PASSING OF AN ERA.

My wonderful father passed away last week.

It was very sudden...but not totally unexpected as he was in a nursing home and very frail.

A recent photo of Dad with me on the left and Wendy my sister on the right.

He achieved a lot in his 82 years. He wasn't a traveller....in fact he lived and died in Longreach which is a small town in the central west of Queensland. He never left Australian shores.

He probably spent a total of 5 maybe 6 years in other parts...but as I said Longreach was his home and he loved it completely.

View of Longreach 2013.

During the last few years, my sister's and I would take turns to go out to Longreach and spend time with Dad.

 His favourite place to visit was  the Airport where he would look at the display Qantas jumbo jet and more recently the Catalina Flying Boat. He could tell you all about both.

 He loved planes.

The Qantas jumbo jet on display in Longreach

The other 'must' was to take the short trip out to the Thompson River which is just west of the town.
 He loved nothing better than to sit by the river.. light up a smoke.. and take in the view.

The old bridge across the Thompson River at Longreach..in flood

An old photo I found of the Thompson River ..in a dry time.

 Dad was the last descendant of the pioneering Archer family to carry the Archer name in our direct descending line from David Archer...one of the original Archer brothers.

 He had a brother who passed away some time ago, and a sister who married and has 3 sons but of course they don't carry the Archer name.  Dad had all girls and his brother also had girls.

Actually this is not entirely true...Dad's brother had a son from his first marriage...who being the eldest son of the eldest son was called David after his grandfather and his great great grandfather.
Unfortunately he has cut all ties with the family...incidentally David only has one child and that child just happens to be a girl as well.

There is also one other male Archer but he is not married and is from a different descending line to Dad.

Are you thoroughly confused now?  Hopefully not.

For readers who don't know about the famous Archer brothers.....I will fill you in quickly.

It all started with  William and Julia Archer who immigrated to Norway from Scotland in the early 1800's. They had 13 children.... 9 of which were boys. The first 8 children were born in Scotland, the last 5 were born at Larvik (Laurvig) after they moved to Norway.

David was the third eldest son, and was the oldest to have a son and, as was the custom in those days, became the head of the family and passed that title on to my Grandfather David Archer.

 Julia (nee Walker's) family had interests in Australia so the boys came to Australia to work. To make a long story as short as possible...and still keep your interest....the Archer brothers formed a partnership of sorts and decided that the only way to get ahead in this young colony was to go north from their base in New South Wales and explore and ' take up country' of their own.

Charles Archer, he and his brother William were the first to discover and name the Fitzroy River and surrounding areas.

This they did ending up in central Queensland where the two brother Charles and William first rode over the hills from the South-West...know as the Dee Range and looked down on the mere, and further in the distance the big river which they named the Fitzroy after the Governor of New South Wales.

 The year was 1853.

They called their station 'Gracemere'. This name came about because Tom Archer was the only married Archer brother at this time and his wife's name was Grace. The word 'mere' is the Norwegian name for lake.

In the early days Gracemere stretched about 70 k's in each direction from the house....the old brothers probably never knew how much country they had...it was probably somewhere between one and two million acres.

The boundaries would have been rivers and rangers with the eastern boundary being the sea.

There was one big paddock on the other side of the Fitzroy .....and big mobs of cattle were swam  back and forth.

They started there with sheep they had actually walked up the coast ...but after a short time they realised that the country was not suited to sheep .....so they turned their eyes to the west and went exploring in that direction ...looking for 'sheep country'.

In 1857 they took up ' Minnie Downs ' at Tambo. They then walked 5000 odd sheep out there.

The homestead about 1950. 

Robert, my Great Grandfather, took over the management of  Gracemere from his Uncle Thomas. Robert's father, David was never at Gracemere.

The brothers that managed Gracemere over the years were...Charles, William, Thomas, Colin, James and Thomas again.

Colin arrived in 1855 and managed for only three or four years, during this time he designed and controlled the building of the house. He then went back to Norway and started building boats....but that's another story.

Getting back to my father. One of the things that kept Dad entertained in his declining years was writing. He managed to write 3 books...mostly about his life and the people that filled it.

He also wrote about his childhood growing up on a sheep station/stud outside Longreach... and his many visits with his parents to Gracemere..

Here I would like to take a paragraph from one of Dad's books...where he writes about Gracemere.

"I have known Gracemere since I was a little kid, and it has never lost any of it's charm for me. Imagine a two or three year old kid, who had never seen the sea, being taken through that lovely garden with those enormous trees, to the boathouse and looking out on the huge expanse of water. No wonder it left a life-long impression on me."

