Brunchilly Station

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Photo: Helen Kemp
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Nicky Bauer reckons she has the best job in Australia. She’s the cook on an outback
cattle station, a job she loves, but, more importantly, that job also gives her the
opportunity to pursue her life’s passion - working cattle and horses.
By MaryAnne Leighton
Photos: 1. Brunchilly Station.
2. The Brunchilly campdrafting team: from left to right:
Nicky Bauer, Lea Williams, Chris Slattery, Brendan Manns,
Steven Daley and Ben Daly (no relation).
3. Benita Bauer and Caramello, her poddy calf.
4. Sandy and Benita Bauer at the Brunchilly Station Mailbox.

S. Kidman & Co.
Nicky works on Brunchilly Station, 120 Kilometres from Tennant Creek
in the Northern Territory. Brunchilly is an outstation of Helen Springs
Station, part of S. Kidman and Co. Ltd., the largest private landholder in
Australia and one of this country’s biggest beef producers. The company
was founded by South Australian-born pastoralist, Sir Sidney Kidman
(1857 –1935). Kidman left home when he was thirteen, with only five
shillings in his pocket and riding a one-eyed horse. He worked as a
drover, stockman and livestock trader, making money trading whatever
was needed and supplying services to new mining towns that were
springing up in outback New South Wales and South Australia.
When he was 21, Sidney Kidman inherited £400 from his grandfather
and used it to trade in horses and cattle. In his mid twenties he acquired
a one-fourteenth share in the new BHP mine for 10 bullocks worth about
£40, subsequently selling his share for £150, less £50 commission. Not
a bad profit, especially in the 1880s. Kidman held a sugnificant number
of mail contracts and in 1886 bought his first station, Owen Springs in
the Northern Territory, gradually extending his holdings into Queensland
and New South Wales.
The great drought in 1901 was a disaster for all pastoralists including
Sidney Kidman, but within a year, with the support of his bank, he had
made £40,000 and began buying up big again, eventually owning or
having an interest in land covering more than three percent of Australia.
He owned over one hundred cattle stations and moved his cattle
between them along the great inland river systems, drought-proofing his
empire. ‘The Cattle King’ was a millionaire by the time World War I broke
out and during the war he gave back to his country by donating wool,
meat, horses, ambulances and even fighter planes to the government.
His deep sense of loyalty to his staff resulted in him guaranteeing the
jobs of employees who went to fight in the war and he assisted the widows
of those who were killed in action. He was knighted in 1921.
Today S. Kidman & Co is one of Australia’s largest beef producers with
a herd of 200,000 cattle. The company has pastoral leases covering
120,000 square kilometres in three states and the Northern Territory, and
produces grass-fed beef for export to Japan, the USA and South East
Asia.
BrunChilly Station and itS people
Brunchilly Station is an important part of the Kidman empire. In total, the
combined Brunchilly, Helen Springs and Banka Banka Stations cover
nearly 12,000 square kilometres. Brunchilly alone runs 14,000 head of
Brahman and Brahman-cross breeders, chosen for their ability to withstand
the heat and the distance they must travel from one bore to the
next. Softer breeds of cattle find Northern Territory conditions too hard
and do not thrive.
There are currently sixteen people living on Brunchilly, including two
children. Like the rest of the Kidman empire, Brunchilly prides itself on
encouraging families to work together. Alan Bauer is Brunchilly Station
manager, his wife, Carol is the station gardener, their daughter Nicky is
station cook, their son, John, is the bore mechanic and daughter-in-law,
Yvonne, is the home tutor. There are jackaroos and jillaroos and Nev
Kilgour, the handyman, who helps out wherever he is needed - in the
yards, pulling bores or working with Carol in the garden.
Nicky left school when she was 14 to go droving with her dad – her
abrupt departure from school being prompted by an altercation with her
teacher. Ever since she was big enough to help her father work cattle,
Nicky had helped him with his contract mustering jobs at weekends,
which meant she occasionally missed school on Fridays and Mondays.
