Queensland - The Sunshine State

Introduction

Queensland is a heady mix of sunny days, gently lapping water, pristine sandy beaches, sunshine, swimming, surfing, sailing, more sunshine, snorkelling, diving, balmy nights, dining out under the stars, tropical fruits, seafood, tropical rainforests and remote islands.

Pleasant warm winters and long hours of sunshine, has earned Queensland the name " The Sunshine State". When temperatures drop in the southern states the migration north to Australia's holiday playground begins.

Everyone has their favourite destination, from the Gold Coast in the South, to tropical Cairns in the north, or any one of the 365 islands scattered along the coastline. But Queensland is much more than beaches! Make sure you leave the coast and discover "the bush", Outback Queensland and the tropical Far North. You may have time to go way out west, but at least you will understand how important it is to the character of this vast state.

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Courage, Resilience & Innovation

The Forgotten Pioneers :

Extract from the Herald Sun 15 November 1998. Author Inga Gilchrist.

>> Forgotten Champions>>

>> If pioneering men made Australia great, what did the women do? More than most people realise, writes Inga Gilchrist.>>

>> In 1924, when Isobel Price's husband died, she decided to return home to Alice Springs from Adelaide.

After a 10-week drove across sand with a buggy and dray, Isobel, her four children and an Aboriginal youth reached their Northern Territory property.

With 200 sheep, three camels and a few goats and horses in tow, they had averaged about 19km a day over some of Australia's driest sandridge country.

The children took turns in the dray, riding the camels or walking behind the sheep. Each night, Isobel set up camp, cooked and washed in holes dug in the ground lined with sheets.

For Jennifer Isaacs, author of the second edition of "Pioneer Women of the Bush and Outback", stories such as Isobel's are a vital and neglected part of Australia's colonial past. The book has the first published photographs of colonial women working.

When a rash of bicentennial histories were published 10 years ago, Isaacs said an important facet of the story had been missed.

"Early colonial history was largely to do with what men had done. They were the drovers, they were the shearers, they were the cattle barons and the women were somehow these shadowy figures who cooked inside the homestead, " Isaacs said.

"What strikes me about the story of women in Australia is that they did so much more of the work establishing early communities, homes and businesses, than the general histories revealed."

"That's largely to do with the assumption that if a house was built, that a man did it all, and that the women cooked or looked after the children and that a venture like cattle, or sheep, or wheat was generally in the man's hands or spoken of as such in the town".>>

It continues:

>> Included in this state of mind are the Aboriginal women who were facing the newness of European culture.

Many of them worked with cattle in stock management, mustering, tailing and droving, and were often given men's clothes to disguise the extent of their involvement in the operation, and called "drover's boys".>>

It continues:

>>Details of the women's daily housekeeping, food, childbirth and celebrations reveal lives of determination and ingenuity. Through their hardship, the women show resolution, stoicism and sometimes exuberance, Isaacs said.

Living in isolation required thinking ahead, and many household objects, such a kerosene tins, were reincarnated two or three times for different uses.

Isaac's favourite example of resourcefulness is a recipe for a cow rug, made from three manure sacks, mutton fat, stock tar, resin and beeswax.

"They (the women) were not as domesticated as women became in the early 20th century in suburban cities. In the bush and Outback, they were partners and co-workers," Isaac said.

Clara McNabb was one such worker, who farmed the Mallee (Victoria) with her husband, Frank, until she died in 1955.

Frank McNabb arrived in 1913, identifying their land by its survey pegs in the middle of thick Mallee bush. He pitched their tents, in which they lived for four years, while he cleared the block.

Later, Clara cultivated a garden surrounded by a two-metre Mallee root wall and won a nail-driving competition in Mildura with her formidable carpentry skills. She was deeply involved in sowing, bagging and treating the farm's wheat, and was a great animal lover.

Wild and domestic animals were adopted into Clara's family and nurtured by her homegrown cures. She had a pet joey called Johnny, an emu called Matilda, and stopped tick fever in her chickens by coating their perches with kerosene.

The legacy of the "battlers in bonnets", as Isaacs calls them, is a readiness among modern Australian women to hop in and do whatever is required.

Isolation was one of the biggest problems the women faced, and they overcame it to varying degrees with letters and then radio. Scarce and unreliable communications meant the pioneering vein of their lives persisted in many areas until recent decades.

"Even in the 60's and 70's you used to have to ring in at a certain time of day," Isaacs said.

"They have a name for it which was "the cockatoo session" and that was when women were allowed to take over the two-way radio. Everyone heard what every-one else said."