An old sketch of the back of the homestead. From left back of main house, kitchen, office, men's quarters. The banyan tree on the left is still there today.

The gracious old homestead still stands proudly on the edge of the lagoon and the wonderful garden  which has been tended by Archer women down through the years,  is today still a thing of beauty, and still tended by an Archer woman.

There is a small hill behind the homestead and on it's top is the Archer family cemetery. Archer's have rested there for over 150 years.

So this weekend my sister's and our family's, Dad's last surviving sibling his sister Clair and her children will return to Gracemere where Dad will be laid to rest.

He will finally be at peace once his ashes are buried there along side his Grandparents....his parents..his brother and his wife.

The family cemetery which over looks the house and lagoon.

As I write this I am struck with the realisation that this is something that is very rare these days.
 I now realise how very lucky we are as a family to be able to know that this is where we will go  at the end of our lives..... if we choose.


Some photo's of my Dad...Colin Mackay Archer.

Dad doing what he loved best...classing wool. 1980's.

As a young man 

Taken at the Archer family 150 year reunion in 2003...Dad and his girls. L to R Wendy, Sandy, Grace and Virginia.

Until next time

DAYS AWAY continued

The drive from Isisford to Blackall has changed a lot in the past 30 years

The fact that it is all bitumen is amazing and that you can put your foot down and do the drive at 110k's, with the only concern being the odd kangaroo hopping across the road.

Back in the day it was a fairly rough two wheel mostly black soil track, you had a little bitumen on the other side of the river from Isisford but it stopped where the road turned off to Blackall then the next time you hit bitumen was at  the '6 miles' road junction just out of Blackall.

Many a road party was held either end where the dirt started or the bitumen stopped which ever way you wanted to look at it.
If you had been at the Tatts Pub in Blackall for a session, the ' roady ' was at the six mile....if on the other hand you had been to the 'Pictures' in Isisford then retired to Clancy's Overflow Hotel for a few until the then 10 p.m. closing time....remember that? You had the roady just over the bridge on the Barcoo under a big old  coolabah tree.

As I crossed the river out of Isisford I did glance over at the spot under the tree and remembered some good ol' times. There is now a monument under that tree commemorating the accidental drowning of a young girl back in the early  1990's.

After turning off from the Emment road on to the Blackall road you go over a grid which marks the boundary of the town common and 'Isis Downs'. You then travel about 20 ks through that 'grand old Dame' pastoral  station.

I could still recognize the country although it has changed a little where it has been cleared. Looked as though most of the sheep fences were long gone replaced with cattle barbed ones. A new set of cattle yards beside the road was also a bit of a surprise.
But the turn off into the station and the view of the famous shearing shed , the homestead and sundry buildings was very familiar. Not a great change there.

Next was 'Gowan Hill' which was owned  by the Rice family but I'm not sure who owns it now.

After that you come to 'Springfield'. This property I know well as I worked there off and on for the Armstrong family before they sold to CPC (Consolidated Press ) also owners of 'Isis Downs' and half the Isisford district.

That country had changed with lots of clearing which has really opened up the view but I could still remember bits and pieces as I drove. I used to help Mr Armstrong with his cattle work. We had some interesting times trying to yard his cunning shorthorn cows. It didn't seem to matter how much trouble was taken in the preparation prior to getting them to the yards or how many men, women and dogs we assembled......

it was full on drama!!

I remember once we battled for what seemed like hours with cattle turning back, going in every direction, people screaming at the cattle, the dogs and each other.....but eventually in the dark we yarded them.

All retired to the homestead for a couple of stiff rum's before a feed and early to bed of the next day of drafting and the start of the branding.

Mr A was up first and had gone over to the yards while Mrs A and I started breakfast.
 We didn't notice him walk into the kitchen, he was very quite as he just entered and stood there. We both turned round and looked at him and I think we both knew what the look on his face meant.

There was not one single hoof left in the yard.....they had  knocked the side of the yard down during the night and off back to their paddocks they went....probably with little smiles on their faces!!!

The things you remember

Just after the turn off to' Springfield ' you cross the Springfield Creek which is on the boundary between 'Springfield' and 'Thornleigh'.

I worked at Thornleigh as a jillaroo for Mrs Wagstaff the owner of this magnificent property. She had lost her husband in a horse accident some years before. She had 3 girls, at the eldest was a year older than I was and the youngest was still in primary school.

I started work there in May of 1974.