Her teacher had no appreciation of the love Nicky had for life in the bush
and no interest in the fourteen-year-old’s ability to earn a massive $100
a day, so when it came to a choice between school and cattle work, for

Nicky there really was no choice.
Droving was in her blood. Her father, grandfather and great-grandfather
were drovers and her great-grandfather had been a bullocky – he had
driven bullock wagons. Nicky was in heaven the day she left school
when she and her father began a four-week journey droving 1500 bullocks
from Manaroo Station near Longreach to South Galway. It was to
have been just the one trip but one job followed another and fourteenand-a-half
years later they finally remembered to stop droving. During
those years they worked for Standbroke Pastoral Company, droving,
contract mustering and weaner tailing then for four months Nicky drove
a tip truck at Cloncurry mine and worked in the boning room at Biloela
meatworks for a further 15 months.
In 2003 Alan took the job as manager of Brunchilly Station and he encouraged
his family to join him. Of the differences between droving and
managing an outback station, Alan says there is no comparison. ‘Station
management requires more modern ideas, more intense stock handling
and more stress!’ He adds that the best parts of his job are to drive into a
paddock and see the cows in good condition, eighty percent of them with
calves, and to see sound people learning skills that enable them to work
a property. Commenting on the challenges of droving, Alan believes,
‘There would only be a dozen men left who are capable and young
enough to handle a big mob of bullocks in unfenced country.’
Nicky jumped at the chance to accompany her parents to Brunchilly and
take up work in the stock camp, before accepting the job as cook six
months later.
StoCK Camp
So what’s a stock camp? It is the six to eight permanent stock men
and women who do all the cattle work required on the station. They
are based at the station, truck their horses out to where the work is
every morning and return home to the comfort of their own beds in their
air conditioned accommodation at night. Ben Daly is Brunchilly head
stockman and that makes him the boss of the stock camp. Very wisely,
Ben has just bought his first two Quarter Horses – from Nicky of course.
For working stock, Nicky only ever uses one of the fifteen Quarter
Horses that she owns in conjunction with her parents, Alan and Carol.
Her reason? ‘Because they are quiet, don’t get excited and you can go
anywhere and do anything on them.’ Equally important is that they are
good doers and don’t waste away in the harsh Northern Territory working
conditions.
AQHA member, Steven Daley (known as Yap), is Brunchilly’s leading
hand; second-in-charge of the stock camp and the boss when Ben isn’t
there. Steven is the proud owner of Hillvue New Doc Olena A1-8455, a
mare he bought from Nicky. Steven has been at Brunchilly for just over
two years although he has worked for Kidman for six years in all. He
says, ‘I really love working at Brunchilly because I have a passion for
horses and it’s all horse work here. The environment is a real family one
and everyone make you feel wanted and needed.’ Yap adds, ‘There’s
a lot of country to see, ranging from grasslands and downs country to
rocky hills and timber.’
Steven believes Brunchilly is an ideal place for young people because
of the social environment and surroundings. He says, ‘The wet season
at the end of the year is magnificent to see firsthand with the big storms
and the lightning. Some storms can just pass over but hit so hard they’ll
drop a good four inches of rain.’
Also working in the stock camp are jillaroos Lea Williams and Vanessa
Kelly, as well as jackaroos Brett Richards, Matt Wright and first year
ringer, Brendan Mann. An Adelaide surfer, Brendan arrived at Brunchilly
at the beginning of the year and Nicky says, ‘He threw away the
surfboard, pulled on a pair of jeans and just got on a horse.’ Brendan
completed a six-week training course run by S. Kidman & Co that gives
potential young stockman basic cattle and horsemanship skills and a
brief experience of life and work on a cattle station. As a company, Kidman
is proud of its record of attracting, motivating, training and keeping
the best people and it encourages and fosters staff through a training
programme and internal promotion.
