Kondoolka Station, Sheep in South Australia

Me with a few day old lamb

G'day!

The Australian outback is vast and sparsely populated by humans.  I got a good idea of how much so while traveling to Kondoolka Station.    Kondoolka is located, as the crow flies, 100 km/60 miles east of Ceduna and 380 km/240 miles west of Port Augusta which is 300 km/180 miles north of Adelaide.  And to Peter W-S, although Adelaide may not be in the middle of nowhere, Kondoolka surely is.

Kondoolka is in the center (of nowhere)

The closest stop The Ghan train gets to Kondoolka is Kingoonyah, now a ghost town, at 2:30 am, a 2 hour drive away.  For safety reasons, the train service will not set down passengers in remote areas unless a pick up person is present at the time.   Passengers are required to give their drivers' contact details in case the train is delayed.

Do you believe me now?

My host, David Best, elected to pick me up from Port Augusta at 7:30 am and combine the 400 km drive with some shopping and errands.  Then we headed for the home paddock through the Gawler Ranges on the packed dirt/gravel Great Northern and Kingoonya Roads, the "short cuts"/main roads in the area.   We stopped at The Submarine, an iron(ic) sculpture someone built in the dry dusty bush, for a picnic lunch and at two stations along the way to say g'day to friends/neighbors.

Dave is the station manager at Kondoolka.  He runs the station alone assisted by Stefanie, a 26 year old German former wwoofer, with an occasional hand from Bob who works with Greg, the owner of Kondoolka, at the wheat farm several hours away.   Molly, an 8 months old smooth coat border collie (just like my dog, Shadow), is beginning her training as a sheepdog.

One of my goals for the year was to work on a genuine Australian outback station.  I'm not comfortable with animals and decided that sheep were the least frightening between cattle, horses, and sheep.  Dave accepts wwoofers who he thinks can handle the isolation and have a true interest in working/learning on a sheep station.  I am grateful that he accepted me and for his generosity and patience with an obvious city slicker.

Although I observed and learned heaps, since this is a sheep station and it's all about the sheep, I'm going to talk about the sheep first.

Mustered sheep

With about 10,000 sheep on 1100 sq km (272 acres/425 sq miles), Kondoolka is considered a small station.   Most small stations run about 7,000 - 8,000 sheep.  A large station might be 3 - 4 times that size and run up to 20,000 sheep.  Kondoolka runs Dorper sheep which are raised for meat rather than for wool.  Dorper sheep are usually all white or white with a black head.

These sheep are definitely free range.   Paddocks are separated by grids, fences, and gates; more about them later.  The sheep roam wherever they want within their paddock, including on the roads.  When they hear or see our vehicle approaching and deem that we are too close, they will move, usually at a run.  They may run in front of, alongside or away from the vehicle.  It's unpredictable.  It's fun to watch the sheep run with an occasional bouncing jump and to see the little lambs running alongside their mums.

I don't know how he got up there

Dave usually musters sheep on a motorbike once every two weeks or so.  He takes a portable radio unit and cans of sardines with him.  Both times that he mustered while I was there, he was out for 8 hours.  He tries to round up all the sheep in the targeted area; he got 500-600 (?) sheep the first time and about 800 (?) the second.   (David counts the sheep; I just forgot to ask.)  Depending on road access, he eithers musters them overland to the shearing paddocks or to remote drafting yards and then moves sheep by truck.

The next step is to draft the sheep which means separating the sheep into different pens.   This is done in stages.  First, all the sheep are in one or two large pens.  They are moved in groups into successively smaller pens for ease in handling.  Chasing sheep in a large pen is not fun.  Then, the sheep go through a race, a narrow chute wide enough only for one at a time.  Dave uses gates to shunt the sheep into the appropriate pens.  Repeat until all the sheep have been sorted.

Bob is feeding the sheep into the chute

Sheep are flocking animals; they like company.  Once a few sheep go in one direction, usually all the others follow.  If a sheep falls, it is trampled until it can get up again.  I noticed that the tiniest lambs were usually on the edges but often they are trampled too.  Sometimes a bottleneck occurs because the leading sheep stop.  Many times, pressure from the sheep in the back will make room for the others.  They don't seem to mind being packed in tight.  Patience is required.  Or just shut the gate and process the sheep you've got.