 Thornleigh is 110,000 acres and when I was there it ran around 20,000 merino sheep, and a fair mob of black angus cattle.
 Mrs Wagstaff had a manager who took his orders every day from 'the ol' boss' as she was affectionately referred to.
 I have just worked out  she would have only been 45 that at that time.

 The manager was in charge of a work force of 5 to 6 men commonly called station hands or ringers. I started work there for general shearing which was always done through the month of June.

 Shearing took a month to 6 weeks and was always full on for that time. We were kept busy mustering woolly sheep to the shed and taking away shorn sheep, occasionally we would help with drafting although there were usually 'yard men' employed to do that.
All mustering was done on horse back when I first went there later we used motor bikes but not often.

I spent probably 3 years there off and on and these are days that I still think about often.

Mrs Wagstaff was a hard boss, but she was fair and we got on well...looking back she was very patient with me.
While at my sister's party last week end in Blackall I meet an old friend who worked in the district when I was at Thornleigh, we were reminiscing about the good old days and he said something interesting that I had never thought of.
 He said how he pretty much always made it back to the homestead for lunch, I said we never did.... that we had to cut our lunch after breakfast and wrap it in newspaper, this was carried in our saddle bags and was pretty awful come lunch time on a hot summers day.
I remember I used to take vegemite sandwiches they seemed to come out o.k.
He said with a laugh that was because he worked on a company place where as I worked on a privately owned enterprise.

 Back then company places didn't employ women.

It was very hard to suddenly be thrown into a work force of men who had never worked with a, I was going to say woman but I was really only a girl, they didn't like it one bit and decided right from the word go that I was completely useless and a hindrance. They tryed as hard as they could to get rid of me and when they couldn't they proceeded to make my job as hard as they possibly could.
But of course I am pretty pig headed...... anyway I loved my job.

I think it must be wonderful for the jillaroo's of today as they are recognized as being able to do the job as well as any man and there are even women up north who are head stockwomen and leading hands  in charge of men. Would never have happened in my day.

I drove though Thornleigh on on to Moorlands which in my day was run as a part of Thornleigh but is now a separate property. Mrs Wagstaff passed away in early 2000's and ' Thornleigh ' is now owned by her eldest daughter Wendy and her husband Tom. Her second daughter Lynda and her husband own ' Moorlands'.

Probably the most amazing thing that I noticed on the drive through 'Thornleigh' was the complete lack of sheep. It is now covered in beautiful Droughtmaster cattle.

The next big place was ' Malvern Hills ' again I don't know who owns this but I am fairly sure it is a big company. As I drove past the turn off there were 3 semi trucks with 3 trailers as piece loaded to the hilt with cattle. This place was a merino sheep stud but now is all cattle.

I drove past the '6 mile' which has lots of memories of great party's round a fire on a cold night.
From there I turned off on to the ' Listowel Downs ' road this is not it's official name but can't remember it at the moment.

 My older sister lives 100 kls down this road at ' Listowel Downs '. I was going out to stay with her for a couple of days for a farewell party as they have recently sold out......to another big company. It was again a trip down memory lane as when Tony and I lived at ' Mt Grey ' we used to go to ' Listowel 'often.
Wendy would relieve me of a child or two when ever I went into hospitial to have a baby, so the kids spent time there also.

The party was lots of fun and I managed to catch up with old friends from that part of the world. Country people never change and it is wonderful to think that you can talk to someone you haven't seen for nearly 30 years and pick up where you left off .

And all the reminiscing!!!!!

From there I drove home and it was great as I had been away for a while and was tired after 2 party's and lots of driving......and talking!!

Now I really need to do some painting


That's it for now

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


'

Land of Drought's and Flooding Rains.

"The sun is out
 the sky is blue
 there's not a cloud
 to spoil the view"

At Last.

We have had soooo much rain.

 I have just about given up measuring it.

BUT ...having lived on the land and run a business where the main ingredient for success is rain, I know not to complain, because rain can stop and then it can take years to start again. I know this because I have seen it happen....often.

 Australia is the driest country on earth, therefore droughts especially in Queensland are some thing we have to learn to deal with.

I remember the first drought I ever experienced. The time was the late 60's and I was about 10. I have a memory of skinny horses and dead sheep.

For thoes who don't know sheep are an animal that spends it's whole life looking for a way to die!!

(A direct quote from my husband.)

I think this is because they never ever have an original thought, they think collectively.

So if one sheep thinks it will walk into a muddy dam for a drink and gets bogged that doesn't mean that any of the others are going to say better not go in there or the same thing will happen to us.... no they all follow and they all get bogged

.....sheep!!

