Farm Life - Jamestown, Australia
Jamestown, Australia
We stopped in Brisbane over night, before getting a 06:00 flight to Adelaide. Adelaide was nothing too spectacular and we spent most of our day in a coffee shop. As the bus to Jamestown wasn't until 16:00, we looked around the city market and some of the shops before getting on the small mini bus bound for Jamestown. The weather was really dull and rained most of the four hour journey. On arrival we realised we had driven through this small town on our way up to Darwin! We were introduced to Graham, the farmer and Charlotte, an English backpacker also on the farm to do her regional work. We have spent ten weeks in Jamestown, and it has been such a great experience, one we will both never forget. We have made some great friends and done so many things we would never have the opportunity to do without the need to get our visa. Below is a few stories to let you know what we have been up to; Jamestown is a small 'town' (we would refer to it as a village) with a population of about 1500. The farm is about 2km out of the centre and most days we are asked to run errands which involve going to the butchers, Foodland (supermarket) or to Elders - the suppliers for all farm chemicals or tools. The town has three pubs (which is far too many) Jon works at The Commercial and Sam at The Railway. Both are ‘old men’ pubs and some nights we might serve only 4 or 5 customers, which makes for easy work. The people of Jamestown are extremely friendly and on the few occasions where we have ventured out for an event or simply by chatting to people in the pub us English backpackers have become famous- even making it into the local newspaper. Stories travel fast and people seem to know more about what we have been up to than we do ourselves. The weather here has been a mixture, on our first night we were welcomed with torrential rain and a thunderstorm which caused a power cut. Towards the end of our visit we worked from 6am until midday on days where the weather hit the late 20’s early 30’s. THE SHEEP Graham has around 6,000 sheep which grave over the 15,000 acres of land. The farm mainly has Merino sheep, although they also have a few SAMMs (South African Merino Mutton) and Cross Breeds. Over the ten weeks we were here it was spring and so we were lucky enough to see the process of new born lambs being born, older lambs being weaned from their mothers and finally lambs being taken to market to sell for meat or for breeding purposes. As neither of us had ever really been around sheep before this experience, the first few days were a bit of a shock to the system. On day one we were told to be up for 6am for a sheep delivery- within minutes of the delivery Jon was on his first mission (of many) to catch a runaway sheep and whilst I stood (far far away) and looked on I wondered what we had let ourselves in for! Ten weeks on, where as I do feel I have more of an understanding of the sheep- to the point where I understand that if I want them to turn left out of a paddock, they are going to turn right and then run as fast as they can- I am still uncomfortable in their company, particularly if I am in close proximity to it and it is looking at me directly in the eye. Jon however is a complete natural and feels at ease with even the biggest, angriest Ram. Drafting is used to separate sheep into groups. During our ten weeks drafting was used at least once a week for many things including separating ewes from their lambs, to weigh sheep (either for meat or for market) and to separate sheep of differing breeds. This is done by running a big mob of sheep from one pen, down a raceway which has a swing gate at the end and then individually drafting off the sheep into separate pens. As Grahams land is such a large area, many hours have been spent mustering and moving sheep from one paddock to another. This is done so that the sheep have a different or better source of food. To muster the sheep one of the three dogs is used and either a ute or if the land is particularly rocky, Jon rides a motorbike to round all the sheep up and push them from where they are to where they need to be. We often injected sheep with medicine to prevent infections or diseases, as well as treatment for Pink Eye and Blow Fly when required and also, worm the sheep with medicine which needs to be given orally via a syringe gun- sheep bite too! Lamb weaning happened during our seventh week at the farm, it was really hard work. By early November most of the lambs are old enough to be weaned from their mother, those that aren’t will stay with the ewes. The weaning process is firstly an injection called Weaner Guard which is basically like a booster to keep the lambs in good health. The lambs are then drafted off from the ewes, which as you can imagine is not a nice or easy process. The noise is so loud as the mothers call for their babies and visa versa. The bleating of sheep is completely unique to any other and so a call from either mum or baby and the other will instantly know it belongs to them. Towards the end of our stay it was time to reap the crops. We helped to move hay bails from nearby paddocks to the storage sheds at Grahams. Jon used the tractor to load up the bails onto the back of the Utes and the girls drove them back to the farm where Graham took them off. We also assisted Graham to service his Header (Combine Harvester) which took around 5 weeks to complete! we were sick of it by the end but me and Jon both got to drive it so that made up for the unscrewing and rescrewing of hundreds of nuts and bolts! As spring turned into summer the shearing season began. We were on the farm for a number of days when shearers would come to the farm and shear hundreds of sheep a day. Shearing days meant precision timing of Morning Tea, Lunch and Afternoon Smoke-o and all hands on deck in the shearing shed. We would help with the clearing of the board, during/ after the sheep is/ has been Shaun. Ensuring dags are separate from pieces and picking up the fleece (wish is more difficult that it sounds!) and throwing it onto a large rotating table before brushing away any left over wool on the floor- all in just seconds before the shearer brings out the next sheep. On the table the wool is skirted, removing all the wool from the edges which has dirt or is in bad condition. The wool is then classes depending on its quality and length, this is sorted and bailed. The bails are sold depending on the weight in total and quality of the wool inside. MARKET Jamestown have a Market every second Thursday. During our stay we have walked sheep the 3km to the market from Grahams house, directing them down a main road, across a back street, through an industrial estate, over another main road and finally over a railway track and then into the market. On one occasion we lost the whole mob of sheep which we were moving, in a neighbors field! FLINDERS RANGES On our first weekend at the farm, Graham took us to visit some of his friends in the Flinders Ranges. We stayed in the farmers shearing quarters, a little hut with bedrooms, kitchen and bathrooms. We were driven around the land to see kangaroos, beautiful wild flowers and Emu’s. We got to ride motorbikes around the grounds, shoot a riffle and in the evening we were introduced to something called Spotlighting. We were told that this is a hobby of most famer boys as young teenagers. Armed with a shot gun and a huge spotlight, we set out in the ute to look for wildlife. As teenagers they would hope to shoot pests on their parents farm or to shoot animals such as Kangaroo, so that they could sell them for their meat. We managed to see all kinds of wildlife such as foxs, kangaroos and rabbits. BAROSSA VALLEY On Sunday 10th November we went to The Barossa Valley, a famous wine region within Australia. It was a lovely day and we managed to visit 7 wineries and sample unique wine from small family businesses to the more popular and mass produced Jacobs Creek and Wolf Blass. MURRAY RIVER We were invited to join some of the boys from the town on a trip to Murray River, a 1.5 hour drive from Jamestown. Unfortunately Jon was working at the pub and so I went along with the girls and we had a great day. A local man and his son took us out on his boat and we all got to do some water sports, it took me a while to agree to it (you’ll understand when you see the colour of the water!) but I had a go and loved it! JAMESTOWN RACES We attended the annual Jamestown horse races which was on the Saturday of a long weekend. We didn't manage to win big but we had a good time. The locals recommended betting on Horses whose name you liked rather than on the odds! it didn't really work out for us though. On theBank Holiday Monday was the Jamestown Show where there were lots of stalls and events related to farming and outdoor sports, such as biking. RAM N EWE BALL The Ram N Ewe ball is a social highlight in the town, we were lucky enough for it to fall on the 19th October and so we went along. The theme was Glitz, Glamour and The Great Gatsby. So we all got to dress up which was fun. On our final weekend we arranged to have a farewell BBQ at the local park and all the people we have met over the past few weeks came to give us a good send off.