DAYS AWAY

I have had 10 days away.
Travelling out west attending party's and visiting my father and my son and grandson.
First off I drove to "Stratton" the cattle property where my son and his wife live and run their business.
It was wonderful to see them.
I must admit little grandson Charlie is a treasure, but I mustn't go on about him as my dear (close) friends tell me I'm getting a little boring on that topic......of course they don't have grandchildren as yet!!
He has grown and is a fraction away from walking. He will be 1 on the 2nd of May ...we share a birthday.

Bill took me for a drive around the place and it is still quite dry as they haven't had their normal share of rain this summer.
Going into winter with the poor grass cover is a worry for them.
In these parts we are a summer rainfall part of the world and winter rain is rare.
Sometimes we get the odd bit of winter rain but it usually does more harm than good.

When the rain doesn't come or is not enough then the other probably worse result is what is called a water drought. Graziers can have enough feed for their cattle but water is in short supply.
This seems to be happening right across Queensland's inland. I think there will be a lot of people heading out into the "long" paddock in the next few months, my son included.

Oh, in case your not aware the long paddock is another name for droving your cattle on the side of roads where grass is which sometimes means shifting them a few hundred kilometers by road transport and walk  cattle around the stock route's (sides of the road) until rain has fallen and the grass has grown on the home property and cattle can be taken home, or turned around and walked home which is usually the case.

Back to my trip. From Stratton I went to my sister Grace's cattle property out side Wallambilla south of Roma. It was to celebrate my niece's 21st birthday. We had a great night and a relaxing recovery day the following day.

From there I drove to Augathella where I stayed with my very good friend Lisa and her husband Mark.
 They run a very successful  fat lamb enterprise. They have managed to successfully make the transition from running merino sheep where the main income was from wool, to a dorper type sheep that is a meat producer only, and needs no shearing at all.
 Having lived in that part of the world  and run merino's it is strange to see funny looking black and white sheep covering the beautiful mitchell grass plains.
That night Lisa invited another old friend who lives on the next door property over for dinner and we all had a wonderful catch up. A few little hangovers may have been scattered about the following morning!!

But soldiering on I drove to Longreach the next day. My dad is in the old peoples home there and my 2 sister's and I take turns to visit and spend time with him. He is 83 this year and getting very frail. But he still has one passion/pleasure and that is being taken out side for a smoke.....puts a smile on his face every time.
He loves also to be taken for a drive and his favourite destination is the Thomson River. He likes to sit and look at the river and buff on his durry.

While we were doing this the other day I got to thinking about the connection Dad has with that river.

His Grandfather Angus crossed that river in the early part of the last century on his way from his birth state of Victoria to take up his new job as manager of the Queensland sheep stud of "Strathdarr".

 Later his Grandmother Alice would have crossed that river on her way to Longreach to give birth to his mother.

Still later his mother Alison would have crossed that river to give birth to him and finally his wife Lesley would have crossed that river to give birth to me.

So he has been crossing that river all his life in one form or another.

Dad loves to talk about the old days and has managed to write and publish 3 books about his life and the people he has known. This is quite an achievement as he has lived all his life in Longreach except for a stint of couple a years working on Sheep Studs also in NSW.

His other love is to recite poetry, mainly A.B. Paterson's work. It was sad to leave him.

From Longreach I headed to Listowel Downs at Blackall where my sister Wendy and her family live. They have just sold the property which has been in he husbands family for 60 years.

You can drive straight from Longreach to Blackall via Barcaldine but I decided on the spur of the moment to divert through Isisford. Take a little trip along the Mighty Barcoo River.

This is my second most loved part of the world after Longreach.

I lived for 8 years on a property right next to the small township of Emmet which is 80 ks north west of Isisford and my husband Tony is an Isisford boy having lived all his childhood on  Emmet Downs at Emmet and then at Isis Downs at Isisford. We have a lot of history in that part of Western Queensland.

Isisford hasn't changed much since we lived there in the 80's, in fact it may have gotten smaller. One thing has happened that has made a difference since our time has been the discovery of dinosaur bones by Ian Duncan  a past manager of Isis Downs. This has resulted in the old picture theatre in the main street (where many a 'film' was watched half lying back in a canvas squatter type chair) being replaced by a state- of- the- art Outer Barcoo Interpretive Centre where you can see a replica of the said dinosaur and lots of other information on the area.

I stopped and had a look and a coffee and Isisford being Isisford in no time at all I had been discovered as well after running into my old neighbour  Jocelyn Avery who with her husband Johnny ran the Emment store.
She has always been an amazing women. When I was first married and moved to live at Mt Grey, Jocelyn had 4 small children and drove the school bus every day and worked at the school all day then drove home. She has had many jobs since then including driving the ambulance. I asked her what she was up to now and she informed me she was on the Longreach Shire Council, worked at the medical centre in Isisford and also ran her own shop selling everything you could possibly need but didn't want to go to Longreach to get. She is helped out by her daughter Belinda and the retired  Jimmy Baker well know  jockey.

 She is still an amazing women.

Having spent too much time in Isisford I hit the road to Blackall. This was a very interesting drive as I know that road and the property's along it very well.

But I think that might be another story\

TO BE CONTINUED


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