This brings me back to my first experiences of drought.....pulling out bogged sheep from dams.

Also another rather awful memory was when Dad would want us to " depth a dam" ...see how much water was left so that he would  know how long until the water dryed up and sheep had to be moved to another paddock or sold.

We would have to swim out into the middle of the dam which I might add usually had the odd dead sheep floating about in it. Once in the middle we would have to hold one arm above our heads with fingers pointing to the sky and go down until we touched the bottom. Dad could then judge the depth of water.

I hated this because I would imagine all sort of horrible things lurking on the bottom waiting for a little girls feet!!

I remember the incredible dust storms that would hit Longreach and just black out the sun, also a bit scary when your little.

The next big drought I remember was in 1982/3. We were living and working at " Mt Gray "
 at Emmet south west of Longreach. A property owned at the time by Tony's father Dick McLean.

 We used to breed our own horses back then. We had about 20 brood mares and a stallion. It was a bit of extra income for us as Tony would break in the grown foals and sell them, it also kept us well supplied with work horses. All mustering was done on horse back as most of the country was too rough for motor bikes.
This suited us well as it gave us the opportunity  to work our young breakers.

It is funny how events stick in your mind, you can go through a particularly bad time where lots of awful things happen but years later when you think back usually one thing stands out.

The thing that stands out for me was to do with our horses. The drought just kept on keeping on and there didn't seem to be an end to it. As with all droughts there are decisions to be made and they are usually heart wrenching.

We were forced to make a decision regarding our horses. We couldn't afford to feed them all to keep them alive. There were a few mares that were heavy in foal so we brought them into the house and feed them until they foaled. Any foals not big enough to fend for them self were shoot to save the mother. These are the decisions that are made daily by the custodians of the land and livestock in times of drought.

One of the mares brought back to feed was a beautiful grey mare who had had 2 previous foals, both very good horses, people reading this who knew our horses  will remember " Bungie", he was her last foal.

She managed to have her foal a few days after being brought home, but she was very weak and I could see that she was giving up. The foal was sucking but her milk supply wasn't great.

 At the time I was 8 months pregnant with our first child. Every morning I would go over to the stable to check on the mare. This particular morning she was lying down this is always a bad sign with horses or cattle for that matter. When an animal is weak they will try very hard to stay up right as they know that if they lay down they usually will not have the strength to stand. If you see a sick animal lying down it's a bad sign and you have to try and get it up as quickly as possible.

I put a halter on her so that I could at least help her when she tryed to stand. I managed to get her sitting up with her front legs out in front of her. She gave one enormous effort and caught me by surprise and I wasn't quick enough to help by pulling on the halter lead, being so pregnant probably had something to do with it.

That effort was all she had left and she just lay right down with her head on the ground and try as I might to encourage her to try again, she wouldn't. She had had enough.

She died late that afternoon with her little foal standing over her.

This drought broke the night our son was born. The 18th March 1983. Just as a matter of interest this son of mine will be 30 in a few days time.

Our enormous amount of rain that we have been having all along the coast of Queensland  has not spread inland. There are part in the west that are in the gripes of awful drought where here on the coast in places like Bundaberg whole towns have been washed away.

Drought Baby Bill with his son Charlie on the road with cattle

Going back to that drought baby of mine, he has been droving his cattle on the stock routes round Roma and Surat as they have had a really dry spell at " Stratton" the cattle property where he lives with his wife Kellie and their little son Charlie. They sold these cattle at the Roma sale a couple of weeks ago, but still haven't received enough good rain to see them through the winter.

In this dry old land of ours all you can do is

Hope...

Until next time.

To view my paintings and drawings click on this link http://www.theoutbackartist.com.au

ANOTHER TRIP TO LONGREACH

        Just returned from another trip to Longreach to see my Dad who is in the old peoples home there.


          I was joined by my son Bill his wife Kellie and the their new son Charlie, my grand son.


     We took Dad to the Stockman's Hall of Fame and also to the show that is held at the back of the hall every day at 11am.

                  It is called the The Stockman's Show. It was extremely good and well worth a visit.

This is the bloke that does the Stockman's Show.

 One of the horses he calls Red White and Blue Cavier!!

He does amazing work with bullocks  

                                                 Dad was born and breed in Longreach.

 And as happens quite often had been through the Hall when it was first opened some twenty odd years ago, but hadn't been through since.

Dad and Bill

Dad with is grand son Bill and great grand son Charlie

Dad is quite amazing as he has written 3 books about his life. 

