Charnley River Station

After my Mornington visit I stopped in at Charnley River Station.

Charnley is owned and run by the Camp family, who also run Kalyeeda on the Fitzroy floodplain. I spent a bit of time hanging out with their eldest daughter Hannah in Kununurra (she is a physio at the hospital), and met the middle daughter Camille at a couple of parties. So I rocked up to Charnley to have a look, and see what was going on. When I arrived Camille was sitting outside the kitchen with her mum Sheryl, and the camp cook, and I explained that I knew Hannah etc. Sheryl invited me up to the house for dinner with everybody, station crew, plus the 2 muster chopper pilots and one of the workmens family out from England.

That arvo I checked out Donkey Hole and Junction Pool. Junction pool is a nice little swimming hole surrounded by pandanus at the junction of 2 creeks. The wet season here was pretty dry this year, as it was for most of the Kimberley, so this is the only decent waterhole left. Despite that it doesn't appear to see too much tourist traffic.

Junction Pool

Sunset at Charnley

Some big Brahman boys

I had breakfast at 5 am with everybody, the plan for the day was to shoe the remaining horses needed for the coming 4 days of mustering, and pack up to head out to the stock camp for the start of mustering that afternoon. I went with James (their 21 year old only son) in the bull catcher to check a fence line, which took us a couple of hours, some good little bits of 4wding, a broken brake line, loose tail shaft bolts, and some other funny noises. Then we joined up with the two choppers mustering cattle in an unfenced area along the eastern boundary, after pushing a mob of Brahmans through into the fenced area ourselves. All up we put 339 cattle into the fenced area. Mostly Kimberley Shorthorn cattle that will all get sold, and replaced with Brahmans. Any Shorthorn that doesn't co-operate in the muster gets a bullet rather than being left in the paddock, as they dilute the Brahman genetics. These unfenced areas are the last place on the station for the shorthorns to be replaced.

James' Bull catcher (James is driving, Joe had a broken leg from the steer ride at the Fitzroy Rodeo)

That afternoon we packed up a circus, and eventually headed to Potts Camp, arriving a bit after dark. We set up camp which involved making a horse yard, unloading 12 horses from the truck, feeding and hobbling them all, whilst the cook and Sheryl got dinner going.

Part of the circus - this is the water truck for washing up, drinking etc. The engine has no cover on it and is 30cm away from your leg.

In the morning the horses got fed, and saddled, and the riders headed off, following the tracks of Peters bull catcher into the scrub. Peter was driving, aided by the chopper pilots, an obstacle free course to bring the cattle back on. James and I tried to get the other 6 horses (they get ridden alternate days) to stop and drink at the creek, and then back in the yard which was quite an adventure. I had to head back to the homestead with Sheryl so I could head up to Kununurra, but on the way back, we drove in a different route to the spot where the choppers were bringing the cattle for the riders and bull catchers to drove back to the yards. We sat and watched the choppers pushing the cattle up onto the top of the plateau for a couple of hours, then headed off once they had all settled down and everybody had had lunch.

The spare horses safely hobbled after half an hour chasing them around the camp.

The riders heading off in the morning

Waiting at the top of the jump up for the choppers to bring some cattle up.

Camille

The antics of the 2 chopper pilots Grant and PJ were incredible dropping right down into the trees, and throwing their machines around, unfortunately none of the photos or videos really do it justice.

The two Bull catchers, and Grants chopper in the distance along the cut line.

There were two short horn bullocks that had clearly bred with wooly mammoths out in the wild. Check out the horn. Garath in the background.

Grant Wellington with his R22

Australian Wildlife Conservation (AWC) and the Camps are in the process of negotiations over selling the station. I get the feeling it is the AWC structure that slowing things down, but by the note in the directors voices at the Mornington party with Tim Flannery, it sounds like it will happen.

This video is of Peter running over a bull that broke out of the mob. The bull bar on the front of the ctcher is sloped underneath so that you can pin the bull on the ground whilst you strap either front or back legs together with a belt or two. These cattle then get picked up at the end of the day. They are tied because they are a serious risk to the safety of those on horseback, and make droving the cattle more difficult. One of the girls was just touched by the horn of a bull on the hip 10 minutes after this video. Luckily it wasn't a fraction closer or it would have gutted her horse and stabbed her.

Mornington

On my trip up the Gibb I spent 4 days at Mornington station. It is owned by Australian Wildlife Conservancy and has been managed as native animal habitat ever since they bought it in 2000.

The highlights of the trip include:

• Canoeing in Dimond Gorge (usually the most favoured site for proposals to dam the Fitzroy River) with a random backpacker - The backpacker came courtesy of the American volunteers dad. His dad was visiting, before doing a roadtrip to Darwin with him and his girlfriend, and then flying home with his son. He rocked up in the middle of nowhere with a nice 26 year old female backpacker in tow his son didn't know about until he got there. Random.
  


