How a Pomm came to Aus

I remember when I was 14. I was asked "What do you want to do when you are older?"

After a moments thought I said "I want to chase cattle across the Australian outback."

It was rarely thought of again as a goal, but more of a dream of escape from the dull monotonous life I found myself living after I left school. There is only so much excitement to be gained from the life of a qualified administrator.

It would be ten years before I found my dream to be a tangible possibility. To which I can thank the economic downturn in 2008. I had been working in the house building industry. When houses aren't selling, the company's not making money, and staff become surplus to requirement.

Thankful of the fact I was living in a house share, I was able to dream big and take my redundancy payout to touch the stars.

Within a little over a month of leaving work I found myself on a flight to Australia. I had found a gap year program that provided the "outback work experience." So with Queensland as my destination, I took off with a churning tummy of nerves and excitement.

The program I was heading to, was designed as a five day crash course on how to work on an Australian cattle station. We were introduced to the basics of Australian horseback riding, ag-bikes (that's the two wheeled motorbike kind), quad bikes (the four wheeled kind). We used those skills to go out and muster cattle and bring them into the yards where we were taught how to draft them. Catch and bring down little calfs, run cattle through a race to the crush where we were taught how to tag, brand, vaccinate and castrate them.

We were also taught the basics of tractor operating, chainsaw maintenance and use, and of course fencing.

After a five day crash course we were handed a certificate to say we'd passed, a shot of vodka to celebrate and sent out into the world to jobs they had helped us procure in the 'outback'.

That's when I found myself crossing from one side of Australia to the other. I ended up at little place called Grasspatch, WA. But that's a story for another day.