Life on a remote station
• William Chugg speaks about his life working on a remote station. Image Dusty Creek.
By Taylor Clyne
October 14, 2020
Bridport’s William Chugg can now say he’s truly experienced all that life on a remote station has to offer after being bitten by a whip snake in the middle of the night on Monday.
The 25-year-old has spent the last three years working on sprawling remote cattle stations on mainland Australia and is currently based 180km west of Mt Isa, right on the border of Rocklands.
“I’m working on an approximately 1.3 million acre farm which is owned by Paraway Pastoral Company, previous to here I was based 470km south west of Long Reach at Tanbar working on 2.1 million acres so this ones much smaller,” he laughed.
Laughing he was not on Monday night when he ducked out of bed around midnight to grab a glass of water and go to the loo.
“When I got up, I saw the wind was really picking up so I thought I better not be lazy and go and get the washing off the line before it flew away,” he said.
“I’d gotten it all off before I trod on the little critter, the bugger latched onto my foot pretty well – I had to really kick him off.
“Afterwards I tried to find him to see what type of snake had bitten me but couldn’t.”
William alerted the station manager of the incident and within an hour the Royal Flying Doctors Service had arrived to air lift him to the nearest hospital for treatment, a thirty minute flight arriving about 2.30am.
“Nothing that seven litres of medicated fluids can't fix, I was back at work within a day,” he laughed.
William’s work is nothing but tough going and adventurous, a life he said he wouldn’t change for anything.
“The Rocklands station has about thirty people working on the farm and we’re just nearing the completion of a huge multimillion-dollar development program which has included installing 50 new bores, 120 pioneer tanks with four troughs at most tanks and subdividing millions of acres into new paddock lots.
“The land is all flat going and fairly open, the main herd is our breeder mob of around 25,000 which we are going to get to around 32,000 within a year,” he said.
Of the day to day work William said he has a team of five or six horses in rotation to complete work across the station.
“We do have a couple of choppers for mustering too, we can't do it any other way because most of the paddocks are about 4,000 acres.
“I could be doing anything on any given day from driving trucks, branding calves, mustering, breaking in a horse, shoeing, fixing a fence, changing a tyre or teaching weaners, you just do it all to keep the station running.”
Working as the Leading Hand William aspires to develop into the Head Stockman role in the future.
“I hope to manage a place one day, I just really like the lifestyle – everyone has their own quarters, the station provides everything we even have a cook here.
“On the weekends, before COVID, we would compete in camp draughts and rodeos and six kilometres down the road there is one pub and servo, it gets a fair workout,” he said.
William said his passion still lays with breaking and developing horses from a young age.
“You pretty much start with a blank canvas and that’s what I like.
“I also enjoy teaching the weaners, so they are easier to handle and muster into mobs when we’re moving them, this week we’ll have 800-900 in the yard to process.
“Not every day is peaches and cream but for the most part it's a good life,” he concluded.
William will be back home during the summer for a short break to see his family and friends.
• The main breeder mob has 25,000 cows which they are working to increase to 32,000.
• There are a number of choppers on the farm for mustering work.