Eartags and elastrator bands and pliers

Sometimes all it takes to get the sheep to go through the chute is to walk towards the back of the pen away from the chute.   Once they are faced the right way and wedged in tight with human legs blocking escape, they usually go through.  If not, they can be encouraged by picking them up by the tail and pushing them forward or with a punch or kick in the backside.  The sheep are not treated gently.  Some of the little lambs were tossed several meters; but they all seemed to easily handle it.  Occasionally, a sheep will end up facing the wrong way.  Sometimes just turning its head will work.  Others have to be picked up and turned or allowed to come/fight their way out of the wedge and start again.

Drafting sheep through the chute

Sheep usually will not go toward a human.  However, when feeling trapped, they might run into or jump over a fence.  Try not to be in their way because it hurts when they bounce into or off of you.  Some of these sheep are full grown weighing 35 km/80 pounds; some are several months old; some are newborn.  Some have horns that are big and curled; others have small or short horns.   Each of us were banged up although I only got a few bruises on my legs and hands.

Lambs, big and small, are tagged with the Kondoolka tag, a different color each year.  This year is green; last year orange.  Females are tagged on the right ear; males on the left.  The other ear is marked by hole-punching a J into it; a form of branding.  Each lamb's tail is docked with an elastrator rubber band to cut off circulation until the tail falls off.  Males are also castrated in this manner.

Smaller lambs are picked up and put on their backs in a 6 seat merry-go-round where their hind legs are cinched down (like ob/gyn stirrups).  Larger lambs go through The Immobilizer which uses large pads to hold them still while they are being weighed, tagged, marked, docked and castrated as necessary.  Each lamb takes a minute or two.  We processed 255 lambs the first time and about 300 and counting (I left before we finished) the second.

Lamb ready for procedures 

When we were working with the sheep, Dave didn't give much direction.  I guess I was welcome to just watch and try to stay out of the way.  The first time we drafted, I tried to help get the sheep through the chute.  Sometimes I was helpful (I think); sometimes I got in the way.  Then came the marking.  After observing a while, I found that I could be useful loading the eartags and the elastrator bands onto the instruments for Stefanie.

 

Ram with wicked horns

                                   

The second time around, I loaded eartags and elastrator bands for the small lambs again.  During the second drafting, since we had 4 people, I made it my job to keep the inner pen full so that Bob had a ready supply for Dave and Stefanie to work on the larger lambs.

Kondoolka Homestead

To move the sheep after opening the gate, we/I wade through them towards the back of the pen.  Sometimes they headed into the inner pen where I wanted them, good.  Sometimes they went into wrong corner of the same pen and stopped.  Sigh; repeat.  Sometimes too many would be in the small pen as I tried to shut the gate and some would turn and go out bringing with them other (that's ok) and sometimes all of the sheep. Darn!  Start all over again.  It was easiest to get them where I wanted when the pen was crowded or when there were less than 5-10 sheep.  Eventually, I was able to maintain a steady supply most of the time by myself.

Just a tiny part of Kondoolka Station

On average, most sheep are mustered twice.  Once as lambs to get marked/tagged and the second to be sent to the abatoir (slaughterhouse).  Dave does marking 2-4 times a year and ships about 6000 sheep a year. So probably some lambs are marked just before they are trucked out. Although most of the sheep that are shipped are lambs under a year old, older sheep are also shipped as hogget (1-2 years) or mutton (2 years or older).   About 450 sheep fit on the truck so usually 1-2 truckloads go to the abatoir monthly.

Baaa!  My turn!

When water and thus food is plentiful, like this year and the past two, ewes are more likely to have twins and/or lamb more often, but the target is for a ewe to lamb on average every 8 months.  Only 1.5 - 3% of the sheep are rams.  The ratio depends on how old the ewes are; older ewes seek out rams so there should be more rams.   Another factor is how long the rams are left with the ewes; with large paddocks, taking out or changing rams is more time consuming.  BTW, sheep can be loud.  And it is obvious that lambs and ewes can find each other by call.  Baaaaa!

Map of Kondoolka Station

Dave butchered 5 sheep for meat while I was there.  Since he is very experienced, it was very clean, quick, and efficient.  Three of the sheep were cut into roasts, chops, and ribs; the other two were boned and taken to a butcher shop in Streaky Bay to be turned into mince (lamburger)and sausages.

We eat very well at Kondoolka.  Most of the time we had different lamb cuts cooked in a variety of ways.  Shepherd's pie using the leftover roast was my favorite.  The secret is the barbeque sauce.  Because "everything tastes better with barbeque sauce and cheese."  We had roasted chicken and some beef dishes including schnitzel for a change.

I enjoyed my 3 1/2 week stay at Kondoolka Station.  More info next time about life and work on a sheep station.

Cheers!
Cyn