Brendan says the six week course at Mabel Creek Station, forty kilometres
west of Coober Pedy, was life-changing. He came from the city and
had no idea what to expect. ‘In the first few weeks I was introduced to a
whole new way of living and working. I was taken out of my comfort zone
when I had to ride a horse for the first time but I handled it pretty well.’
On living in the outback, Brendan says the seclusion and working with
the same people every day are the hardest things for him to get used to.
And not being able to surf. He adds, ‘I really think that course helped me
know what to expect when I got to Brunchilly. I’ve been here six months
now and I am loving it. I have made some great friends and experienced
things not many people would get the chance to experience.’ Brendan
admits he has discovered an unexpected love for horses which he
hopes will soon result in owning one of his own.
Brunchilly Station cook, Nicky
Bauer aboard Wanamara Mega
Boots Q-41623
Photo: Helen Kemp
Photo: Helen Kemp
John Bauer and Easy Angel at
the Barkly Gold Rush
Campdraft, Tennant Creek.
Yvonne Bauer and 2yo Stormy

the horSeS
Cattle in open country are mustered by plane and driven to where the
stockmen wait on horseback. Occasionally a chopper is used, but only
when the cattle are in scrub that is inaccessible to the plane or horses.
When necessary, bikes are also used, but working cattle by horse still
remains the method of choice.
In the days when sprint racing was king in Queensland, Alan and Carol
raced a nifty stallion called Chrislyn Speedy Easy Q-8041. Speedy
Easy was speed-rated AAA and he was fast, but he was never quite
fast enough to beat Bob McDonald’s brilliant mare, Jet Linda, and ran
second to her 22 times – every single time by a margin so short as a
nose or a head.
These days, Alan, Carol and Nicky own the pretty bay stallion, Wanamara
Super Visa Q-46339. In spite of the distance they have to travel to
shows, Nicky has hauled him all the way to Darwin and Katherine for the
past two years to show him at halter. She says, ‘This year he took out
champion Led Stallion and Most Versatile Quarter Horse of the Tennant
Creek Show. He placed at Katherine and won the All Breeds Working
Saddle Horse and placed second in the All Breeds Working Stallion at
Darwin.’
However, campdrafting is the Bauer family’s sport of choice and it is one
the Brunchilly stockmen and jillaroos enjoy as well. Nicky says, ‘We try
to do one campdraft a month and we also do as many Stockman’s Challenges
as we can.’ In only his second year campdrafting, Super Visa
placed second in the Ladies Draft at Brunette Downs this year.
Head stockman Ben Daly and AQHA member Steven
Daley walking a mob.
Loading horses for the
daily stock camp.
Nicky and her parents have a number of registered mares with the
bloodlines of Kolora Omega Q-7803, Mr Jessie James* Q-865, Netastarship*
Q-15153, Kool-Jessie R2-2326 and Docs Gold Scorpion* Q-7696,
and a few by the good thoroughbred stallion, Vain. Until the 2007 season,
Super Visa had bred only mares that are already on Brunchilly and
he has three foal crops on the ground, some of which are for sale. Nicky
showed two of his weanling colts in halter classes this year and was
pleased that they placed every time they showed.
Nicky’s brother John and sister-in-law Yvonne own four registered Quarter
Horses. Easy Angel FM-22449 is by Alan’s old sprint stallion, Speedy
Easy. Yvonne says, ‘We did a lot of droving trips with Angel when she
was young, moving steers for fattening from Stanbroke breeding properties
in the Gulf of Queensland to channel country properties in Western
Queensland. She is a lovely horse and was John’s night horse most of
the time, which meant she was kept close by, ready to ride in case the
Nicky Bauer and her
stallion, Wanamara Super
Visa Q-46339
Photo: Helen Kemp

John Bauer and Hillvue Night
Man Q-47490
Sandy Bauer with Hillvue Mystery A-4108, Benita Bauer with Slippery Gold A1-8538
and John Bauer with Hillvue Night Man Q-47490.
Sandy Bauer on Hillvue Mystery A-4108
cattle spooked during the night. Angel is now 19YO and retired but she’s
still with us.’
