Carey Downs Station

We wanted to get off the beaten track. A gigantic cattle farm a hundred kilometres of dirt road off Gascoyne Junction (20 houses, a school, a post office, a gas station and a campsite) sounds pretty good! As the road is seldom used and there is no network, our hosts ask us to send them a message when leaving Gascoyne Junction. If we do not arrive within two to three hours, they come to our rescue (otherwise you can spend several days alone by the roadside). The Mentos being in shape, we arrived safely at Carey Downs.

We are greeted by Harry, Alys, the children Laney and Riley (Darcy, their eldest is at school in Perth) and Charlie, the little dog. There is work !! In four days, a group of eight road workers arrive to stay on the farm for a month (and redo the roads in the area). We participate in the building of a new outdoor bathroom and make sure all rooms are in order . As factotums (people whose job is to take care of everything), we make sure everything goes smoothly.

Farming in the area is rather extensive. To give you an idea, the farm (station as they say here), covers an area equivalent to half of the province of Luxembourg (the biggest province of Belgium). 33 stations make up the municipality of Gascoyne Junction, slightly larger than Belgium. 250 people live there, it is as if the Mernichons (inhabitants of Merny, small village in the Ardennes) were the unique inhabitants of the kingdom :p. To fill this loneliness, 1500 cows, kangaroos, bustards and a few billion flies (minus 2 now).

It is very difficult to fence all these acres of bush. To gather the cows, they wait for the drought of the summer. The water points are fenced with a system of doors that can be locked. The animals usually come in and out as they wish. At the time of the mustering, the exit door is blocked, the cows are found locked in a small holding paddock and there is "no more than" to go to get them ... We help with the construction of new trap yards. Everything is metallic and heavy design to resist termites and livestock. Olivier develops welding and Bob Cat driving (with a bucket filled with concrete) skills. Rossana improves handling of the drop saw, setting posts very vertically and smoothing concrete.

We were planning to volunteer but, due to our motivation / talent / degree of sympathy (delete the useless mentions), we are promoted to the rank of part-time workers.

What about station lifestyle? It's true, we're far from everything. But Internet does not care about dirt roads. When roads are closed because of the rain, you are still connected via satellite. The main obstacle is children who use up the quota of the month after 10 days because they are on holiday (sorry for the delay of publication for this article ;) ). Usually they go to school, it means crossing 10m to the classroom where a teacher is waiting online. Shopping arrives with the postman once a week. Evenings are rarely monotonous, we are so isolated that people are staying for the night (insurance man, wild dog trapper, carbon trader, fuel delivery man, family and friends).

When we have days off, we go and explore the bush. We camp under the stars, amongst 179,000 acres, its easy to find a quiet corner. Campfire, wild swimming, discussion with local cows, collection of fossils, stones and glass bottles from the predecessors. We do not forget the walkie-talkie in case of glitch, this is our only way to avoid waiting several days for help (no network and it is difficult to harness kangaroos to tow you).

Roads in the area are being revamped and workers are packing up their equipment. Everyone needs a break: we continue north as it is still winter and it is only 30°C.