Country Retreat - 23. Balfour

An hour later, we came up to our third creek crossing, this one was a bit wider than the others and had a lot more water in it, but, the water level marker told me that it only had half a metre of water in the creek, so it wasn’t too worrying, and we managed to cross over with no issues at all. After crossing over, we parked under some trees near the crossing, we decided to have our lunch break, and I pulled out the awning to get some shade, while Jarrad grabbed the table and chairs.

After a quick lunch break, we drove on, with the turnoff north just 1.5 kilometres from the creek crossing, and the road was a lot smoother, which I was pleased about, and about an hour later, I slowed down, as I saw a cattle grid ahead, and as we got closer, there was a sign, stating that this was the cattle station.

“How much further do we have to go from this gate?” Jarrad asked me, sounding a little tired from all the travelling, “Ten minutes by my estimation,” I replied, as I picked up the UHF radio mic, “Oscar Kingston to Balfour Station, do you copy over,” I said into the mic. “Balfour Station here, Mum is outside, do you want me to get here, over,” came the voice of a child, “No, just let her know that we are at the main gate, and we will be there shortly, over,” I responded, “Good, we look forward to meeting you, over,” was the answer.

Less than ten minutes later, we passed two sets of gates, that looked like a wide laneway, followed by rows of trees, which revealed a large homestead compound. “Wow, impressive setup, how big is this station?” Jarrad said to me, as I slowed right down, “About 1.58 million acres I believe,” I replied, as we stopped near the homestead.

“Welcome to Belfour, I am Julia Ashton, and these are my four children, Susan, Clare, Andrea and Luke,” a lady said as she approached. “Hi boss, I am Oscar Kingston, and this is my good friend Jarrad Drake,” I responded as I shook her hand before Jarrad did the same. “Nice to meet you both, and you made a very good time getting here, where did you stay overnight?” the boss asked.

“At Meekatharra, and we took it in turns to drive, so we didn’t get too tired, and we left fairly early this morning, with a short stop at Newman to restock supplies and refuel,” Jarrad replied and I nodded my head in agreement. “Good to hear, now since you are both horsemen, I am going to put you in charge of looking after the horses, of which there are six here in total, and the stables are just behind you there, with a large undercover shade area when it gets too hot.

I’ve put you two boys, in the old cottage, just behind those trees over there, which you share with the Bore Runner, who is only here three nights a week, the rest of the time he is away checking the water supplies and fences. You each have separate bedrooms and share a bathroom, with the cottage having two toilets. I have told the station cook that we have two extra staff for dinner tonight. I will let you get settled in and have a look around the homestead area,” the boss said before walking off back towards the homestead, with the kids following.

Packing the vehicle close to the cottage, we offloaded our luggage, before emptying the fridge of any food and leaving the water in there. Once we had completed the transfer we sat down in the lounge area to relax, as we had over three hours before dinner, and after a short rest, we went for a walk to explore the homestead paddock.

We checked out the stables first and saw where the feeds were located, as the saddles and other gear before checking on the stable bays, which were clean and ready. Outside we went to see the horses, which were all good-looking stock horses. Once we had a look around the area, we returned to the cottage, where we relaxed before it was time to shower and head over to the main building for dinner.

In all, there were six staff at the dining table when we arrived, and Julia entered soon after us from the direction of the kitchen. “Ok, listen up, we have two new staff members, both are from just out of Perth, and are high school friends, now attending university, so they will only be with us for a month. Oscar and Jarrad are both experienced horsemen so they will be taking care of the horses while they are here, and Oscar has some Diesel mechanic experience but no formal training,” Julia announced to everyone present.

During dinner, we learnt the names and jobs of each of the staff members, with two additional staff working in the kitchen, Anthony is the Station Cook, and Linda is the Breakfast Cook and School Teacher. Apart from them, there is Harry the Station Mechanic, Greg the Senior Stockman, George the Bore Runner, Frank who is the Grader and Truck Driver, Chris who is the Lead Stockman, and Katherine who is just the stock person, making a total of nine staff including us.

Katherine we learnt was very good on motorbikes, but she was afraid of horses, so she was no good with any kind of horsework. As we neared the end of dinner, a new person entered the staff dining room and all went quiet.

