Outback saddlers: 1,000s of miles for cattle station customers | Wide Open Spaces #5 | ABC Australia

certainly online shopping has had a big impact on that and now we're pretty well the only one that travels around the stations even in a widespread drought someone somewhere is doing okay the destruction cyclone trevor rained down on north queensland in march killing half a million cattle revived drought-hit stations in the channel country hundreds of kilometres south at glengail near birdsville the waters took weeks to arrive you know one in a couple hundred year event those poor buggers hadn't and the losses they suffered was was pretty terrible but um yeah we were looking forward to what we were getting going to get out of the other end there and i think they they'd think the same for us they'd say good you know that's just where the lay of the land is but it was definitely tough to watch [Music] the riverbank spilled a slow wonderful flood across half the station's five and a half thousand square kilometres within weeks glengal was transformed we're in bad route as bad as it gets but there's a big green strip down the middle about 100 kilometers long and 20 or 30 cases wide so we've got all our cattle in on that and that'll last us for another 12-18 months the station's herd was down to 400 but new feed meant nine thousand cattle from the north could be trucked in the unique feature of channel country is the myriad of rivulets wriggling across the landscape in this boom bust country horses trump motorbikes this bottom row here these are all our working saddles the ones we use from day to day the station's hub is the tax shed i love love the history and you look around here we we go right from the back saddle days bronco ropes right to the latest saddle we've got here we've got everything in between can you imagine spending day after day in the saddle on some of the older ones those tough old fellas they must have hard asses a good station saddle costs between three and four thousand dollars a ringer's most important tool they must be tough durable and comfortable [Music] much of glengale's gear is made in stanthorpe in southeast queensland lyle kent's workshop is one of the largest salary business in the country still crafting leather goods by hand we really believe hand stitching is a better way to go with belts and bridles and pouches and all those sort of things yeah stronger and better better shape more style yeah type of thing yeah it'll be just we hope there's a future for it i suppose it's a holding on to a heritage it's a tradition lyle and wife helen are legends in the station world around the pilbara here and it's a it's quite a long distance between places and a big circle there head back up through broome derby across here they take customer service to a new level driving thousands of kilometres to visit clients for 29 years lyle and helen have driven their salary-filled truck up and across the north it's an incredible journey how many k's in how many months about 35 000 k's yeah five months of a year and we do at 140 stations in that time and pretty well try to stop the station every single night we can i think the first time i came on the trip you know i'd never been you know past the great fighting range first off really and just the space you know the wide open spaces and that still you know is just amazing to me you know you can look out in the landscape you know and look across the whole horizon and it's it's just quite amazing i just love the country love cattle stations love the outback yeah for me i just love it yeah the couple are much loved and station managers their families and staff look forward to their annual visit even if all the gear could be ordered online it's a big thing there like a part of the family i've grown up with yeah you've had a pretty dry run across the back very tough up north really tough riding shotgun is dachshund smokey a little dog with a lot of miles on him the truck holds everything a ringer could want a lot of the basic sort of gear it's like belts and pocket knives and leatherman and barrier gear butchering gear is a really big thing different areas will go for different things some places i'll go for whips as i go for ball straps and horn saws steve invited four nearby stations to go shopping and i'll get the numbers on the quick show oh that's all right it's a get together you can have a yarn and chew the fat and run someone down you know what you want to do steve's known lyle for 20 years and it's become a treasured friendship we've just you know talked and caught up every year i don't think i've ever missed him and it's been a pleasure to have him around and and the the staff enjoy it they there's a bit of a buzz when they turn up and they're happy to spend a bit of money and get some good gear and by this time of the year they've seen what they don't have and and what some of the better ringers have gotten may want to copy them lyle's handy on the leather tools he'll do repairs and if there's a tricky horse to fit he'll measure it up and custom make a saddle selling a rookie ringer his first set of shoeing gear made his knife yeah i love it because it really shows that those people that buy that sort of gear are sort of fair income they want to be in the industry i think and that's always a real sign isn't it it doesn't happen at every stop but this visit someone bought a saddle part of the issue with the sailors is they last too long so we've got sailors on stations like 25 year old and they're still going what number and for every saddle sold the kent nameplate is put on by lyle himself but it's not a kent event until the team's station photo is taken you're looking all right thank you we didn't really know where it was going to go and it's been the best thing we've done in our travels isn't it 2019 glenn gold photo out of the collection the photos feature in many station dining rooms around the country through the glengail gallery steve can see his family growing up just incredible how the years go away yeah now you can keep a track of the kids and you can watch the kids grow up right through the photos it was a good night about ten thousand dollars in sales after a quick morning smoko break the cants are off again for lyle one of the great satisfactions of the repeat visits is seeing young ringers change their self-confidence grows and they've really found something that they can do and they enjoy i always say well they start to walk and talk with a swagger and just get that sort of where all the you know the clothes the kents are self-sufficient if there's no roadhouse they just pull over for a feed i guess it's been challenging sometimes hasn't it i think it's growing our patience and our appreciation for each other and what we want each of us the part that each of us plays in it probably even going back five or six seven years ago there was quite a number of people traveling around selling selling wares you know and generally not uh they didn't generally make their own gear they're mostly sort of gear that they would sell as they went and i think uh certainly online shopping has had a big impact on that and now we're pretty well the only one that travels around the stations yeah they're heading to their 123rd station morning planes it too has come to life after nine years of drought we'll bargain even this country around here where we are here near the homestead and all that is that was all that was all buggered sort of you know like we wouldn't run cattle issue there's a lot of mustering work to be done moving newly arrived cattle onto the best feed it's a magic time with a huge range of plants craig says would fatten a crowbar there's not a bit of feed in the channel country that they can't eat there's you know um there's it's all all palatable sort of food oh the law everything's everything's edible you know that's a big thing and it lasts it's not like in the north where you get some of that feed gets bleached and by september october there's no goodness left in it this country this feed in this country will last through until next year you know till easter staff are happy to be busy again and with the great season there's good reason to go shopping although start looking for it from about anywhere from april on i reckon they're too early in the year you know when's lockheed's going to be because the first thing they do they walk into the kitchen and they see all the pictures and straight away you know then they start seeing all the gear that that um that all the blokes have dinner hobbles radio hostels all got ken you know and then they start asking questions so by the time log gets here this time of the year you know they're really keen staff only get to town every month or so so it was a busy night everyone always saves up a bit of money because they know that they're going to spend a lot of money here yeah neymar gets really excited for it yeah it's good after 29 years on the road next year we'll see the end of an era when trip 30 is over the travelling outback settlers have decided to stop you see a lot of them start and stop and and don't carry on and lyle's been there for the long haul lyle and helen are back home now busy as ever working alongside three of their sons who are adamant they won't be taking over the truck run some days i don't know how mum and dad do it a station a day it's such a full-on dad's pretty hard fella and mum's real sweet and yeah they really do blend and bounce off each other and yeah they're a great team it's very obvious lyle and helen will miss the hospitality the friendships and the simplicity of life on the road but their kids reckon lyle could do a john farnham and fail terribly at retirement well yeah and you've promised yeah that's good that's cool you

Channel: ABC Australia

Views: 102,961

Rating: 4.9441676 out of 5

Keywords: ABC, Australia, ABC Australia, bush, outback, pastoral, pioneer, land, history, cattle, leather, artisan, saddler, craft, pioneers, travel, drought, exploration, nature, environment, resilience, endurance, dynasty, Landline, Landline ABC, ABC Landline

Id: QOGynOVpaas

Length: 12min 2sec (722 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 11 2021