When we moved to Australia from UK in 1980, we knew we wanted to settle in the Forbes area of Central West NSW. We lived in a caravan for a few weeks before finding a house to rent about 12km out of town. Frank worked for a local spray operator so I was left at home, in a new country with a 3 month old baby. The first time I ever saw drovers was when they camped outside our fence line. I was beside myself – no mobile phones then of course, so I couldn’t ring Frank. All I knew was that on the other side of my fence were hundreds of cattle and men on horses, making camp! I felt rather foolish when Frank finally arrived home and explained the whole droving thing to me. I grew to love seeing these mobs grazing the ‘long paddock’ and watching the men and women in their akubras and oilskin coats making camp.
When we bought our beloved Wodalla, it was a dream come true, despite the drought and the dust. We had bought an irrigation property, to insure against drought, in our naivety we didn’t realise that when the dams get low there is no irrigation water! Eight years later we had no choice but to sell up and it broke our hearts. I miss those days, the smell of the Blue Gums in the heat of a summer’s day, the red and gold sunsets setting fire to the hills and the starry, starry nights.
My heart still breaks when I see farmers having to leave the land, their homes, livelihoods, way of life. I know their pain.
It is a privilege to still work with the agricultural community and to support Australian small businesses.
by Rosemary Williamson