Category Archives: Pastoral Industry

Shearin’s Done

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Peter MacDonald

Depot Springs station, northern Flinders Ranges.

There’s something quite charming about an old shearing shed.

The wood stands out. It’s been polished by the lanolin from the wool of many thousands of sheep and the constant activity that goes on in the shed when shearing’s in full swing.

The Depot Springs shed is over 90 years old and despite its age has stood the test of time.

A pair of hand made boots that have seen sheep aplenty meet the shearer at this spot, stand ready for the next morning’s work.

They are built for comfort, anything to make the hard work more bearable.

The woolshed photo was shot at f3.5, 1/200th sec, ISO 1600 with off camera flash

The boots shot at f6.3, 1/125th sec, ISO 1250, no flash

A 24-70mm Cannon L series zoom lens was used in both photographs.

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Shearin’s Done

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Peter MacDonald

There’s something almost sad about a shed when shearing is over.

Gone are the sounds of hard toil , the machinery whirring, dogs barking, sheep bleating, music blaring.

Until the same time next year, when once again the shed comes alive.

Woolshed, Beltana Station, northern Flinders Ranges

Taken with a Canon D60 and a 17-40mm L series Canon lens back in 2005.
f16, exposure 2 seconds, ISO 100, focal length 17mm

It was part of a series which included this picture taken when shearing was in full swing.

Posted in Beltana, Pastoral Industry | 2 Comments

Dingo

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Peter MacDonald

The dingo is a fine looking animal, unique to our continent and it roams freely around the Outback.

It’s features distinguish it from other dogs. It yelps or howls but doesn’t bark. Dingoes are usually cream to reddish brown in colour like this one. Their ears are always erect.

Together with feral domestic dogs they have long been a real menace to the sheep industry which loses large numbers of animals to dog attacks.

These days there’s probably more domestic dogs that turn wild, or domestic dogs that have interbred with the dingo causing the problems for pastoralists and that requires widespread baiting programs.

The cattle industry, on the other hand is not affected by the dingo which generally lives on kangaroos, rabbits and other small animals and reptiles.

Dingos are thought to have been introduced into Australia thousands of year ago and are related to dogs of South East Asia.

This was shot on a long zoom (300mm) at f8, 1/1250 sec, ISO 200. I haven’t cropped this photography mainly to put the dingo in the country it normally roams.

Posted in Fauna, Outback South Australia, Pastoral Industry | Leave a comment

Wool sheds with Old Fences

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Peter MacDonald

As I mentioned the location of the old fence in the previous post …..here’s the Nilpena Woolshed,

It was as hot as hell when this photograph was taken, around 50 degrees Celsius with a summer thunderstorm not too far off.

This is quite a substantial building…a hive of activity in it’s heyday. Nilpena Station doesn’t run sheep any more. It”s now exclusively a cattle station.

Pictures of the inside of the Nilpena wool shed can be seen here.

Some of the movie, the “Rabbit Proof Fence” were shot on Nilpena station, and in the nearby Flinders Ranges.

Posted in Lake Torrens Area, Pastoral Industry | 1 Comment

The Overflow

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Peter MacDonald

There’s a new segment that’s been added the the Sentimental Bloke website.

Its called ‘The Overflow” and it can be accessed on the heading line above.

‘I’ll be posting photographs in the “The Overflow” on all sorts of subjects that might not make it to the home page.

That might might be faces of people in the Flinders Ranges or Outback, whether they be locals’s or visitors, or the pictures could be about anything that comes along.

To start the ball rolling there’s about 40 photographs in “The Overflow” taken at the Marree bronco branding championships a couple of weeks ago.

 

Posted in Faces of the Outback, Outback South Australia, Pastoral Industry | 1 Comment

Ride’m Cowboy

Posted on June 16, 2011 by Peter MacDonald

Non-stop action all day for 10 bucks. You just can’t beat that

The Australian bronco branding championships held at Marree over the holiday weekend were an absolute hoot.

You have no idea how strong these competitors have to be and the team work that’s needed to compete, until you see them in action.

There’s plenty more pictures of the action, the atmosphere and the people coming up

 

Posted in Birdsville Track, Oodnadatta Track, Outback South Australia, Pastoral Industry | Leave a comment

The Cattle Drive

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Peter MacDonald

Shane Oldfield, Clayton Station, Birdsville Track cutting out young heifers and steers for ear tagging and branding.

There’s still time to break out the swag and head for Marree this Sunday where blokes like Shane  will be in action all day at the bronco branding competitions.

Posted in Birdsville Track, Outback South Australia, Pastoral Industry | 1 Comment

Bronco Branding

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Peter MacDonald

Bronco branding is the traditional method of branding cattle in the Outback and has been practiced on most of the large stations throughout Australia.

Once the mob has been mustered a stockmen  rides in and ropes a cleanskin calf from his horse. The catcher then hauls the calf to a bronco ramp where it is held, earmarked and branded.

The whole process can take less than a minute.

The modern process uses a calf cradle and this reduces both the time and labour costs for outback stations.

 

The use of open or yard broncoing, as seen here, has become virtually obsolete, and, along with that, the skills of the Australian stockman.

To keep those skills alive there are now bronco branding competitions all over the Outback.

The next one is in Marree on June 12. If you don’t mind a bit of dust it’s worth joining in to see our station people doing their thing.

 

Posted in Birdsville Track, Outback South Australia, Pastoral Industry | Leave a comment

Born to the Saddle

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Peter MacDonald

Well known cattleman and horseman Gordon Litchfield of Wilpoorina Station, south of Marree in Outback South Australia working cattle on Clayton Station along the Birdsville Track.

 

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Faces of the Outback

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Peter MacDonald

Cattleman. Ian Litchfield, Mundowdna Station near Marree, northern South Australia.

 

Posted in Faces of the Outback, Outback South Australia, Pastoral Industry | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment