424-26 Louisa Downs Station Homestead. 90x50cm acrylic on canvas

Many of us grew up on cattle stations 

Sometimes he had smaller houses near the main homestead or sometimes we camped around the station helping our fathers with the station work.

The stations are really big, so we had to camp around the place to get work done before we could ride and walk back to the homestead.

The homestead had running water that used a windmill as a pump to draw it out of the earth. 

We learned to ride horses, muster the cattle and look after the animals to keep them healthy. We would also hunt for some of our tucker - kangaroos, goanna, bush turkey and rabbits. 

We camped out most of the time because the stations are really big and take a long time to move around on a horse. 

Some younger men still do this, but not so many as before because the stations are now using helicopter mustering and other newer ways of working the cattle.