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'Life as an Australian Horseman' & 'A Million Acre Masterpiece' contain hundreds of fascinating photos of Australian outback cattle stations.
Authentically Australian, these unique coffee-table books are enjoyed by every age and people from all walks of life. These books are especially appreciated by people who are hard to buy gifts for. The first edition of 'A Million Acre Masterpiece' sold out but it has been reprinted due to popular demand, and the sequel 'Life as an Australian Horseman' has only just been published.
Order your memorable gifts for someone special today. There are good discounts for orders of 2 or more books & all orders sent overseas come with extra items. And orders for 4 or more books receive free extra items - a brand new greeting card and calico carrybag (brand new design), screen-printed with photos taken on NT & WA cattle stations.
News
The office was closed for annual holidays for 3 weeks during January, but reopened on Wednesday 27th January. At present I am working my way through a large number of orders that were placed in time for the Australia Day's annual prize draws and the special 'office closed' prize draw (all will be drawn in February, when all the administration is up-to-date). If you ordered in January but have not yet received your parcel, delivery won't be too far off. Orders for 2 or more books, received while the office was closed, are also sent out with a free screen-printed calico carrybag and free greeting card (usually only sent with orders of 4 or more books).
BRAND NEW BOOK - JUST PUBLISHED! 'Life as an Australian Horseman'
'Life as an Australian Horseman' is now available - order online for prize draw entry. For more book information, visit the Book Contents page.
To help keep the cost of books as low as possible, 'Life as an Australian Horseman' is only available via direct purchase. Read some of the messages people have sent me about the books 'A Million Acre Masterpiece' and 'Life as an Australian' on the Testimonials page. For example:
"I collect books on ranching and cattle when I can, where I can, and if I can. Your last book was one of the best, if not the best coffee table variety I have ever seen. Best wishes to you and yours down under. John Newcomb, Texan." (Texas, USA)
Please note: Most of the website was updated just prior to Christmas, to include information on the new book. A thorough website review will be undertaken before Easter however if you find any information discrepancies in the meantime, please don't hesitate to contact me to clarify queries and advise corrections required.
Australian Cattle Stations & the World's Beef Industry
Beef cattle are raised in many different countries of the world. The cattle stations (‘ranches’) that cover the largest area and run the most cattle are located in specific regions of North and South America and in central and northern Australia.
Brazil is currently the world’s largest exporter of beef with Australia second, followed by Argentina, Canada and New Zealand. The U.S. is the largest importer of beef because although they produce a lot America is also the largest consumer of beef.
World production, exports and imports vary constantly due to climatic conditions and diseases such as BSE (‘Mad Cow’ disease; Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) and FMD (Foot and Mouth Disease).
In land area terms the largest cattle stations (ranches) are found in Australia. This is primarily because it is the driest and oldest continent on earth and sparsely settled, so large expanses of land are needed to support sufficient numbers of cattle to earn a reasonable living (transport costs are very high). These huge properties are located in relatively remote areas. In land-area terms, both the largest cattle station in the world and largest sheep station in the world are located in northern South Australia, the driest state in Australia.
Livestock on these cattle stations are born, raised and fattened with very little impact on the natural environment because they are on native grassland in huge paddocks that can measure many kilometres across. Due to the distinct wet/dry season there is relatively little trouble with diseases and parasites so scant chemical treatment is required. Tick-free regions such as Queensland's Channel Country are naturally organic, and have always been so. Australia's northern beef industry has relatively little impact on the natural environment and is arguably the most environmentally friendly farming industry in Australia - and an undeniably very efficient producer of protein.
Increasing numbers of young cattle are trucked hundreds of kilometres away to feedlots and finished on grain, and in times of drought these cattle stations start to offload cattle quickly to well grassed country elsewhere, feedlots, saleyards or direct to meatworks.
The majority of the very largest cattle stations in the world only run cattle, they don’t grow crops or have any other sources of income, apart from some in America that are dependent on oil for profitability.
Cattle Station Words and Expressions in other Languages
In Australia the largest properties, which run cattle only, are called cattle ‘stations’ (‘ranches’ is the American and Canadian term). Smaller properties and those with other types of livestock or crops are referred to as ‘farms’, however farms in Australia are often thousands of acres in size - far larger than the equivalent business in densely populated countries such as England and France.