• Climbing Mt Leak with Claire and camping on the top, on a semi-flat rock with an angle slightly less than 30 degrees in a howling breeze rushing over the summit. We slept well! It is an excellent vantage point. You can see hills to the south out on the edge of the sandy desert, west to the King Leopold Range, and north to Mt House.
  



Mt Leak from near Sir John Gorge - 10kms away




• Meeting Tim Flannery (Australian of the Year in 2007, and famous scientist, with a reputation that allows him to express an opinion on scientific matters of public significance and be noticed). He is a director of Australian Wildlife Conservancy, and was at Mornington with 2 other directors after a tour checking out Charnley River Station. AWC is in negotiations to buy the station to add to their current list of 21 sanctuaries Australia wide.
  



The Fitzroy glistening in the afternoon sun, just down stream of Dimond Gorge




• Releasing a Northern Quoll the team had trapped at Mornington to show a journo and photographer from the West Australian. They arrived at the station a day late, but I discovered on my drive out that the photographer was Nic Ellis for those that know him. I didn't get a photo of the quoll. They run pretty fast! I got a great shot of blurred rock instead.

Sunset from the summit of Mt Leak

Derby

This is from a couple of weeks ago now:

Yesterday I spent a few hours poking around Derby

First impressions: It is an outwardly nicer town than popular opinion would have me believe, with an excellent boulevard of trees lining the road into town.

The main attraction would have to be the wharf; which operates solely to export Nickel and Lead from two mines near Fitzroy crossing. There is a nice little café/resturant down there too. The tides in Derby are impressive. They rise and fall by as much as 11 vertical metres and over kilometres of mud flats and mangroves. Tides are generally high in the Kimberley, but derbys are higher due to the funnelling effect of King Sound. As all the water rushes towards the Fitzroy mouth the sound gets narrower and narrower, and the momentum of the water pushes the tide up higher as it is squeezed in.

The Derby jail is another highlight. Not the current one, the old one. Built in 1906, it received several minor modifications from then until it closed in 1975! It was built to contain 30 people in 2 large cells, but frequently held 60 aboriginal prisoners. They were restrained by neck chains fixed through handcuffs to large metal rings that can still be seem in the floor. The amentities - a bucket walled off by a blanket, or an adjoining dunny that looks like a very modern addition.

The prison tree and Myalls Bore is another interesting attraction. The large prison tree boab is reputed to have been used for holding prisoners overnight, and was known to be used as a storage area for stockman camped nearby at times. The tree is said to be roughly 1,500 years old, but everyone is guessing as boabs don't have tree rings.


Myalls bore is right next to the tree. It was sunk to provide water for cattle brought in from stations that camped here for a few days before being loaded onto boats. Initially it provided artesian water at an incredible rate such that there was a 1.5 km long billabong. Later it had to be pumped; into a 120m long concrete trough that could water 500 bullocks, and is thought to be the longest cattle trough in the southern hemisphere (you have to make some claim to fame!).

During WW2 soldiers were stationed here, and one smart bloke built a concrete pool for everyones enjoyment. More like a bath, it is called Frosty's pool.

Mt fucking Barnett

After a fantastic trip up the Gibb, I am camped at Manning Gorge in the sand with every other travelling geriatric and their dog. The reason - the most crucial roadhouse on the Gibb (ie the only one that sells unleaded petrol) has none. And as you can tell that is a little frustrating.

As I write I ought to be arriving in Kununurra, and partying it up at a very nice young ladies farewell party. I am here instead. The truck is meant to be arriving tonight, but judging by stories from the past few weeks, there is a 50:50 chance of that happening.

Not only does the roadhouse not sell fuel, but the pay phone outside (and the one in the aboriginal community across the road) does not take coins. I presume this is so that they don't have to be emptied, or to stop the locals trying to break into them. Not only do they not take coins, they don't take credit card either. The sole means of using one is a Telstra phone card, which is no doubt purchased for an exorbitant sum at the roadhouse that just shut for the night. So all those expecting me in Kununurra, I hope you are telepathic - I will talk to you tomorrow.

So apart from Barnett the trip has been great. The highlights include:

• Hanging out with Birdwood Downs station staff at their cute little homestead and organic vege garden. I got dinner, and breakfast, and a 5 min theatrical performance (part of their preparation for a charity gig), and I volunteered myself for 2 hours work walking around a small paddock chatting to this very interesting 50 year old South African guy - he builds and plays unique African instruments such as the thumb piano (don't ask me what it is!) and a few others. This is not your normal station! To start with it is only 5000 acres, and just 15 k from Derby. It runs on tourism and small conferences.
  
• Hanging out at Mornington Research Camp for 4 days with Claire (a friend from Uni and a bunch of other scientists
  
• Joining in the fun, mustering on Charnley River Station