TALES FROM TRAPROCK FLATS By Judy Barnet
Who’d have thought it could be so easy? I was dreading the upcoming annual roundup and loading of the goats. For once, there is no Dad and Dave story to go with this event. Despite my parting instructions to Dear Richie as I left for work on Saturday – to prepare the yards first thing, ready for Sunday – I arrived home to find that “other” jobs had apparently been more important and that we didn’t have anywhere near enough shade cloth to go around the cattle yards which would prevent the goats from going straight through the bars.
It was a scene reminiscent of the Pied Piper the next morning as Richie opened the gate in the hope the goats might stroll through for a pick of the fresher grass. Next thing you know, the goats were up at the house and then they followed Richie down to the yards as though he was the figure of legend.
Monica and Marnie Hereford were also in tow. Richie’s 60kg plus bucket of pellets proved no match for their combined bulk of 600kg and they pushed him along as he made his way down to the yards. I didn’t have time to grab the camera. With the goats now in the non-goat proof yards the next step was to quickly build a race with some more panels, throw the crate on the LandCruiser and move the portable loading ramp into place – all without the goats getting out. Would you believe it, all went very much to plan with only one hairy escapee! The goats moved easily into the crush where we sorted them and sent the unlucky ones up the ramp.
“It’s a baby tiger!” I shouted at Richie as a golden striped cat-sized animal abandoned some roadkill and shot into the bush, all in the blink of an eye. I still don’t know what it was that we had both seen just before Pikes Creek, returning home from our delivery to the abattoir with the aforementioned goats, but the picture in my head is very clear. I would have said it was a quoll but it had black stripes, unlike the white spots on a quoll. I guess we will never know, but I certainly have never seen anything like it before in my life.
The sheep we put on our neighbouring property have been content and well-behaved, however, the lambs we had weaned keep getting back into our home paddock, cunningly going up the loading ramp and launching themselves off the end, then heading straight up to the house to look for grain. Since this escape route was blocked, they have somehow found another way, one which we haven’t yet discovered. First it was just five lambs but those five went back and told their mates and now there are fifteen!
I had arranged to visit the Highfields Pioneer Village on Australia Day to provide the commentary for the sheep shearing. I am not confident at all when it comes to public speaking. It is definitely outside of my comfort zone but apparently there was no-one else to do the job.
Adding to the pressure was that it would be a really special shearing event, with the unveiling of a memorial for the late Peter Harvey who was one of the founding members of the pioneer village. I mentioned Peter a couple of months ago and his connection with Terrick Terrick Merino Stud, one of the largest in Queensland at the time.
When making enquiries with the pioneer village, it appeared that the sheep chosen for shearing on the day would be Dorper crosses. There was no way I was going to let that happen, so I made a quick call to agent Ross from McDougalls and he was able to source me a couple of Merino wethers, and beauties they were too!
Dear Richie and I set off for Highfields on 25 January, which happened to coincide with the pig and calf sale. We arrived just in time for the calf sale which consisted of seven only head of calves. I hadn’t planned on buying but when I put my hand out to a lovely red Brahman x calf in the pen he licked me. I didn’t expect that – he was ready to be weaned and quiet to boot. So now we have Jerry. I just need to buy Tom to keep him company.
I somehow stumbled through the shearing commentary after making a desperate phone call to Warwick Shearing identity, Danny Aspinall, to receive blow by blow instructions! By the time the third shearing came around I was getting a bit better.
Bye for now.
