Beef Australia Expo (Rocky’s Beef Week) 2012

May 14th, 2012

Beef Week is over for another 3 years. This year a record crowd attended of almost 85,000 people, over 5 days.  Many Beef Australia visitors travelled from interstate and remote areas, and other countries.  Though the tradefair keeps me flat out for the duration, it’s immensely enjoyable.  I’m already looking forward to Beef Week in [...]

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Wongai Coal Mine, Princess Charlotte Bay, Cape York Peninsula

April 29th, 2012

A few years ago I wrote an R.M. William’s Outback Magazine ‘station story’ on a beautiful cattle station – Lilyvale.  Owned by the Shephard family for more than 80 years, it was the only cattle station that was a financially healthy pastoral business on the east coast of Cape York Peninsula.  Lilyvale has a relatively [...]

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Rocky’s Beef Week, May 2012

April 6th, 2012

Only a month to go until Rockhampton’s triennial Beef Week Exposition, running from 7th to the 12th of May, 2012. I’ll be there again this year, in the Walter Pearce Pavilion at tradefair stand number 45.  This year, not far from the restaurant – so I’ll be able to smell food, even though I won’t [...]

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Rural Exchange NZ – working on farms overseas

March 27th, 2012

Increasing numbers of New Zealanders are spending a year or two working on Australian cattle stations and farms, along with backpackers from many other countries. It’s a two way street – many Australians head to other countries to work in agricultural jobs also.  Rural Exchange New Zealand (RENZ)  has plenty of information on working on [...]

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Queensland Election – the reasons why

March 26th, 2012

If Australia doesn’t get a send-us-broke carbon tax due to a Federal ALP rethink, then NSW, Vic, ACT, Tas, SA, WA & NT business owners & employees & households & investors can thank Queensland. Odd that the Qld Labor party put the defeat down largely to the ‘poor explanation’ regarding the privatisation of publicly owned assets, [...]

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RMWAH’s purchase of Henbury Cattle Station, NT – on ABC Landline

March 23rd, 2012

R.M. Williams Agricultural Holdings (RMWAH) ’carbon farming’ plans for Henbury cattle Station will feature on ABC television’s Landline programme at noon this Sunday (25th March).  Landline is repeated at 11.00 each Monday morning. Henbury is a cattle station located in the Alice Springs region of the Northern Territory, and was purchased last year by RMWAH with the help [...]

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Phone problems & the NBN

March 23rd, 2012

Please note that our phone has not been working properly since Saturday 17th March (we can ring out, most of the time, but callers trying to ring us either get just a dial tone, crackling or other sounds – it doesn’t even go to Messagebank, which is a first). Telstra says the deadline for repair [...]

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AACo – Corella Lake on Brunette Downs

March 17th, 2012

It was nice to open up the  Townsville Bulletin today and see David Farley, CEO of the Australian Agricultural Company (AACo).  Because he is standing in front of one of my aerial photographs of Corella Lake, one of the large freshwater lakes on the AAco’s blue-ribbon cattle station in the Northern Territory, Brunette Downs. The [...]

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Honey production at the Rialto Intercontinental Hotel, Melbourne

March 17th, 2012

Built by Melbourne’s Grollo Family in partnership with St Martin’s Properties in 1982-6 and still in the top 5 tallest buildings in the southern hemisphere (and still well known for spectacular views), Melbourne’s Rialto Towers (43 & 63 storeys high – 253 metres) are located right in the heart of the Melbourne CBD, at 495 Collins Street (corner of King Street). [...]

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Fiona Lake on Twitter – FionaLakeAus

March 6th, 2012

Despite not posting any Twitter messages I started collecting Twitter followers, so thought I’d better send out the occasional tweet.  Follow my occasional twitter messages @ FionaLakeAus (the world is full of people called Fiona Lake). What inspired this sudden enthusiasm?  One of my LinkedIn contacts sent a tweet about a possum that broke into [...]

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