Saturday 23rd August Bronco Branding Day William Creek

Saturday 23^rd August 2014

The view from the van in the morning

 Awoke at day break and looked out the caravan door – as the windows of the van are now so dusty that you can hardly see out of them and because we have so many more miles to go on dirt its not worth cleaning them. I do make an effort with the car windscreen but that’s different.

Chopped Greg an apple up for breakfast and me an orange, made a cuppa tea, had a sponge wash and reapplication of BO basher. Gave up on hair so put a cap on and we left Duff creek lookout – which wasn’t much of a lookout but it was a great place to camp overnight -  headed toward William Creek.

The first part of the road was terrible and Greg remarked how come I got all the good road last night – to which I had no smartase reply it was too early. It was also too early to be bumped about by these awful corrugations.

Empty except for a Pink Roadhouse sign

 

More corrugations!

We went about 10 kilometers or so at a very slow 30km/hr to allow for the terrible bumps and then like a vision from heaven – a grader!

This lovely man was grading the road all the way from William Creek. What luck for us a freshly graded road! We stopped briefly to exchange ‘good mornings’ and then the road changed from bang, bump, bump to smooth as a new highway.

 

Railway bridge ruin - the old Ghan

About the same time we complained about this rotten awful cloud mass creating problems for our sunset photos at the Breakaways, a massive cloud mass was boiling over Marree and William Creek. The cloud burst happened about the same time and we had a little rain coming from Lake Hart to Marla. All that cold wind and lousy weather. We were so lucky that a massive rain dump happened over William Creek and Marree area that we would have been stuck for days if we had come up the Oodnadatta track and not down.

We had learned about the dreadful state of the roads from fellow travellers who came from that way with mud encrusted cars and tow vehicles and figured that by the time we got down that the mud would have dried out. We also learned that the graders would be out and coming toward Oodnadatta after the weather so had hoped that we would get better roads. Lucky for us we did Mount Dare,  Dalhousie springs and the Painted Desert which waylaid our trip to William Creek by about 4 days and by which time everything was dried out and the graders set to work.

 

Yay a freshly graded road!

Pink Roadhouse humour. Their road signs are up and
down the track and are really helpful

So happy as kids in a candy store, we could pick up speed and travel in relative comfort to William Creek.

We arrived at William Creek and so did some elderly travellers we had met at a ruin a few days ago. We mentioned that we were all going in the same direction but didn’t expect to see them so soon. Lovely people from Bendigo were driving a 4WD short truck that had a pop top. She was the skinniest woman I have ever seen. Most Grey nomads are quite plump to say the least. They both loved a chat and I was keen as mustard to get to the Bronco Branding carnival. We filled up with fuel in case we missed out the next day with the crowd from the carnival. We needn’t have worried. It wasn’t exactly the crowd you get at a Royal Show. Sill fuel done – which was a good move as the pub/store/ fuel provider was shutting at 2.30 to go to the carnival. We would have missed out otherwise.

The pub had one Australian young woman and 2 backpackers each from the Netherlands and Germany. We asked where the carnival was as we could see the cars in the distance but not a direct road and they promptly gave us the wrong route instructions. They seemed very smug between them and weren’t very friendly. The chick who ran the pub gave me a price on a flight over Lake Eyre which was $285 per person for an hour. I thought it was very expensive for both of us so thanked her and moved on. She wasn’t particularly friendly either. I went in to pay for the fuel and she looked at me like ‘what do you think you are doing’ and only when I asked where you pay for fuel she said, “oh here”and then managed a ‘thanks’. I was thinking of staying at William Creek but after that and the snooty backpackers, decided that this town had got enough of our money.

 

Another old railway station ruin on the way to William Creek

this wheel was made in London

Gibson and Lady Cruiser outside the ruin

Back outside and in our car – which we had turned around and now pointed in the right direction we sat for a minute until…..We watched a local drive off in the direction of the carnival and simply followed him. Those dopey foreign tarts would have us going to the tip. Hope their backpacks fall apart half way through their next trip.  They had also told me that we would not get our caravan down there – which is crap if you can drive a horse truck we can put our caravan there. There were several horse trucks there already.  

There was ample parking. We parked near the finish line on the sand race track where there was lots of room to turn around. Then hopped out of the car and prepared to have some fun. Cameras primed and hats on. It was warming up already.

First up was camp drafting – but because we were so late because of Mr and Mrs Bendigo have a chat, we only saw one competitor who failed in her attempt as she could not make her calf go around the course properly.

Next was the Bronco Branding.

I had no idea what the object of this was so I asked a local. Well he looked like a local but he was actually from Murray Bridge which is miles away and a 2 day travel. He was 57 and here with his mates. Still working the farms, he had a limp and hardly any teeth but he didn’t mind telling me that he was entered in 2 teams in the Novice and 2 teams in the Open events, and one in the doubles. Then he told me what the event was all about. What a nice man.

Basically the system was for branding young cattle in the outback. You only need a fence like thing that needs to be quite solid. Then you need someone on a horse to lasso a beast and bring it over to the metal structure. The lasso is attached to the girth of the horse’s saddle so the rider does not have to hang. The rider guides the rope so the beast, which is by this time not impressed about having a rope around its neck and is jumping about and complaining loudly and pulling. The horse – who needs to be very quiet walks or trots back to the post thing and goes to one side allowing the rope holding the young cow to slip between a gap.  The horse is not allowed at all to canter or drag the calf if it falls over.  A time penalty will occur. Its then the horse and rider that has to watch the ground crew.

