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Anecdotal stories, observations,comments and discussion pieces as insights into living in Rural Australia

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Living Rural - August 2007

It's a lamb's life

August 26th 2007 07:42

Safe with Mum (New Zealand ewe and lambs in Highlands)

It’s that time of the year when lambs begin to learn what life is all about. Our lamb has spent the first two months of his life enjoying the warmth of his mother’s milk, the protection of her body on a cold windy day and the joy of skipping across the paddocks, having races and jumping off logs with friends.

Then one day a motor bike and a couple of excited dogs disturb the peace and it takes all his strength just to keep up with Mum as she races towards the open gate with all the other Mums. Soon he finds himself confined in a muddy yard where white coats soon become grubby and it is easy to be rolled over in the mud or to lose Mum for some time. Soon the lamb finds that he has been separated from his Mother for the day. It could be that the farmer needs to crutch* her and drench* her. If that is the case it is only a matter of a few hours before mother and child are re-united – and a more pleasant time can be had when it comes to that next feed – without the smelly dags!
However, it is not long in our young lamb’s life that he will be the one getting the attention. Tagging*, tailing*, inoculating* and mulesing* could be a possibility. It is not a pleasant day in our young lamb’s life, and the farmer would give anything not to have to do these things to his young charges. However, just as a human mother knows that immunization is an essential part of ensuring her child will remain healthy, so the farmer knows that these different operations will keep his sheep in good health.

Soon our lamb is release and races from the scene – his only desire - to return to his mother’s side. Once he is returned to the paddock our lamb is a little older and wiser – but is soon racing across the paddocks with his friends and seeing who can climb the highest on the rock pile. – Until shearing some months later…. but that’s another story.

Farm activities: Many performed for the prevention of disease and fly strike.
*Crutch: Shearing around the tail area to remove dags (poo) so that flies do not lay eggs there –causing fly strike. If there is already fly strike, the wool is removed and the area treated.
*Drench: giving sheep medicine for a variety of worm or other disease control. Done at least twice a year.
*Tagging: a plastic label is put on the animal’s ears – to identify farmer’s ownership. In WA different colours depict a different year – for example this year- 2007 the colour is blue. The tag is put on different ears, depending on the sex of the lamb (left ear for wethers, right ear for ewes.).
*Tailing – removing the tail either with a ring or a gas knife. Again necessary to prevent fly strike.
*Inoculating: for pulpy kidney and other diseases.
*Mulseing – the removal of a small circle of skin around the anus so that wool does not grow there – thus vastly reducing fly strike in the future. This has received much publicity by some radical animal liberationists. Most farmers would give it up tomorrow if they could be guaranteed that their sheep would not be attacked and eaten alive by flies and maggots. But until science discovers a good alternative the operation needs to continue.

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Posted By: bumpkin - Category: farming, observations

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Pondering our past - and future in Country Museum Parks

August 18th 2007 10:29

Pondering the past

What is this fascination of old rusty equipment from agricultural pursuits of the past or the machinery from saw mills or old dairies? Why do we spend hours standing in front of old steam trains or cars from the 1920’s pretending to remember things that were not our memories but the memories of our fore-fathers? What is it that drives people into yet another early settler’s kitchen to see yet another fire place and hanging black pots?
There are those who spend their whole lives trying to recreate the atmosphere of the early settlers in country towns – with their slab bush school, doctor’s surgery, police lock-up and “Mrs Jackson’s” house. These are often set among little bush walks, streams and wooden bridges, labeled trees, hand made wooden benches and picnic gazebos.
But there is nothing romantic about not having anywhere to be treated for a broken leg. There is nothing romantic about being crushed between a goods train and a timber log or several falling wheat bags. There is nothing romantic about being thrown from a flighty horse or being lost in the bush. There is nothing virtuous about slaving over a wood fire on a hot day in an iron hut. And what child would enjoy learning in a classroom that had cold wind whistling through the cracks all winter. These stories hold the attention of tourists and locals alike when they make the obligatory visit to the museum park.