“Evening all. Welcome to the station Oscar and Jarrad, I am Travis, the boss, please come and see me once you have finished dinner. Greg has the new day list for tomorrow, so see him afterwards. Have a good night,” he said before leaving.

When dinner was over, we followed the others, by stacking the dirty plates on a trolley and putting the dirty cutlery into a half-filled container of water, before leaving the room. Jarrad and I waited until everyone had left, before pushing the trolley through the doorway to the kitchen. “Thanks, boys, over there with the trolley if you don’t mind, and Travis can be found through that door into the passageway, and take the second door on your left,” Julia said to us, and we did as asked.

“Hello again, please take a seat. Now Julia has shown me your resume and although you have had no experience on cattle stations, we are willing to give you a go. I believe you are only available for four weeks because you are both university students, which is fine as we have mustering starting at the end of this week, and that will go on for two maybe three weeks.

For now, I will have you boys feeding the horses and mucking out the stables, straight after breakfast, which is at 6 am. Once that is done, Oscar, I will get you to go to the machinery shed and assist Harry with some vehicle maintenance, while Jarrad, I will get you to start mowing all the lawns on the ride-on mower. Any questions?” Travis announced to us and we both shook our heads no, as Travis wished us a good night's rest, and we headed back out.

On the way out, we stopped at the kitchen to assist with washing up and taking the food scraps out to the chook pen, which we already knew was near the stables, having passed them earlier in the afternoon. Once back at the cottage, we prepared for bed, deciding that it was best to get a good night's rest after all the travelling we had done in the past two days.

When my mobile alarm went off at 5.45 am, I looked around me for a moment and wondered why I was awake when it was still dark outside, then my memory kicked in and I jumped out of bed. “I hope you are awake Jarred, or I will have to throw cold water on you,” I said loudly. “Don’t you bloody dare. What made me think that spending holidays in a remote place like this was a great idea,” Jarred responded, as I was getting dressed, ready for my first day of work on the station.

“I have no idea mate, but it is a great experience,” I replied as I exited my room and headed to the bathroom, to splash water on my face to wake up properly and take a leak. Jarrad was staggering out of his room half-dressed when I exited the bathroom, and I couldn’t help but laugh, as he tried to get his shirt on, without any top buttons undone, before he walked straight into a wall, and fell backwards, landing on his backside, which made me laugh even more.

“Come on mate, I think you need a hand getting organised there,” I said once I had calmed down a bit, as Jarrad sorted his shirt buttons and put the shirt on, grumbling to himself as he entered the bathroom, and only half closing the door behind him. I sat down on the lounge to wait for Jarrad to finish getting ready, as I heard footsteps approaching.

“Cooee, are you boys awake?” I heard Julia call out, “Yes thanks Julia, although Jarrad is a bit grouchy this morning, and he walked into a wall while putting his shirt on,” I replied, which had Julia laughing as she walked back to the homestead, and Jarred exited the bathroom, grumbling at me for telling the boss that the wall moved and walked into him, which had me laughing some more, as we exited the cottage.

Just before we reached the staff dining room, Jarrad stopped, and I did the same. “You know, it is good to hear you laughing again, it has been a long time between,” he commented to me. I thought about this before smiling, and I patted him on the shoulder, “Yeah, I think this trip will do me some good for a change,” I responded, as I followed him into the dining room.

After breakfast, we helped with cleaning the dishes, before setting off towards the stables to start work, then in separate directions, where I was kept quite busy doing oil changes on all of the vehicles, which included, the front-end loader, tractor, one ute, two quad bikes and four two-wheel bikes.

At lunchtime, the boss told the stock staff to leave the two vehicles they used this morning, as they needed servicing, which I got to work on straight after lunch, once that was completed, Harry began to teach me how to weld, which was a little difficult at first, but I started to get the hang of it. When Jarrad arrived on the ride-on mower, he wasn’t looking too happy. “I think I have busted a cutting blade, can you look at it for me please,” Jarrad asked me extra nicely when he stopped just outside the shed and jumped off the machine, which made me chuckle.