the week and yet it was still pretty chilled out, 7.30am starts and finishing when the sun set at about 5.30pm. Day 1 was getting to Oakhampton, introductions to the family, looking around the place and catching kid goats for the males to be ringed. It transpires that Maren is a pretty good goat catcher!

Day 2 we got into the shearing shed, where Marshall introduced us to the world of sheep. Wrestling them down, crotching some and shearing others was a great experience. Carting a 70kg sheep about sure gets you tired though and you have to be impressed with the guys who manage to shear 200 a day! Once we'd shorn a few we headed out to do some drenching, mouthing and drafting - the latter of which earned me a beer for a complete draft ... nice! Each evening we helped feed the various animals around the station, the goats, the lambs, the deer, the pig, the cows, and even the joeys!

Day 3, and it was time to saddle up! Once we prepared our gear out we went to get the horses. I started on Cliffy, but soon changed over to Billy, an ex-polo and race horse, whilst Maren was on Cliffy. It was good to be back in the saddle, though I confess to being rather sore! A morning of practice riding, lunch, and then off for a trek in the surrounding hills. It's a beautiful country and it felt really good to be riding out there. We were joined by Kim and Bob: locals who made sure we didn't go too far off track! Bob being a true Bushman, and at 80 years old still spritely to jump on a horse and go out and muster the cattle ... impressive! We were also joined my the irrepressible James, who runs the station.



Day 4 started with a long horse trek through the surrounding country. In the afternoon we got serious (kind of) and headed to round up some cattle. Mustering a mob from the paddock through to the pens near the shearing shed so a couple of the male calves could be castrated. Heading out we really felt what it would be like to be a part of a working station, and it felt great! Once there we got to the business in hand: castrating two of the males, and tagging them. Maren volunteered for the second calf and as I held it against the run she got in close with the sharpened knife to do the deed. I was getting pretty scared of the skills that Maren is starting to pick up, especially after learning to use a cattle whip properly!



Day 5, and sadly the last one on Oakhampton. Again we mustered the cattle back to their homes and cleaned up the saddles, etc. Then we headed out to burn out some cactus weed, nearly starting our very own mini-bush fire in the process, but it was all under control of course! Afterwards we did some fencing - that staple of a station-workers routine.

Both Maren and I wished we could have stayed longer and under different circumstances we certainly would have done. Sometime in the future hopefully! We both would highly recommend Oakhampton for anyone wanting to experience a bit of true Aussie life on the stations! James, Belinda, John, Bob, Kim and Marshall really looked after us and we'll head back at the drop of a hat!

More photos can be found in the album:

Oakhampton

Aug 20, 2006 - 58 Photos