I remember when we first floated the idea of full-time travel with Doug’s mum - she couldn’t quite get her head around the whole “nomad” thing and asked “So you’re going to be travelling - like the gypsies???”. And I guess we are.
But after leaving Julia Creek, we were heading to something exciting - and a true gipsy experience.
We stopped off in Cloncurry for a night, making ourselves at home at Wal’s Camp, just out of town. The caravan parks in town were very crowded and asking $35 a night for power/water. At Wal’s we parked up in a very pretty, tidy area for $15 (unpowered). Not only was it a pleasant stop for the night, but the lady caretaker, Narelle (or my saviour) offered hairdressing services under her awning. So no sooner had we set up camp, than I was off to see her for a long overdue trim.
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| Road train approaching Cloncurry |
We visited Woolies in town too, to stock up on supplies. I think the last time we’d been able to shop in a big supermarket might have been Mudgee back in early April. Since then it’s been little IGA’s in small towns. We had a dawdle around Cloncurry in the afternoon, taking in the sights. We visited Chinaman’s Creek Dam just outside town and took in the views from the lookout over the town. Cloncurry is a great little town; friendly, welcoming and with all the services a traveller needs.
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| Chinaman's Creek Dam |
The next day we headed north out of Cloncurry to our next adventure. While in Julia Creek we’d seen an ad in a window for caretakers for a property nearby. I called the number to have a chat and find out what was involved. Unfortunately, or fortunately as it turned out, they’d already found caretakers for Proa, but when they heard that Doug was an arborist, they were keen to have us visit for a while.
Gipsy Plains is situated 65km north of Cloncurry, past the huge Ernest Henry Mine, and is a 77,000 acre Brahman stud that has been owned and operated by the Curley family since the 1960’s. The whole operation has been built and developed by Robert Curley from nothing. His family got the land in a ballot in 1963 and they have built a solid reputation for producing quality cattle with docile temperaments and fine pedigrees. Robert lives on Gipsy Plains with his wife, Jacqueline (herself an established photographer) while his son Clayton and his family live on the neighbouring property, Cotswold.
Clayton runs the business now, but Robert’s always there to lend a hand or offer advice. Robert has always worked his cattle in quiet, deliberate ways so as to produce calm cattle that are easy to handle. You can see it in the way he moves slowly amongst them; no whip cracking or shouting in his yards. And he prefers to hire female ringers - he says the cattle prefer females voices and that the girls not so gung-ho as the men.
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| Beautiful greys |
The homestead at Gipsy is surrounded by a beautiful garden, with the best vegetable garden I’ve seen. There are lots of shade trees surrounding the homestead, which help to keep things cool during the long, hot times of the year, but they were in need of some love, and we were employed for a week or so to get the trees looking good. Doug is the expert and I provide the ground labour.
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| Doug's in there somewhere |
We spent five days in and around the garden getting things ship shape, and I have to say that we work pretty well as a team. But it was the other experiences we had during our eight days there that really made our stay so memorable.
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| Five days and seventeen trees later |
One day we took Jacqueline’s grandchildren, Ryan and Sienna for a picnic smoko in the dry creek bed and had billy tea and carrot cake while the kids and the dogs played in the sand. Climbing in and around trees and tree roots in the creek bed that flows fast in the wet season beats any sandpit you can build in your backyard.
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| Smoko in the creek bed |
Another day they were mustering and droving cattle across from Cotswold to Gipsy to draft the weaners from their mothers. Our job was to bring lunch and meet them half way - to set up “dinner camp”. Lots of food was loaded in eskies and baskets, chairs were thrown in too, and we trooped out and found a shady spot to put our spread out on the back of the ute and light a little fire to boil the billies. By the way, there’s nothing like real billie tea out of a pannikin. All was going well, the ringers and Robert and Jacqueline (65 and still spending a full day on a horse!!!) were enjoying lunch when the herd thought they’d turn and head back the way they came. All scrambled to mount horses and head them off and turn them back around!
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| Dinner camp ute ready to go. |
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| Drovers ready for a lunch break |
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| Tired drover |
Most nights we lit a little fire and sat around with Bronny and Charlie. They are the resident grey nomads from Victoria who spend 3-4 months there every winter helping in the garden in exchange for their camp site. Some nights Robert joined us for a while and it was terrific to sit and listen to the stories of early station life and droving days.
Robert and Jacqueline were very generous of their time and were always happy to answer questions or take us around the station to show us how things run. We would head off on a bore run with Robert and not come back for three or four hours, having been taken to far flung parts of the property, checking troughs, tanks and “turkeys nests” (ground tanks or dams in other states). Robert could be heard talking to his cattle as he got out of the ute - “Hello girls, how’re you going?”. I still can’t decide if I like the greys or the reds better, but they’re all beautiful cattle.
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| Feeding lick to the cattle |
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| Beautiful girl |
On our last weekend, the rodeo was on in nearby Quamby. Quamby is a ghost town - the pub was the only building, but it shut a few years ago- but every year the rodeo ground comes alive as about 1500 rodeo enthusiasts descend. The whole day is run by volunteers and it was originally started as a social outing for all the locals. Today it’s grown in popularity and people come from far and wide and I imagine there would be a lot of sore heads the next day.
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| Rodeo crowd |
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| Luke"s winning ride |
The Curley clan was heading to the rodeo and we tagged along. It was a great day out with lots of people-watching opportunities. The events were exciting, especially as one of the ringers at Gipsy was competing in the bronc riding - and won! The entertainment also included the crowds - lots of "socialising" going on. We drove home, across station tracks before dark and finished our day with a barbecue in the back yard of the homestead, eating Gipsy steaks cooked on the fire and drinking billie tea.
We woke on our last morning at Gipsy to the sound of rain on the roof. I can’t remember the last time I heard that. But it didn’t come to much. Just a bit of a shower that kept the dust down for a while. Robert and Doug took off on a run to check the cattle while I slowly tidied things up and started to pack up ready to go. Once hooked up, we had a late breakfast with Robert, Jacqueline, Bronny and Charlie and sat enjoying the sunshine.
We were sad to be leaving, but as is now usually the case, something else has popped up for us. Word of mouth is a wonderful thing and we’ve found that it helps us find new and exciting opportunities that we may have otherwise missed out on. One such opportunity is 6 weeks work on Lawn Hill Station in the gulf, which is where we’re heading next. We’ll take a week or so to get there, via Mount Isa.
Our time on Gipsy Plains was over, but it’s lovely to know that we’re welcome back there any time. I’m sure we’ll be back to visit - maybe even next year. At this rate, it’ll be years before we get to see the western side of the country.