 

The pole to tie the calf up to. They have a calf and the horse and rider are to the far left.

Got one. Sometimes it takes a while to rope a calf

The roped calf is then taken to the pole thing.
Note the lean on the horse

off to catch another one

In spite of their protests the calf is never hurt, just inconvenienced temporarily!

The ground crew, once the beast is near the poles guide it into position and somehow slips a leg rope around the front and the hind leg. It needs to be below the knee or it’s a penalty. Then they tension the ropes by winding them twice around the metal structure. Its then that the beast is gently but persuasively pushed over to the ground, someone leans on the neck with their knee, not to hurt the calf but so it can’t get up and hurt itself and everyone else. The horse and rider come in to slacken the neck rope which is slipped off and thrown in their general direction so the rider can gather it and go out and find another calf.

Mean while, whilst the neck rope is off, the man in the middle which is not on the back or front leg rope runs over to a bucket which has paint and grabs the ‘branding iron’ and brands the beast. The brand has to be high on the rump. If it isn’t in the right place there is another penalty. Then they also have to run a small paint roller on a long stick up the animal’s nose to its ears. After that they slip off the leg ropes and let the beast up to run back to the herd. The paint job denotes the calf is branded so nobody can ‘brand’ it again in that heat. It gets more challenging for the rider on the horse with the lasso to select a beast that hasn’t been branded by the time a few teams have come through.

 

Clydesdale cross horses are popular for this as they are very strong and quiet. 

Rules are you cannot re-brand a beast that has already been caught.

Its all done on time. The novice class had 3 minutes to catch the first beast or they were disqualified. They need to brand 3 beasts. All beasts have to be caught and branded within 8 minutes for novice and 7 minutes for open or its game over. The best time was about 3 minutes on the day. You should have seen the ground crew go! Just like clockwork. Great to watch and gave you an insight to what working on the land out here would have been like before modern technology. I hear in some remote places they still do it this way instead of shipping or droving beasts for miles to yards.

This method originated in South Australia and they used real brands that you had a fire going for. Now days they use a crush and an Oxy bottle. The sport became recognized and a national sport in the 80’s from memory to keep the skill alive.

These blokes are tough and really fit. Greg said that he felt like a fairy in comparison. The horses are so well trained the way they walk calmly among the herd and then do exactly as they are told when a beast is caught.

Interestingly there were about 6 horses and they all competed, some with just their own team but one little mare, Sally must have been in 90 percent of the teams over the whole day. She was a very smart worker and 15 hands at best with a good eye. Everyone was riding her and she was the pride and joy of a prominent station owner Thomas. None of the horses were shod.

The other interesting thing was all through our travels, we had been passing these stations, Mount Barry, we stayed at Arkaringa Station, they were there, Sarah Station, Hamilton Station, we had driven through them all and here were the people who work the land all together competing but in a really friendly way.

The event came with a couple of commentators who just about knew everyone in the stands, their wives and kids. We weren’t known – just some tourists to everyone else. They were good in explaining the rules and progress of each team’s heats in comparison to the other teams. We found it really interesting.

It was the first day we actually stayed somewhere, still, for a period of time.

Throughout the day Greg took photos with his camera with a long lens and I took photos, then we found some plastic chairs to sit on. Bought various things to eat which were yummy (steak sandwiches with the most tenderest beef and really fresh bread) and chatted to people around. There was a copper – chief inspector from Adelaide who Greg and him knew the same people in the photographic department, there was a young lady fresh out of Uni of Canberra who lived 2 suburbs away from us and was travelling with a friend of hers – who was chief time keeper for the day both on the way to Darwin in an old Fiat. 2 Girls in a 2 wheel drive car. They were a bit worried on whether they would get to their destination. We wished them luck.

Then there was the obviously well off fellow I met and had a good chat to who knew just about everyone there and could tell you stories of luck and misfortune, bravery and laughs and he stays out at their stations – often by flying and helps sometimes in musters. Wish I could do that.

He had some stories to tell.

There was also a bored kid whose Dad lives in Adelaide as do the family but this kid’s dad is a stock broker and owns the pub. His sister who is 17 was singing in the band playing that night at the dinner.

However, the afternoon wore on and after some fantastic steak sandwiches we decided that the lure of the band and a big dinner and the bundy rum cans flowing freely -  that we should maybe push on. Not far, just away a bit so we could have a good nights sleep. We were tired from doing nothing and it was a hot day.

Interestingly there was a car there sign written with RICE – Remote Isolated Kids Exercise and they had all sorts of things for kids to do. Not that ghastly face painting, but real painting on paper - and play dough and trucks for kids to play in the dirt (which was everywhere), books, coloring in, you name it and they kept all these little station kids entertained the whole day for a donation. When you think about it these kids on stations stuck in the middle of nowhere don’t get much chance to play with others the same age so it was a great play date for them all. Even as we were leaving there were still some tired kiddies playing with the stuff even though a stage had been erected and there were trestle tables and plastic chairs everywhere ready for the dinner and entertainment.

Off we drove though. I would have liked to stay too but was in 2 minds. Safer to be gone. Next day was more ruins and on to Marree where we would say goodbye to the Oodnadatta track. We camped again at a place called Strangeways which has a ruin on it too. Anywhere that is flat and not sandy and we can turn the van around is good enough when you are tired. Because we had eaten so much meat and we were running low on veg and enthusiasm for cooking I just did a pasta in pesto. Not fancy but quick and easy. Had a great night sleep.