FEATURE
Give me land, lots of land and a starry sky above… And, as the song goes, don’t fence her in! When self-confessed ‘townie’ Tara Shiels left the Blue Mountains for the Pilbara it was the beginning of a seven-month adventure, writes JANE CAMENS.
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ot everybody thought it was a good idea when 18-year-old Tara Shiels confessed she had a desire to spend her gap year on a remote cattle property. After all, says Tara, “I’m absolutely a town girl, hot and cold water at the turn of a tap, a short walk to the shop, all those convenient things.” Where she’s been living for the past seven months, the nearest shop is a three-hour drive away, but still she says, that’s been a small price to pay for the extraordinary adventure she’s had. Tara arrived at Yarrie Station, where they run 5,000 head of cattle on the 250,000 hectare (617,000) acre property, just before the start of the mustering season. The station, which is in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, has been in the Coppin family for five generations, and is now owned and managed by 34-year-old Annabelle Coppin, who purchased the property from her parents. The nearest town is Marble Bar, which is about 140 kilometres away, mostly on dirt roads. Tara was one of three 18-year-olds chosen to work as station-hands, alongside a small crew, all under the age of 35, and from various parts of the world. “Sometimes you just need something different,” she says. Station life certainly ful-
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filled that need. She found out quickly that she could, if she had to, swap spinach for bread, almond milk for long life milk, and tofu for red meat. “At home mum would say if I ever got a flat tyre I should wait in the car and ring the NRMA for assistance. Out here in the Pilbara, good luck trying that! You might wait a lifetime,” she laughs. “It always seemed to happen on the days we had a million other things to do, but you just get on with it. Jack that car up, pull the tyre off, pray the spare was checked, get it on and away you go.’ Doing something like this had been in the back of her mind for four or five years, Tara tells me. “My grandmother, Fran Arbuthnot, worked on a country property when she first came out from England and when I was young she introduced me to horses. She was very supportive of me doing this, and really encouraged me to go for it. I’d love to inspire others to do this. In the past few years it’s become increasingly popular, especially for girls, and it truly is an amazing adventure.” One of the deciding factors in Tara choosing Yarrie Station was that the station still uses horses for mustering. These days many places rely on motorbikes, trucks and helicopters. Yarrie, of course, uses all these but they’ve kept the horses on for mustering believing
HORSEVIBES MAGAZINE - DECEMBER 2019
they cause the cattle less stress. Initially Tara rang a lot of cattle stations in the PilbaraKimberley region. “Eventually I got on to Annabelle,” she says. “I liked the way she advised me what to ask and look for.” The days were long, with the crew getting up before sunrise, at around five o’clock. “Our work consisted of anything from mustering cattle to cleaning troughs, feeding hay, caring for calves, and so much in between,” she says. If they were mustering, Tara and her new friends could be out for eight to 12 hours. “Before seven in the morning you might have a helicopter land next to your camp, have to shower from a bucket to wash off dirt, grease and cow poo, and cook breakfast on a camp fire. That was normal.” Talking to her right at the end of her stint on the station, she sounds almost nostalgic already! The crew could camp out for up to a month at a time. “We spent less time in our beds than we did in our swags,” she says. “We set up camp with a marquee for a bit of shade and had a caravan for our dry stores and a small fridge.” And then there were the horses. Tara talked about how impressive they were. “They’re all very strong and athletic, able to go for 40 kilometres a day. They’re the hardiest horses
