STOCKMAN PROFILE -
Tim Hall
Article by AWSDM | Photos Provided by Tim Hall
Growing up in the small town of Fingal, located near the East Coast of Tasmania, at the young age of sixteen Tim Hall moved an hour and a half away to Launceston to gain employment. Tim underwent his butchers trade, partly due to accessibility but also due to him always enjoying cutting animals up in the back of the shed when he was a young boy. After receiving his trade qualification, Tim worked as a butcher for Coles supermarkets for ten years before him and his wife, Emma bought a butcher shop in Westbury, Tasmania. Tim worked the butcher shop for five years and during this time his love for dogs and working on the land slowly came crawling back. When Tim moved to Westbury, where him and Emma purchased a little 5-acre block of land where he finally got himself a dog after not having one for the last ten years that he’d been living in Launceston. Tim had always had a few pups he’d played around with when he was a boy, with his first one being a Smithfield, given to him by Irene Glover. Tim started trialling as a way to get a break from the butcher shop and his itch to work dogs and work on the land slowly kept creeping back. One dog quickly turned into two, which turned into three and eventually led to Tim having five dogs. One day at a trial, Tim was talking to a good mate of his, Adrian Carpenter who manages Connorville Station, about how he would like to make a change from butchering and get back into working on the land with his dogs. About three days later, Tim received a call from Adrian and was offered a job. Tim has now been head stockman for just over 10 years. With just over 40,000 acres of land running 20,000 Merinos and Crossbreds, along with 2 000 Angus cattle, almost every day for Tim involves doing some sought of stock work with his dogs. With every day at work involving the use of his dogs, Tim states that he “just simply couldn’t do his job without them”. A lot of his jobs throughout the day involve him on his own with his dogs. They need to be able to handle a wide variety of stock work that also involves large numbers of stock, ranging from handling cows and calves, to blind casting and mustering bush wethers. Due to Tim’s range in stock work, when looking for a dog he looks for a positive one. One that always wants to come forward all the time, has a sound mind and is soft on their stock but can also work six weeks straight in the yards backing up and down the race.
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AWSDM