Isaac said she felt no urge to sanitise the women's stories and was keen to describe the harshness of their lives because history had been silent about it.>>

The Outback - No Place For A Powder Puff :

Outback life is harsh for a woman, but has improved greatly with telephones, faxes, television, microwaves and increased frequency of mail deliveries. But it is the isolation that presents the greatest challenges.

Woman are home alone while their husbands are out working stock in the yards, or out for days at mustering camps. Their nearest neighbour can be hundreds of miles away. For those lucky enough to have The Flying Nun calling; she brings news of the outside world, and the rare opportunity to talk to another woman. These visits bring support, and comfort, and a rare opportunity to open up about their lives.

Isolation creates all manner of hurdles to be overcome. When babies are born mothers normally leave the station and travel to town to await the birth. This can mean weeks away from home, and it is rare the father is present at the birth. As children grow up, they need to be educated, which again falls on their mother. Station life chores are never ending, and it can be difficult to balance the labour intensive teaching role, with all the other demands on time.

On family properties, few can afford to pay for additional labour, so it falls on the wife and children to become stockmen. It is a continual battle to find the balance between education and property work. At the age of twelve it is accepted that a child must be sent away to boarding school. This places a further strain on family finances, but also at this age the child is of considerable help around the property. The wrench of separation can be heartbreaking, and homesickness can be difficult to cope with when long distances are involved.

Company Stations :

Company stations, like the Kidman's Durham Downs in the Channel Country, employ 26 staff. The manager, John Ferguson has managed the station for 23 years and has been a Kidman employee for 36 years as had his father before him.

Here, the station still use horses, rather than the more accepted motorbikes because of the potential flooding. As Ferguson says: "The motorbike might run, but he can't swim". The staff are made up of station cook, camp cooks, pilot, and stockman. All are characters and as Sid Kidman demanded they are good at what they do.

Often on the company stations there will be several children and a tutor may be employed. Again, mothers still face the agony of sending their children away for further education when they turn twelve. Children sent to school are not seen for months, and after finishing schooling, often go on to work, never home again permanently, except for brief holidays.

Unlike the smaller family stations where the wife cooks for everyone, there will be a station cook to prepare the meals. The emphasis remains on meat for breakfast, meat for lunch and meat for tea. Planning and shopping must be done weeks in advance, everything is bought in bulk and if the last bag of potatoes is rotten you must improvise till the next stockup.

Marriages in the bush are normally stronger. Out there, people have less distractions and couples are forced to rely on each other more, both physically and emotionally. Adversity creates bonds that are hard to break, and these outback people are courageous and resourceful. Isolation, dust and drought have fashioned a unique lifestyle that is only suited to the most resilient of men and women.

Illnesses and accidents are common and even for emergencies it can often be many hours before the Flying Doctor arrives. Outback women become adept at describing symptoms and many illnesses are diagnosed over the phone. No quick visit to the doctor because your child is off colour.. no picking up a quick takeaway... no dinners out... no popping into the supermarket for some forgotten ingredient.... no hairdresser....no movies.

Surprisingly outback women do not place the value on these things as we do. Somewhere on the journey from the city to the outback they have thrown off the shackles of modernity and reached a deeper level of contentment that is not based on modern consumption. Who are the deprived ones?.... they certainly feel it's not them!

The "Bush" In The 90's :

The eminent Australian historian, Sir Manning Clark, once described civilisation as" the availability of a cold beer west of the Darling". Today he may wish to revise that to the availability of a cappuccino and the internet.

Out here the culture is still hanging out with your mates, driving a ute with kelpies (cattle dogs) in the back, copious amounts of Bundy rum (Bundaberg rum normally consumed with a mix of coca cola) and nights at B&S balls. (Bachelor & Spinster balls are notorious nights where hundreds congregate in formal dress to dance, drink and have a good time. A majority drink themselves to a standstill before collapsing in the back of their utes for the night. Quite often the only social outlet for weeks, often months, the B&S balls are well attended. Many couples meet at these functions and later marry.)

The "bush," as isolated communities are called, have always been a very physical environment where feats of courage and endurance are revered.

Some youths mistakenly read courage as multiple 360's in the ute and endurance as drinking a bottle of Bundy in one sitting, but putting this aside, they have always been a brave, innovative, practical, funny, likeable people, who are finding the old bush icons do not fit today's challenges.

Once the under educated stayed in the bush, while their brainier brothers/sisters moved to the city for better education and greater career challenges. This "brain drain" is now being reversed with the implementation of farm apprenticeships and greater emphasis on structured agricultural courses. The man on the land now recognises the need to work smarter to counteract the inefficient practices of days past. The "bush" is now moving out from under the sheltering umbrella of government tariffs. Added to tariff changes has been a tough ten years of natural disasters. Changes are afoot and the "bush" is reinventing itself.

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