The Southampton crew from South West Queensland!
Host: Southampton
Written by – Kylie Savidge, Owner, Southampton Station.
Morning Central Station!
Our crew on Southampton consists of myself, my husband when he is home, my parents, our children, and “our” backpackers.
I am Kylie; I was born and raised on Southampton apart from my years away at school. This is all I have ever wanted to do, work at home and proudly continue what my father and his family started. I guess you would call me the head stockman (woman) and my Dad’s right hand (wo)man.
In this endeavour I am joined by my husband Brian, he works away week on, week off and this is what keeps the wheels turning financially. Luckily for me he shares my dream.
Geoffrey informing Brian how to tell the heifers from the bull calves! I am branding. Geoffrey is using his leg to support the weaners (older calf) head so it doesn’t knock it on the ground or move about too much. The quieter and calmer we can keep our livestock, the faster we can reunite them with mum.
Our sons Jack and Ben along with our daughter Meghan are also an integral part of our crew, joining us when they are able to in our day to day jobs. When Jack is home from boarding school he is always out and about doing as much as possible to help. We run all our stockwork and bigger projects so that they coincide with school holidays so that all my time can be spent making that happen.
Brian & Jack working on a dozer.
Ben watching weaners.
Jack and Spot watching weaners.
Ricky and Rheanna have come to stay for their 88 days of rural work so that they can apply for their second year visa to stay in Australia. Their help is vitally important to making sure that all runs smoothly for me when I am in town during the school week with Ben and Meg.
Rheanna, Ricky on bike and Meghan on tail.
Ricky watching on.
Sore footed puppies, Dixie, Sprite, Gidget and Jones getting a lift back to the house after walking agistment cattle away.
Last and by no means least are my parents, John and Queenie. Dad is out all day every day in the paddock pushing scrub to keep what is left of our breeding herd alive and Mum is at home looking after all the little bits and pieces that need doing. Mum is also very important in the child minding stakes as she takes care of Ben and Meghan on the weekends and school holidays so that I can be out doing whatever needs to be done.
We also have a few people who come in and help us when needed and they round out our crew. I have a good bunch of people to work with and this makes it very easy to accomplish what is required, we also have a hell of a lot of fun whilst doing it.
Also vital to our livelihood are our working dogs and horses, without these much of our stock work would not go as smoothly as we would like.
Our vet Julie 😉
Drew getting geared up to mark calves.