He loves to write and can remember things that happened years ago. He can even tell you the names of all the horses he ever rode, all the men he ever worked with , and being a great old sheep man you only have to hold up a random photo of a ram taken 50 years ago and he will tell you it's name and every ribbon it ever won.

Dad was born in the Longreach in 1931 and raised on a station called Strathdarr which is between Longreach and Winton .

This is the Strathdarr Homestead . Sadly it was burnt to the ground in the late 60's.

Interestingly I was born in Longreach as was Bill.

After settling Dad back into the home we drove to Isisford. 

Isisford is a small town south west of Longreach 

It is my husband Tony's hometown.

His father Dick McLean managed both Emmet Downs and Isis Downs when Tony was a child.

They are now owed by CPC.

It is interesting that when Dick was the manager of Isis there were up to 50 or more staff needed to run the 200,000ac property. Now due choppers motorbikes and the fact that Isis Downs now runs cattle instead of sheep the men it takes to run the place has come back to a very few. 

I wanted to show the town and Isis Downs to Bill and Kellie as Kellie had never been there and Bill hadn't been back since he was a pre-schooler. 

After Dick retired he bought the property Mt Grey at Emmet which is not actually a town but a railway siding  on the Blackall / Yaraka line. When Tony and I were first married we lived at Mt Grey. Tony's parents ahd bought the ajoining property Lone Hill and lived there.

Both Bill and Lucy were born while we were at Mt Grey.

The first thing we did on our arrival in Isisford was to have beer in one of the 2 pubs in the town. 

When Tony and I were young and before we were married the watering hole where everyone from the surrounding large stations gathered was the pub with the iconic name of Clancy's Overflow Hotel.  

Sadly it was closed so we had our beer and toasted our return  to Isisford in the Golden West Hotel.

From there we visited a tree which was planted behind the town hall in memory of Tony's father who was Chairman of the Shire from 1976 to 1984.

There was also a tree planted for Tony and I and our 2 children Bill and Lucy

 ( our youngest AJ wasn't born at that stage)

On the same plaque it was also in memory of Tony's brother Ian who was killed in 1976.

Next we drove out to the cemerty where Bill saw for the first time his uncle Ian's grave.

Ian was 21 when struck by lightening and killed while drafting sheep at Isis Downs. 

From there we drove on to Blackall along the Paddy Behan Way. 

On the way we called into Isis Downs which is only 20 odd k's out of Isisford.

We were in Blackall to attend the engagment party of my nephew Andy Picone , my sister Wendy's son.

There I met someone who actually reads my blog!!

I left Bill and Kellie and Charlie to drive home and they to drive home to Stratton Roma.

It was lovely to see little Charlie who is growing like a weed and as cute as a button. 

Next time I see him will be at the Roma Campdraft where I will be baby sitting all weekend while Kellie works and Bill rides.

That's all for now as I am up to date

Check out my art work on my website

http://www.theoutbackartist.com.au

A little bit a about me

I welcome you to view my paintings and drawings of Outback Australian bushmen, Outback Australian Aboriginals, Outback Australian Horseman and many other Outback Australian inspired work. Some pieces are hanging at the Eagles Nest Bar and Grill in Eagle Street Longreach, if your passing through please have a look. Feel free to contact me if you need any information on the pieces. 

I was born in Longreach in 1957 where my 3 sister’s and myself spent a wonderful childhood riding our ponies and swimming in the local pool. I attended school in Longreach and then later spent 4 years at boarding school in Brisbane. I then jillarooed on property’s in the Blackall district in Western Queensland, until I married and settled on a sheep property south west of Longreach where we had 2 of our 3 children. 

In the early 1990’s our family moved to another property at Augathella, where my last child was born. It was here that I started to paint again something I hadn’t done since leaving school. This time at Augathella was overshadowed by a fall in wool prices and one of the biggest droughts ever to hit that part of Queensland. Surprisingly it took these trying times to make me really use my talents as an artist, I went round the area drawing the impressive homesteads in pen and ink and reproduced them into a calendar. 

They were very successful selling thousands around Australia and overseas. I also donated $1.00 from each calendar to Drought Relief to help other farming families in the same situation. Towards the end of the ‘90’s our family moved again this time to a property in the Bollon district in South Western Queensland. Again my art took a back step to work on the place. After 8 years we moved to a cattle property north of Rockhampton and in the past 2 years I have bitten the bullet and spend about 80% of my time shut away in my art room doing what I love best.