If ever there’s a time to prove God, it is now. We are now living on a cattle property in Queensland. We came here eight years ago. And now, we need out.
I remember being by the fireplace in the old home and Hubby showing me the paper clipping of a property for sale. As I looked at it I said, “No I don’t want to go there”. Having lived there previously I had no desire to go back there again.
However Hubby was working in the mines and it would not be so far for him to travel home, so I consented to go and have a look. We did so with short notice to the Real Estate and then made an offer that very day which was accepted.
It proved to be a good move at the time. The first year was our best year and our steers did brilliantly but that was to be the only year they did well. We learnt that heifers did the best on the country. We were new to this type of farming where your window of opportunity to grow out cattle was from September to April and that was if you had good rains. The second year we went into a very severe drought with the waters drying up in the horse paddock and the swamp area. We lost a young horse and I remember a maiden heifer who went down in the mud beside the swamp trying to calve. Unfortunately we found her too late.
The winter months were bitterly cold and I learnt very quickly that old Queenslanders are freezing in winter and like a fiery furnace in summer. There were nights in winter when I would lay awake listening to the rain on the tin roof and wonder how my horses and cattle were doing in these unbearable conditions.
Gardening was an art in itself. Coming from a warm temperate climate and no frosts, I could grow almost anything. I soon learnt that morning after morning of frosts only certain plants would survive and they had to be covered.
The next year was a very challenging year healthwise for me. After a few bouts of unusual pain whilst riding and working cattle, I learnt upon doctor’s examination that I was having angina. Having had a very healthy life and virtually no episodes in hospital, I was in for some very big changes. After my angiogram and a stent inserted in Brisbane, I returned home with Hubby to the farm. My sister came and stayed with me for a time. This helped immensely as she took over the home duties. Unfortunately, I had a major reaction to the statin drugs they placed me on and sustained what was termed the liver itch. It took me at least 12 months to recover from this. Through all this, I battled depression and then suffered some anxiety. I never took any medication for this but learnt natural ways on how to cope. I began to work with my horses again and with Hubby’s help continued to break them in. This gave me a lot of pleasure and still does.
We decided to purchase another property on the coast. It had been flood damaged but we saw potential for expanding our cattle enterprise. This was a good decision but we did not forsee the fact that Hubby would lose his job. He along with hundreds of other men was made redundant. This all happened within a 24 hour period. We were hopeful that he would get another job and so he began to apply. He was short listed for 2 and travelled hundreds of miles for the interviews only to be told some time later that he was unsuccessful. As time went on, we realised that he was not going to be able to land a miner’s job.
At this time our youngest son was still with us so he and Hubby began to cut fenceposts off our timber property. We also delivered them using the cattle truck. One load was too heavy for the truck and it wrecked the springs so this put the truck off the road for a while. Cutting posts worked well and there was some wages to be made but our son felt that he was not cut out for this job and wanted to go to the big city. We never wanted to hold him back so we encouraged him to go.
About this time, we sold the front part of one of our coastal properties to downsize and then returned back to the old farm. There was a span of time of approximately three months after we returned that we realized that all our maiden heifers had been stolen off our timber property. This was just as the cattle prices started to rise. In our estimate, it was approximately 120 head. All of our cattle were branded and all of them had NLIS tags. We called the stock squad in to investigate. In hindsight, we were disappointed in their efforts. They were polite and listened and documented all the information but not a lot happened. They sought permission to go on to the property and stayed beside our old hut overnight. They managed to break a window in the old hut somehow. When we asked about them riding out and queried how far they had ridden, it seemed that they had not gotten anywhere near the boundaries.
After they had been, we got back one heifer and one cow (minus her calf) from two different neighbours. Hubby was very angry over the fact of our cattle just disappearing into thin air and he rode for miles and miles and miles to try and track the thieves. We knew that we must forgive and forgive we did but it was quite a journey.
Now we are 24 months on from this journey. It should get easier but unfortunately we could not pick up from this devastating blow. Because of debt, we are forced to sell this property that we have. Nearly all of our machinery is broken down not because we’re too lazy to fix it but we don’t have the money to do so. We are at the point where we have got very limited cashflow only just enough to continue to pay some of the bills. We don’t have enough for personal items and groceries. I have had to ask for charity and this sometimes has been done in tears. People are very, very kind but it is within the heart of a true farmer to ‘do for themselves’ because basically, we are just hard workers. We care about our animals before ourselves. We are people of credibility who want to pay our bills.
Yes, we battle depression. We have our good days and our bad days but we won’t lie down or ‘chuck the towel in’. We’ll use that towel to wipe the sweat off our face and get going again. Yes, we have pride. We don’t want Joe Blow down the road who’s driving the latest model Landcruiser to know we’re doing it hard but if we stop and think we realize that he’s too busy competing with others to notice what we’re doing.
When we get through this, somehow, some way we want to pay back all those kind people who have helped us. They are the true champions. And maybe one day we would like to think that we can support someone else who is doing it hard.
We are unashamedly Christian people and some might say ‘where is your God’ but we don’t blame God for what has happened. The Bible says that ‘the rain comes on the just and the unjust’. We suffer the good times and bad just like everyone else but in the midst of all this we have an unshakable foundation who is Jesus Christ.