My Australia- 2013 Noni McCarthy
For my family and many in our community, 2013 has been a year marked by fires. Starting with the Warrumbungle fires in January , the Blue Mountains fires, hazard reduction burns and most recently my son turning 16 and being able to don the yellows side by side with his father and grandfathers. For me personally, it has been a baptism of fire. Stepping out of the safety of full time employment and starting my own business, SixtybyTwenty. The journey so far has been enjoyable, entertaining, frustrating and at the same time, inspiring. I have met wonderful people who have freely let me into their everyday lives and these pages are just a few of the wonderful images and stories that have helped define my first year as a soloist. My subjects are generally modest, and dont see what the fuss is about and why I wish to take photos of them. They think their lives are ordinary. This album is dedicated to family, and in particular my parents. May 2014 provide smoother seas and plain sailing.
Much has been written about the fires and the devastation, the impact it had on the wonderful community of Coonabarabran and the gut wrenching effects it has had on people like my parents. The flip side of this devastation though is the magic of the process of regeneration of the physical environment and the community as a whole. It hasnt been plain sailing and there will be heartache for years to come, but to me, this is what living in a rural community is all about. Pulling together when it hits the fan, and making sure your neighbours are OK.
Local Ag Shows have always been an important part of rural Australia for a multitude of different reasons. In the past, they were how local studs showed off their stock to potential buyers and while this function is still important, they are now a really important way to educate and showcase our rural industries to people who may not be quite so connected to the land. Socially, shows have always been important events for communities. This year, the Coonabarabran Show was at serious risk of not happening due to the devastation of the fires a few months prior, but a huge community effort meant that the show did go on, providing a very important normal for the town.
Sally and Tony Quigley from Trangie have a family of four boys who are each becoming an active part of the family business as they finish their tertiary studies. After 3 weeks of non stop harvest action, Sally was looking forward to a break from the constant feeding of workers. They had a team of 12 on deck, made up mostly of family and long time employees and a few overseas (English and Tasmanian) workers. The team consists of 2 cotton picker drivers, a boll buggy driver, a truck driver, 2 module builder operators working at any one time, and the balance of the crew do the other random jobs that need doing and rotate for breaks, as the whole operation must function for 12-14 hours a day.
Dubbo Showground has a long history of hosting National Breed shows and sales, functions where the best of each breed meet to be judged by national and international judges. These shows are quite often family affairs, but very professional at the same time. Bulls and rams are prepared to within an inch of their lives. Washed, clipped, blow dried....
The continuing dry weather across Queensland and NSW is causing farmers to offload huge numbers of stock rather than try to feed them through what could be a long and hot summer. There have been a number of record sale days, one week after another. In contrast to previous droughts though, prices for stock in the yards have held up reasonably well as there have been a number of buyers from southern Australia where the seasons have not been so bad.
The Chesworth family moved to Dubbo from the Hunter Valley a few years ago in order to purchase more cost effective land that would enable them to expand their dairy operations to improve long term viability. Their aim was to build a business that could sustain themselves and their 3 children and their families as they grew.
This year, they took the next step, producing and wholesaling their own milk locally with the launch of The Little Big Dairy. It has been a fantastically positive story at a time when processing of foods has been moving out of the central west.
Most of the dogs used for cattle trials are sheep working breeds rather than traditional cattle working dogs. This is due to the fact that when working in small yards, the dogs need to be able to work the nose to turn the cattle. Straight cattle dogs tend to work the heels, so just chase in this situation, rather than being able to turn the beasts through set obstacles.
Grown in the foothills of the Warrumbungle ranges, These ducks are destined for a Chinese Restaurant in Sydney. The ducks are reared on farm from eggs and are free range, with a diet of fresh grass, insects that they catch themselves, pellets and grains.
Maremas (a breed of dogs) are used to keep foxes away, and each dog does seem to have a personality. One seems to like the kids better than the ducks, and one other has taken a dislike to strangers, but thats its job.
Donning long sleeves, gloves and a veil I recently took a fascinating crash course in bees. Like most people I had never given a lot of thought to the process that puts Capillano Honey in the bottle on our table. Capillano is a predominantly grower owned co-op with facilities in Queensland and Victoria.
An unusual industry, but one that has been the saviour of many western pastoralists over the past 15 or so years. Many Asian and Arabic nations have an appetite for feral goat meat and goat milk. Australia has millions of feral goats that are both directly and indirectly responsible for the destruction of some of our most sensitive ecosystems. So its a win win situation.
Picnic Race meetings are in many ways like Ag shows for communities. They are an excuse to get together with friends and neighbours or maybe past and present school buddies for the younger set. Two weeks of wet weather in the leadup to the Duck Creek Picnic Races at Nyngan meant it was always going to be interesting to see if the committee could pull it off, but having been to the last Duck Creek washout, I wasnt the least bit upset that there were not to be any actual horse races.
One of the iconic Australian bush sports, campdrafting has grown from a station based sport to a multimillion dollar industry. While the sport is being influenced by American quarter horse genetics and rider bling, it still retains its essential soul, that of a horse and rider trying to out ride a beast that has its own agenda for the day.
There has always been great romance attached to tales of drovers moving large mobs of cattle throughout Australia to greener pastures, however in more recent times, with the advent of larger and larger trucks, the drover has become an endangered species. Earliler this year the Rural Media got wind of what has been billed as the biggest movement of cattle since the days of Sir Sidney Kidman, 18000 head of brahman cattle belonging to Tom Brinkworth are being moved from northern Queensland to Hay in western NSW.
The movement of large numbers of cattle through the state has caused quite a lot of discussion about the current use/ overuse of our Travelling Sock Reserve system and how priority is determined when a great deal of pressure is being applied by seasonal conditions.
There are many sides of the TSR story from all types of landholders, from great, it keeps the fire risks down, this is what they were intended for, we have used these reserves many times so now it’s someone else’s turn, to the very negative.
Egelabra is one of the iconic Australian Merino studs, and is renown for both the sheep it produces and the quality of the jackaroos it produces. I was lucky enough to score an invitation for a photoshoot for a magazine during crutching. Much of the original timberwork is still in working order, and even many of the original catches are still on the gates.
Jackaroos undertake formal training including TAFE for 1-3 years while at Egelabra. Many of them then move on to other enterprises, but come back later. Skills such as sheep handling, crutching and shearing are all part of the job for the team.
Its a very specialised industry, but definitely not a dying one as the number of racehorses and recreational horses continues to grow. Hot shoeing a horse looks dreadful, and it doesnt smell that great, but it doesnt hurt the horse at all.
A wheat farmers’ favourite time of year...the end of harvest
Cotton modules ready for processing. The money end of the season.
Most people dont realise the work that the Rural Fire Service does- attending rural house fires and car accidents, as well as normal fires. During the off season, most RFS brigades undertake pre-emptive Hazard Reduction burns to try to improve outcomes for the coming fire season. Not a pleasant task, but necessary and I joined our brigade a couple of times this spring just to capture what they did.
All images in this book are the property of SixtybyTwenty and may not be reproduced in any way without express written permission.