air conditioned classroom

Do we go because we are humbled by the way people lived and survived and do we admire their fortitude? But do we really believe that the people of that day – who, let’s face it, weren’t comparing our “now” with their lives, were unhappy, felt deprived and considered their life only held unbearable hardships?
Perhaps we visit these places because deep down we know we don’t live in a vacuum. Are we trying to get into the mind of those of the past, in the hope that they had the answer to the meaning of life? What happened to our parents and our grandparents shaped their attitudes and their values, and these have been passed on to us – whether we liked it or not.
If that is the case - what will be the thoughts for those who, in the future, stand in front of a restored plasma TV screen, DVD player or mock-leather furniture or when children climb all over a tractor with satellite tracking devices? Will they be wondering what we were thinking – what were our values and priorities. Will the future generations be bemoaning the fact that we did not make the most of the technology we had? Will they conclude that we must have been unhappy because we were so insular in our lifestyles and spent so little time doing things with others in the community? Will they wonder why, with so many ways of communicating, we still didn’t really understand our neighbours? Will they be looking at the waste we created and be cursing us for how we had it so good and ruined the environment for them?
We can be sure that how we lived our days right now will be studied and scrutinized and probably judged even more harshly than we view the past. And what our attitudes, values and priorities are today will somehow rub off on the children of today and tomorrow.
So the question still needs to be asked. “Are you and I making the world a better place?” Or will all we leave behind be rusting cars, mercury leaking light globes and toxic plastic waste dumps. I hope we can do better than that. As the old hymn says “You in your small corner and I in mine.”

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Posted By: bumpkin - Category: farming, people, observations

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Multi-cultural living

August 3rd 2007 01:28

Sharing Culture - photo from "The Kodja Place

All Australians are migrants – including the Aboriginal people, but their's is a level of occupation of thousands of years compared to the meagre 200 years of European and other nationalities.
While there are people within all communities that forget this fact and treat their British heritage as a class above the rest, it is time that the recognition of the diversity, even within a rural community needs to be acknowledged.
As I know my community, I will use it as an example. When British settlers arrived in this area they shared it with the Noongar people (Aboriginal name for our local people) for nearly seventy years. However even then, there were others wandering through the area. Then in the 1890’s things began to change. Italian settlers began to arrive. This population increased early in the new century after the Italian Consul visited the areas and recommended it to his people. We have a great local story of the Italians and Noongar people working together – and teaching each other swear words in each other language – no doubt to try out on their British bosses! Slowly these Italians were able to buy their own farms and build a Catholic Church to give them spiritual and social identity.
Other early workers to the area were some Chinese who were employed by a large Estate to clear the land. There are still remnants from their settlement and a dam called China Dam which is on the Municipal Inventory as a place of significance.
While they did not stay, other people from Asia have become part of the community, including three or four women from the Philippians.
There are people from the Netherlands, Germany, parts of Russia, Hungary and Scandinavia – all having to learn English and somehow fit in the community away from others of their cultural group.
In our town the most recent group of migrants are Maori New Zealanders. They have come with their families to fill in the employment needs as shearers and in other work. Several have intermarried with Noongar people and others and are beginning to become part of the community as well.
Other communities have different groups – our neighbouring town has a large population of people from Christmas Island who have built their own mosque and share their culture in a festival each year. Broome also has a festival celebrating their Chinese heritage.
Why do I write about such things? Perhaps it is a concern I have that there is a perception among some policy makers that in most rural towns only Aboriginal or people of British origin are in residence- that there is not the diversity of cultures and a need for suitable infrastructural assistance for these people. Just as we all still need to learn the cultural mores of our Noongar people, we also need for our education system, medical system, law enforcement officers and churches to be educated in the cultural mores of other groups – so that we can work and live with understanding towards one other. Perhaps this recognition will help to break down the real prejudices that still exist in some pockets of the community.
However developing personal relationships and friendships could do more to unite any community. So, when we hear the old “them and us” comments we can confidently stand up and say “You are talking about my friend”

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Posted By: bumpkin - Category: town life, people, events, observations

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