In Mexico and South American countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador common terms for these large grazing properties are ‘estancia’ (Spanish), ‘fazenda’ (Portuguese), ‘fundo’, ‘ranchos’ and ‘hacienda’. 'Station' and ‘run’ are terms commonly used in New Zealand. For more details refer to the 'translation' pages.
Oddly enough Australia doesn’t have a specific term for the owner/manager of a cattle station. ‘Ranchers’ own ranches, ‘rancheros’ own ‘ranchos’, ‘hacendados’ own haciendas, 'fazendeiros' own fazendas, etc, but ‘stationers’ does not of course sound right! A ‘cow cocky’ is the owner/manager of a smaller cattle operation, but this term also carries the implication of 'down-at-heel battler’ - hardly relevant to cattle stations worth millions of dollars.
The terms used to describe people who work with cattle and stockhorses are even more varied and many of the differences between the meanings of these words are only understood within the cattle industry, not the general community. American, Howard W. Marshall summed up the significance of language beautifully in his interesting book ‘ Buckaroo: views of a Western Way of Life’: “Knowledge and use of ‘buckeroo’ separates insiders from outsiders ”.
In the same way, a genuine understanding and comfortable use of the word ‘ringer’ separates central and northern Australian ‘insiders from outsiders’. And referring to someone who works as a stockman on an Australian cattle station as a ‘cowboy’ is like stamping your forehead with ‘I really don’t know what I’m talking about’. For more information regarding genuine Australian outback words and expressions refer to the glossary in ‘ A Million Acre Masterpiece ’.
Cattle Station Photographs and Writing; What Do I Do?
I publish books and produce cards, limited edition fine-art, magazine articles and advertising images from the best of the thousands of cattle station images taken since 1984.
Cattle station locations visited range from Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula, Gulf and Channel Country, through the Northern Territory's Barkly Tableland, northern Alice Springs Region, Victoria River District and marine plains to Western Australia’s East and West Kimberley Regions. I only visit regions where cattle stations commonly still use stockhorses, which means I do not visit central Australia (around Alice Springs) and south of the Kimberley region of Western Australia, where almost all stations now use motorbikes and aircraft exclusively (no horses) for mustering. Quite a few of the northern cattle stations measure 10,000 square kilometres or more. Properties this size usually run between 20,000 and 60,000 head of cattle each, depending on the carrying capacity of the land and seasonal conditions.
Cattle stations in these remote areas have their own unique culture that is rapidly changing, before many people are even aware that it exists.
The Australian merino wool industry has an equally fascinating culture and history. Unfortunately wool producers have been through some very tough times during the last few decades and sadly sheep have now disappeared from many areas where world-famous Merino wool has been grown for more than a century. Sheep numbers have even diminished greatly or disappeared entirely from some of the most famous Riverina Merino sheep studs, immortalised in songs such as 'Click go the shears'. This is largely due to ownership changing from family to corporate ownership, and the chasing of the higher financial returns that have been available from irrigated crops in recent years (despite droughts), plus a reduction in staff numbers (successful sheep management is more intensive and requires more vigilance and skill than that of cattle management).
The majority of wool producing enterprises are located in more closely settled parts of Australia. Because of this relative proximity to larger towns and cities the wool industry has received a lot more attention from photographers and writers over the years, and more importantly, a lot of this attention has been from photographers and writers who do have a genuine understanding of their subject (they are not just outsiders looking in, as has too often been the case regarding northern cattle stations).
As I have a chronic time shortage it has been necessary to make difficult choices, so a conscious decision has been made to concentrate on the field that still has a far greater lack of accurate information and understanding images; Australia’s largest and most remote cattle stations.
I like to update this website regularly however being a one-person show it’s impossible to plough through the paperwork as quickly as would be ideal. If you come back for a visit and nothing appears to have changed please remember that this usually means there’s actually more going on behind the scenes, not less. Please do come back for a look at a later date or drop me a line.
If you discover any problems or errors let me know. The website has grown into such a monster that a complete review takes many weeks to complete, so this only occurs on an annual basis. Minor updates and additions occur on a weekly basis. Add this website to your list of favourites to make revisiting easier.
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