John’s main working horse was Slippery Gold A1-8538 a daughter of
Easy Angel. She is 8YO and in October presented John and Yvonne with
her first foal, a lovely blue filly by Super Visa. Hillvue Night Man Q-47490
is an 8YO gelding who is ridden by John and Yvonne’s eleven-year-old
daughter, Benita. ‘He is such a treasure and so gentle that Benita can
ride him anytime and he behaves at her level, but John can then ride
him for a day of mustering and he responds to him at his level,’ says
Yvonne.
Hillvue Mystery A-4108 is owned by John and Yvonne’s youngest daughter,
nine-year-old Sandy. Yvonne says, ‘She is an albino, not totally
suited to our hot sunny days and red dirt, but Sandy loves her. Mystery
wears a fly veil with an extended nose piece twelve months of the year
to protect her eyes and nose.’ Mystery is also in foal to Super Visa.
John, Benita and Sandy all compete in campdrafts and Stockmen’s
Challenges and the girls also enter gymkhanas. Yvonne says, ‘We
moved to the Northern Territory only three years ago so the girls have
really only been riding frequently since then, but they have improved immensely
and gained so much confidence and responsibility in that time.’
John, Yvonne and the girls try to attend three or four campdrafts a year.
‘We try to get to Brunette Downs race week, which includes campdrafting,
rodeo, gymkhana, race day and cutting. It is about a seven-hour
drive. This year we had about two inches of rain overnight while camped
out on the middle of a black soil plain! But we got out OK, even though
we were soaking wet and freezing cold.
‘We also go to the Barkly Gold Rush campdraft and challenge at Tennant
Creek which is our closest draft. We have also been to Daly Waters,
four-and-a-half hours away, and also to the Katherine show this year,
seven-and-a-half hours drive away.’
As well as competing in horse sports, John and the girls help the stock
camp and tail the weaners out on horseback to quieten them before
walking them out to their paddocks.
Yvonne is one of only two people on Brunchilly who don’t ride, but she
says she enjoys helping the girls get ready to compete and she supports
them all, ‘because if you aren’t having fun, there is no point being there.
We have a great time as a family at these events and enjoy the short
breaks away from general station work.’
Photo: Helen Kemp

Benita and Sandy, at school
on Brunchilly Station
SChool of the air
Yvonne is the home tutor for her two daughters, Sandy and Benita, who
are schooled through Katherine School of the Air. Yvonne says, ‘We
have a classroom separate to our house and go to school every day.’
On being a home tutor, she says, ‘You don’t need any qualifications as
such. I am not the teacher but I am responsible for supervising what
the girls do. The teachers at Katherine School of the Air send out the
school work, readers and library books and I assist the girls but if they
have something I don’t understand or haven’t been involved in on their
computer lessons, then they ring their teacher and ask them.’
Benita and Sandy have four computer IDL (Interactive Distance Learning)
lessons per week as well as assembly and choir. The computer is
one-way video and two-way audio so the girls can see their teachers
with only a two second delay, and they can hear and speak to their
classmates. The teachers can give power point presentations or use
a whiteboard that the kids can also write on with their mouse. Yvonne
says, ‘This really is the closest to a real classroom that you can get, they
even have a button that the kids click on to put their hands up and there
is also a talk button and a chat button that they can type into.’
During the school year, Yvonne and the girls travel to Katherine, 660
kilometres from Brunchilly, or to Batchelor, 900 kilometres away, to attend
mini schools, ‘In school’, school camp and swim week, where they
meet and interact with their friends of the air.
Once a year, a week-long mini school is held to provide face-to-face
contact between students and their teacher and once a year all students
are invited to Katherine to join their classmates at ‘In school’ where they
have regular lessons for four days. At ‘In school’ the kids attend a primary
school while the other kids normally at the school are on holidays.
