Shouts From Down Under

Stations. Not Ranches. And yes, to an Aussie it does matter.

I've always been patriotically proud, like anyone else, of the country I was born in and raised in, and couldn't resist a braggy sort of blog about Australia.

The thing is, I didn't know this stuff, and I live here...

Again, it's from Station Photo's Facebook page. Their photos are well worth a look, stunning beauty and lots of glimpses of Australian Outback reality. Nothing is polished up in most of these photos, it's just how it is, raw footage you might say.

And the comments on the posts? It's treasure for anyone writing about these places.

Ahem. Did I mention that they are big? How big?

How big is an Australian Cattle Station? Here's the link to their page. And below the link is their post on their wall today, that explains just how big the Australian Cattle Station (not RANCH) can be!

Just highlight all the link info, copy and paste it into your browser address bar and hit enter. For some reason it won't all display as a link.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/CattleStationPhotos

Station Photo's

We posted this a while back and it got an amazed response from a lot of people. So one more time.

South and North America certainly produce a lot of cattle, too. (Brazil is the world's biggest exporter, before Australia at number two.) But if you look at the size of the individual stations you will find that the Australian cattle stations are by far the biggest in the world.

In fact, some Australian stations are bigger than some European countries... Take Anna Creek Station, well known as the biggest Australian cattle station: this station in the Outback of South Australia covers 6,000,000 acres, or 34,000 km2. (Belgium by comparison is just over 30,000 km2, and the biggest American ranch is about 6,000 km2.)

Why this huge size? Most of Australia's cattle stations are located in the north and the central regions of the Australian Outback. The Australian continent is so dry and the vegetation so sparse that a large amount of country is needed to support enough cattle to make a living.

This style of farming cattle is very different from what you might know, especially if you come from Europe. It is a very natural way. The animals are basically wild. They are usually born and grow up without any human contact.

*****

You know, it occured to me, that people who grow up fairly seperated from other humans, that they too may become a little strange in their thinking, in their interaction when they do come into contact.

They may come across as different.

Well, I'm not going to explain it all in this blog, but I feel like one of these people. In some respects, and I know my wife and children will probably disagree on this, but in some respects, I AM different, or feel ill equipped socially. In fact, often, I can only enjoy the company of others for 20-40 minutes. After that, I don't murder them, or make them feel unwelcome (at least not deliberately) but I just don't enjoy the experience.
I've tried. I've fought against it many times. Often have wondered if it's perhaps a partial form of Autism.

So, if you take that little bit of probably TOO personal information, and add that to someone being a novelist; enjoying writing and the solitude that comes from exploring an alternative world, that they've often created from scratch, then what you have is basically a wild animal.

That may not be such a good thing. As with everything in life, there is a balance, and whatever situation we find ourselves in, we need to channel our strengths, push those positive skills or talents, into something useful, and of benefit to others. I'm aiming for this, ok? I really am.

So, hurry up and send my computer part, MSi. .

I'm sure I could be a good politician seeing how long it took to getting around to saying that little tidbit of information.

Sparky.

Peasouper fog here that I caught the tail end of, this morning, and the time I submitted this blog entry the first time: