The Kempe family’s involvement in the pastoral industry traces back to the 1800’s, when Ernest Courtenay Kempe was in partnership with the Sir Sidney Kidman. His nephew Ernest Ravenscroft Kempe ran away from home at the age of 12, joining him at The Peak station. Between Ernest Ravenscroft Kempe and his son John Kempe they […]
Doug McBean is was raised on a cattle station in the Victoria River District in the Northern Territory. With 30 years under his belt as a helicopter mustering pilot, he’s seen and done a fair bit around the traps. So, you might think that a podcast episode with Doug would involve all sorts of wild […]
Abbro Woolnough was born a 6th generation dairy farmer on the NSW north central coast. However, despite being surrounded by dairy cattle, he developed a passion for the beef industry. After his initial career plans didn’t work out, he moved to Mt Riddock Station in Central Australia as a jackeroo. But, that’s not the end […]
Campbell Duff came to the Northern Territory thinking he knew it all and was ready to take on the world. Today, he is a completely different person. In this episode we speak about what prompted him to grow up from an overly confident teenager to a settled young man who has been given the responsibility […]
With two cattle stations in the Northern Territory, a cattle property in Queensland, and a helicopter business, Rebecca and Steven Cadzow were in the perfect position to continue expanding their business interests and develop a pastoral empire that so many dream of. But, instead they made the decision to downsize to just one cattle station. […]
Helen Kempe was born on Macumba Station in 1950, as the fourth generation of her family to be involved in the S Kidman and Co Pastoral empire. At the age of 16 Helen moved to the Northern Territory and to this day she has never left. Everyone knows Miss Helen, and Miss Helen knows everyone. […]
What would you do if you knew your life was going to change irrevocably, and there was nothing you could do to stop it? That’s the predicament Mitch Scott found himself in when he was diagnosed with Usher Syndrome – a rare genetic disorder primarily characterized by deafness and a progressive loss of vision. In […]
After high school, Frances Cooper ticked all the boxes society told her to: go to university, get a great job, land a promotion, and keep climbing the career ladder. On paper, Fran’s life looked like hard work and success. But… something was missing. So, in her late 20’s she took off to Africa – a […]
Conversations in the agricultural and rural community pertaining to mental health generally don’t go beyond raising awareness of mental health itself and what it is. We think it’s time for the conversation to move forward from simplying saying “It’s ok not to be ok”, and to discuss what we can do to look after ourselves […]
We all know that when you work on a cattle station, you’re bound to come across creatures other than cattle. If you’re in the desert country, it might be camels and donkeys – and if you’re way up high in the top end, you’ll probably see water buffalo, and if you’re lucky… or … well… […]
Living so far from town is often one of the perks that draws people to work on a cattle station. When you live out bush you can enjoy wide open spaces and often your neighbours are tens of kilometres away, if not hundreds. But what happens when you need services which are only provided in […]
Since she was knee-high to a grasshopper, Tylah Bonisch knew she wanted to work with cattle and horses. She didn’t travel to the north for a gap year, but to start her career in the pastoral industry. In this episode Tylah and I speak about her time in the industry so far, and how she […]
Jess Di Pasquale is a born and bred Territory girl. Even though her childhood was colored with living on and visiting cattle stations, she went on the excel in the English equine discipline of Mounted Games, competing overseas 3 times while Representing Australia. In this episode, Jess shares her latests plans to compete in the […]
Let’s be honest, we love to judge. It’s second nature to take someone at face value and make assumptions about them. In social science, this phenomenon is called schema are mental structures that an individual uses to organize knowledge and guide cognitive processes and behaviour. So what that means, is that we use Schema to categorize objects and […]
Luke Hayes was born a 6th generation pastoralist on Deep Well Station in Central Australia. You’d be forgiven if you assumed that Luke was planning to continue in the same line of work as the previous 5 generations of his family – it just makes sense, right? However, that is not Luke’s story. As a […]
Tanya was raised on a cattle station north of Alice Springs during the 1960s and 1970s. The stories from her childhood sound like something out of book – too wild and wonderful to be true. As it turns out – they are so extraordinary Tanya has published them into a memoir called An Alice Girl, […]
Welcome to the final Central Station podcast for 2020! As per usual, you’re listening to me, Steph Coombes, who is the host of this podcast and who also manages all of the Central Station platforms. Today’s episode has been inspired by Lucy Daley, who featured on Episode 52. When asked what message would she put […]
In today’s episode I’m chatting with Lucy Daley, who lives on a property called Katherine Downs in the Northern Territory. Lucy has managed to fit an awful lot into her life so far, including going droving, living overseas, running a cattle station with her husband, obtaining a fixed wing licence and having 4 kids! Lucy […]
In todays episode, I’m chatting with Sarah Cook, who not only manages a cattle station in the Northern Territory, but is the President of the NT Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that after 12 years in this industry, I only recently learnt about the issue that we’re going to be […]
In today’s episode we’re sitting down with Mel Bethel. Chances are, you’ve seen Mel’s photography on Facebook and Instagram – she’s the woman you want at your campdrafts because she’s pretty handy with a camera. But what we see of Mel online is her work, photos of animals and other people – so we wanted […]
