On the weekend of my beloved’s birthday I of course told him we could do anything his heart desired. Getting away camping was forefront in his mind, as always, but the weather wasn’t playing nice. A damp and miserable weekend under wet canvas didn’t appeal. The next best thing? A simple bonfire in the bush, some sausages over the coals, a beer in hand and checking on his cattle. My husband is a man of simple pleasures. The sheep overseer and his wife came, and the cattle overseer and his wife too (that’s us, in case you were wondering)…
We are still exploring the property we now call home – all 30,000 acres of it. This weekend we ventured to a part I’d never been to, and Matt had only briefly been whilst mustering cattle a few weeks ago. A huge series of wetlands runs through ‘Willalooka’, over 2000 acres of enormous expanses of water, the biggest of it’s kind in South Australia. When we arrived in April the wetlands were basically dry, the transformation as the water has arrived from upstream has been amazing.
Nice weather for ducks! Friends and family back home in Gippsland say it’s a tad soggy there too (no surprises there though). Has it been raining where you live?
Amy says
Used to live with limestone caves in NZ – they used to tell us stories of entire stagecoaches being swallowed up without ever seeing or hearing them ever again! Lovely pics – I thought Matt was channelling his inner wombat there at the side of the cave. He’d make a very funny looking wombat though. 😉 xx
Emma says
No wombats here! Bizarre. I told him he might get a very grumpy wombat charging out at him, people we were with just looked at me blankly like why on earth would that happen?! Hum. Crazy no wombat people.
Kate says
You live in a very beautiful corner of S.A! There has been no rain here recently…not a drop.
Larissa says
Here is WA my parents are on a station which is 1 million acres. So different from one side of Australia to the other. If only we had the nice green grass here like you do over there, it looks gorgeous 🙂
Ali says
love the look of the country Em. It’s beautiful!! Mum and Dad have had a heap of rain – and even here in Darwin we had a shower mid last week which was a bit early!! 🙁
Sharon says
what a gorgeous bit of country you are fortunate to now call home! And I call that a perfect way to kick back, a picnic with the cows 🙂
I’d be quite happy to share some of your rain, none up here for months and months.
Is 30 000 acres a big place down there, or standard? That’s about middle sized for this area (well we straddle two land types, small for the forest country, and middle for the downs country!)
Emma says
Yes it is quite large for around here, it’s gradually grown over the 50 years the family we work for have been here, the original home farm is more like 10,000 acres I think, where we live on ‘Carlton’ is about 5000 acres. Some of our neighbours are on that sort of size, 5000-10,000 acres. At home in Gippsland though my family’s farm is about 1000 acres, which is considered quite big, although it’s highly productive prime lamb and potato country. It’s all relative isn’t it!
Kathy says
Beautiful pictures and I just can’t imagine living on so much land that you may never get to some parts of it…so bizarre…. Regards Kathy A, Brisbane, Australia
Emma says
Haha I grew up on 1000 acres, of every square inch my sisters and brother and I explored so I find it odd also. It takes awhile to get your head around how much land it is, we live at one end of the property and often Matt is at the other end and calls to say he’s leaving work…will be home for dinner in forty minutes.
Anne says
Not much rain happening up here. Wow what a beautiful place. It looks perfect for exploring with a camera. I love those big ol’ trees and the wetland, the granite? and the green grass. I hope Matt had a lovely birthday.
Emma says
Yes the big redgums are so beautiful. That photo is of Matt poking his head down a cave! It’s very sandy soil here, before you just hit solid limestone/granite. Lots of caves, including the spectacular world heritage listed ones in Naracoorte. Lots of stories from old blokes mustering across this country and then all of a sudden losing a horse down a cave!