Yvonne says, ‘They experience what it is like in a classroom and socialise
with their peers, which is really important I think.’ While the kids are
at school the home tutors attend a conference that covers things like
computer skills and has guest speakers, an open forum for the tutors to
voice their concerns and opinions and also workshops to teach skills to
assist them in their schoolroom - from art to how to write up a science
experiment to tips on how to help kids to read. The last day of ‘In school’
is devoted to sports.
This ‘In school’ is useful to teachers and students. It enables the teacher
to form a clearer idea of a child’s strengths and weaknesses and to
test and evaluate work being sent out by the teacher, and it gives the
children a chance to experience a conventional classroom and to meet
and work with others of their own age. There have been many instances
where a child has no one to compare his or her work with other than
older or younger siblings, and this can lead to an under- or over-estimation
of the child’s own ability.
The Katherine School of the Air annual school camp is held in August/
September normally at the Batchelor Outdoor Education Centre. It is a
great time for students, home tutors, families and staff to get together to
participate in outdoor activities, make new friends and catch up with old
ones. The camp programme includes a wide variety of activities ranging
from clay tile making, leather work, card making and printing to physical
pursuits such as gymnastics, high rope walk, rock wall climbing, tree
planting and bush dancing as well as Tournament of the Minds activities.
At the end of November every year swim school is held at the local pools
in Katherine. Students, home tutors and their families gather in town for
a week while the children receive swimming lessons. On the last day of
swim school the students perform in a Christmas concert, awards are
presented, Santa visits and farewells are made to those who are leaving
the School of the Air to begin high school.
Geographically Katherine School of the Air covers a huge area of around
800,000 square kilometres, which is more that three times the size of the
United Kingdom or New Zealand and more than twice the size of Japan.
School of the Air extends from the islands off the north coast of Australia
to the 18 degrees south parallel. East to west, it extends to the borders
of Queensland and Western Australia.
Benita and Sandy say they enjoy their school work. Yvonne adds, ‘They
have great teachers who are really up-to-date and do a lot of professional
development courses. The teachers try to really engage the kids.’
The girls both say their favourite subjects are reading and art. Like any
kids, some schoolwork is a chore, but they have a timetable which they
helped organise and they follow that, knowing that when the work is
completed, and if they have had their lesson, they can finish school. You
can’t do that in a conventional school. Yvonne says, ‘We generally only
do school until lunch, but start at 8 am, or earlier if we are going to town
that day. The girls often go back after lunch and do painting or research
or creating stuff on the computer, like movies, photo stories etc.’
There are no other children on the station, so Sandy and Benita have
learned how important friendships are. Yvonne says, ‘When they are
with their friends there are generally fewer disagreements than you normally
see with kids because they value the little time they have together.’
The home tutor plays a vital role in Distance Education, liaising with
the teacher and carrying out instructions, organising the classroom
and supervising school work. Yvonne admits that home tutoring can be
a rewarding and challenging job and says, ‘I had never thought that I
would be teaching my own children. I think teaching is challenging at
any time, but doing it remotely and with your own kids is even more of a
challenge but I find it immensely satisfying, especially when you see the
progress they make. I really enjoy it but you do have to be careful not to
put too much pressure on them which I think comes from wanting to see
them succeed in what they are doing.’ She adds, ‘You have to try and

make it fun and, even if you think it is not the most scintillating subject,
you must show enthusiasm. But most of all you have to be committed to
their education.’
Yvonne escapes from the classroom by quilting. ‘I get every weekend
off, because there is no school on weekends and I quilt in my time off as
well as do the housework etc. I have been quilting for about six years,
teaching myself from books and watching quilt shows on pay TV. I
have just met a lady in Tennant Creek who quilts and we share skills,
and I chat at night in a quilting chat room to other quilters from across
the world. They are very helpful and supportive and help me not to feel
remote.’ Yvonne tries to donate at least one wall hanging or quilt each
year to Katherine School of the Air, to be raffled to raise money for the
kids’ excursions.
the CooK
How on earth do you feed sixteen people three times a day every day
– plus morning and afternoon smoko - when you have no access to
local shops? ‘Easy,’ says Nicky. ‘Once every three months we do a food
budget. That’s where Carol and I work out how much of everything we
need, what brands and what sizes, then we send it to Helen Springs who
adds it to their order and before you know it the whole lot arrives on a
Photo: Helen Kemp
One of the beautiful quilts crafted by Yvonne Bauer
road train.’
