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About Fiona Lake

Springvale Station

I grew up as Fiona Mckindlay on a wheat-sheep farm on the New South Wales side of the Murray River. As long as I can remember I have been interested in art, craft and design; agriculture and the environment; language, history and the differences between cultures. What I do now combines all these interests in a very satisfying way. My husband Mark and I have spent many years living and working on a variety of places spread through three states and now we live in Townsville with our young sons. I don't belong in town at all but make an effort to appreciate the advantages. For example a daily newspaper and a daily mail service are aspects of town life that we make the most of. They are the sorts of things taken for granted unless you have spent some years without them.

What used to be commonly known as 'the bush' is now usually referred to by those living on the coast as 'the outback'. Many people say you can't define it. But to me 'the outback' is a place where you can't see from one fence to another. Where all you can hear is the sound of the wind in the trees or grass. Where you look around and can't see the 'hand of man' anywhere. Where it would have looked the same, more or less, 100 or 200 years ago. Despite what many believe most extensive grazing properties are very well managed and there are few if any detrimental effects on the environment. Extensive grazing often has little or no impact on native wildlife, in fact sometimes birds and animals benefit (eg. from a reliable water supply) and increase in numbers. By comparison, there is enormous, ongoing environmental damage in our cities and native wildlife is virtually extinct in urban areas (apart from a handful of bird species, some small lizard species and possums).

An Interesting Letter

A letter from one of my forebears on my maternal grandmother's side, Ellen Hurst, to a friend in England in 1864, is interesting reading. The references to horses and the fact that 'large sheep runs' were already referred to as 'stations' is particularly interesting:

'My dear friend,

I hope this finds you all in very good health. I am glad to say we are all well and doing well, all unmarried and living together. My sister Fanny has been out about 12 months now. We like this country very much and I am sure I would not like living in England now. At the same time I hope of coming to see it once more.We have a great many cattle, horses and sheep. Sheep pay a great deal more than cattle or horses. If we had had sheep when we first came we should now have been independent. We cleared 500 pounds the first year with the sheep, so you can see how well sheep pay. We have a very large run for the sheep, it is called a station. My brother Henry worked on the station when first he came to this country. He little thought then it would ever be our own. He is not married. I often think what a good thing it was for us when we came out here, but I can assure you we have, all the family, worked very hard to get what we have.

We have a horse each to ride to church and to go to see our friends, as they live a long way from us. My brothers have a great many horses to ride after the cattle and a great many dogs, some to herd the sheep, and some to go after the cattle and others to hunt kangaroos. Everything here is very much like England. We have a great deal of fruit. We give a great deal to the pigs. Our peach trees are as large as the apple trees at home.

You must wonder how mother has stood it so well. She was a first class sailor. Better than any of us. The sea was beautiful. I would like to go over it again. We did not like leaving the ship, perhaps we were all a little afraid. Mother enjoys very good health perhaps it is because she is happy. We are still living with bush all around. We have no neighbours, we are twenty miles from Melbourne. I often ride on horseback to Melbourne and back again in the same day. People ride horses a good deal out here. My dear friend I must now bid you goodbye, hoping to hear from you soon.

Ever your affectionate friend,
Sarah Ellen Hurst’

Hurstbridge, near Melbourne, is named after the Hursts, and the family has quite a few photographs of the original homesteads and apple orchards developed by forebears.

Agricultural communities all over the world have a lot in common but unfortunately they also share the problems. Rural communities everywhere are rapidly undergoing fundamental, irreversible changes or they are under huge pressure trying to control or resist these changes. This pressure is exacerbated by extremist animal rights groups who are apparently completely out of touch with the practical realities of life and natural life cycles. I am passionate about prompting people to think about who grows the food they eat and where it comes from. It is an important responsibility to provide useful and accurate information to increase understanding and encourage respect and maintenance of a healthy, evolving rural culture, worldwide.

After oxygen and water, food is the most critical element we need to survive. We must look after those who grow our own food, if for no other reason than to ensure our own survival.

The photographs and information on this website exists thanks to the station managers and owners that have allowed me to visit the properties they are responsible for. Thank you to everyone who has helped me to record station life and thank you to all those who do so in future.

The generation of cattlemen and women in their 70s today were born at the same time as the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), in the depression years when wood-fired steam engines were pumping up bore water in remote areas. They went to school around the time of the Second World War and began work when bronco horses were used to brand calves, packhorses carted the camp gear around and drovers took weeks to deliver fat cattle to saleyards and abattoirs. Increasingly trucks were used to cart cattle instead of drovers and the beef crash of the 1970s had a lasting effect on station employment. The Brucellosis and Tuberculosis Eradication Campaign (BTEC) helped increase helicopter and motorbike mustering during the 1980s. Satellites beamed television into remote areas in the late 1980s and the development of reliable telephone and internet services through the 1990s brought significant social changes. Camping out is now becoming increasingly uncommon, windmills are disappearing in favour of submersible pumps and timber cattle yards are being replaced by steel.

Australians born in the 1920s and 1930s (as my parents were) are unique and have recently been nicknamed 'frugals' due to their capacity to work hard, save hard, their sense of community responsibility and stoicism. They are a generation that will be sorely missed, both in rural and urban areas.

I've never been interested in museums, sorry but they bore me to tears, I find living, breathing culture and practical skills and knowledge infinitely more interesting. Theoretically it is impossible to predict with certainty what changes tomorrow will bring, but the changes in the northern pastoral industry have been massive during the last 30 years. Many of the photographs I have taken have been irreplaceable just a year or two later. We must learn to value more highly what we have today.

Some of the links to online publicity & stories etc:

website by city of cairns.com