Farmstay day 1

During my first day at the farmstay the owner drove me around in her atv while we mustered cattle and saw one of the caves with aboriginal artwork in the escarpment that’s part of the property. I was astounded how she could encourage cattle to go from one paddock to another (these paddocks are probably all about a square kilometre in size, or more) and how much the cattle trust her. If they think they’ve eaten everything they want to in a paddock, they wait at a gate to be moved into the next one, and amble into another paddock as soon as they figure out what she wants. Another farmer wanted to use her stockyards, so she had to unexpectedly clear the paddock that lead from the main road to the stockyards, and those cattle were nowhere near the gate. However, she soon had them moving sedately to the right paddock. They were in three completely separate groups so she’d had to do this three times in her little atv.

She’s fenced off the caves with artwork, so that animals don’t destroy it. She gets aboriginal advice whenever she does something like this, and she didn’t just fence off the caves, but enough area to ensure the ecosystem remains. The cave we went to had been a place of refuge according to the experts, and there was water readily available through a soak. 

Although this is desert, this is in the subartesian area, where the permeable sandstone base allows water to flow into the great artesian basin, and springs or soaks exist that allow a small amount of water to come up. The water hasn’t reached the depths where it starts to be heated up. The desert uplands are mainly wooded, but there have been three good years, so there’s a lot of grass around. The eucalyptus trees don’t have the spread out canopy that you normally associate with eucalypts because they’re in the desert. She hasn’t counted the number of different plant species she has, but she has over 220 birds. Because she doesn’t overstock, and she’s in a biodiversity hotspot, there are a lot of different plants everywhere you look. Also, because of the size of the property, there are different types of species in different places.