Breakfast most mornings is at 5 am so Nicky is out of bed at four to get it
ready and organise smoko and lunch for the stock camp workers to pack
what they want each day. ‘Breakfast is steak and eggs or beans, smoko
at 9.30 is cake and biscuits, lunch is sandwiches and dinner at 7.30 pm
(if the stock camp is not running late) is a good hardy meal – I serve
meat, fish once a fortnight and three to five veg. Meals are pretty much
the same as a normal household, just lots more of it and there is no limit
to how much anyone can eat.’ Fresh vegetables arrive on the road train
every two weeks.
Some days Nicky gets two or three hours off, other days she works
straight through, doing outside jobs as well. Her greatest passion is
working cattle and horses so she goes out with the stock camp whenever
they need her, and as often as she can.
Water
Water is one of the most vital requirements of life anywhere but it is
particularly important on an outback station. There are only a few waterholes
and dams on the entire 3,235 square kilometres of Brunchilly,
but there are 65 bores. John Bauer is the bore mechanic for Brunchilly,
Banka Banka and Helen Springs and when any of the 150 bores on
these three properties break down, it is John’s job to fix them and keep
the life-giving water flowing to the cattle.
The bores that can be up to 400 feet deep are spaced out across the
One of the 65 bores
on Brunchilly
The Brunchilly campdrafting team. From left to right: Nicky Bauer, Lea Williams,
Chris Slattery, Brendan Mann, Steven Daley and Ben Daly

Dawn at Brunchilly - 5000 weaners at Number 1 yards.
MaryAnne Leighton
PhotograPher / Writer
Phone: (07) 5573 3974 or Email: ma-leighton@austarnet.com.au
Photo: Yvonne Bauer
property, pumping water to turkey’s nests, which are like a dam above
ground and look like a bird’s nest, which in turn gravity feed to troughs
around the turkey’s nests. The most common problem John faces is
when a pump becomes jammed from calcium flaking off the inside of the
bore and becoming stuck in the pump at the bottom. The water varies,
but most of the 150 bores are high in calcium. John regularly works
six to seven days a week, in response to problems reported by Chris
Slattery, the bore runner. Every day Chris drives up to 300 kilometres in
a 4WD ute to check the bores and fences, pump water to the cattle and
clean troughs. He also works in the stock camp when he is needed.
the future
The Kidman culture places great importance on family, staff loyalty,
relationships with customers and suppliers and sustainable agriculture
– looking after the land that looks after the company and its people.
However, between the mining industry and the dole, the company finds it
difficult to attract staff. Nicky says, ‘We really need ringers. For the right
people it’s a great career opportunity and you can go a long way in the
company, from a first-year ringer to leading hand to head stockman to
station manager, and the company supports you all the way.’
Staff are able to transfer in and out of the different Kidman stations to
have a look around and Nicky says at Brunchilly they do their best to
poach staff from other pastoral companies. ‘It’s a wonderful life on a
family-oriented place. We have beautiful air-conditioned quarters, a
recreation area, stables and an arena. You are on a horse nearly all the
time, your wages come in regularly and there’s nothing to spend them
on – apart from internet shopping and the hawkers who come around
all the time with their travelling shops, selling leather gear, clothes and
western gear.’
Nicky rates highly the peace of mind that comes with her job and says
she is happy to stay where she is. ‘My greatest passion is working
horses and cattle. My background is stock work and droving and I call
Brunchilly home. I never want to be anywhere else.’ Perhaps she’s right
when she says she has the best job in Australia.
information on the S. Kidman & Co. ltd training
scheme can be found at www.kidman.com.au