RFTTE Podcast & Audiobook Recommendations...
Updated: Dec 1, 2022
PODCAST: Roland Breckwoldt’s radical life change
‘In that instant I knew I needed to become a cowboy’
Roland Breckwoldt, agricultural and environmental advisor, one of Australia’s most respected horsemen, author of 'The New Ringer'.
Roland Breckwoldt was working as a lab technician in Sydney when he heard about the chance to move to a remote cattle station in Queensland to become a stockman.
He had no experience on a station and none of the skills needed for the job.
But, everything inside him told him he, “just had to go”. LISTEN NOW
PODCAST: Campbell Costello, The flying vet from outback QLD
Campbell Costello's work as a vet has taken him out of his family's station in North Queensland to places as far flung as Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Patagonia.
He's acted as the official vet for a sled race in Alaska, for epic horse races in Mongolia and Argentina, and he has run a cattle station in the former Soviet Union.
But after a family tragedy, Dr Costello got his pilot's licence so he could service Australian communities and stations in the country's most remote corners. LISTEN NOW
PODCAST: Lach McClymont - How to catch a wild bull
Lach McClymont started a contract mustering business when he was just 23. Having grown up on a sheep property near Goondiwindi, he always knew he wanted to work on the land.
Lach learnt the ropes by working as a ringer everywhere from the Kimberley to Cape York, to Victoria; always looking to learn from older hands, and with his eyes on a very big prize.
Flying over the Territory one day, Lach saw huge numbers of cattle roaming wild on traditionally-owned land near the Queensland border. He learned the cattle hadn’t been handled in 30 years.
In 2018, Lach and a small team, in conjunction with the local owners, mounted a complex operation to muster those cattle. They spent three intense months working mostly at night, bull-catching in rough, rocky, and pristine terrain. LISTEN NOW
AUDIOBOOK: OUTBACK STATIONS | The Life and Times of Australia's Biggest Cattle and Sheep Properties
"From the helicopter I could see the property's waterholes surrounded by paperbark trees, its red-stone cliffs lit by the rising sun. And grass, endless seas of grass. Here was the vision splendid: Nat Buchanan's grass castle. Gurindji country. And my country, Australia."
This is big country, the outback, home to the largest cattle and sheep stations in the world. Yet as these properties are closed to visitors, few of us know what goes on behind the farm gate. So what's life really like when next door is 500 kilometres away, and mustering livestock in their tens of thousands, backbreaking physical labour, and dealing with extreme heat and long hours is all in a day's work? And why would these tough stockmen and women not have it any other way?
You will need an AUDIBLE account to listen to this audiobook: https://www.audible.com.au/pd/Outback-Stations-Audiobook/B00FN1TL3I
AUDIOBOOK: The Cattle King | Sir Sidney Kidman
This book is an inspiring tribute to the remarkable life of Sir Sidney Kidman - the Cattle King. At the age of 13 Sidney Kidman ran away from home with only five shillings in his pocket. He went on to become a horse dealer, drover, cattle buyer and bush jockey and he also ran a coach business. Above all Kidman created a mighty cattle empire of more than a hundred stations, fighting droughts, bushfires, floods and plagues of vermin to do so. His enterprise and courage won him a huge fortune and made him a legend.
You will need an AUDIBLE account to listen to this audiobook: https://www.audible.com.au/pd/The-Cattle-King-Audiobook/B00FMMDHEC
PODCAST | More than the station manager's wife: Sally Warriner
Sally Warriner went from a hippie backpacking across Europe, to living on remote cattle stations in Western Australia and the Northern Territory in the blink of an eye.
Twenty years later, though, in the middle of the night, she abandoned ship.
After two decades being called - and calling herself - the wife of the general manager, it was hard for Sally to redefine herself.
She went back to nursing, finding new adventures in places like Sierra Leone, Sudan and Bhutan. LISTEN NOW
PODCAST: Pastoralist Susan Bradley's love for land and people of the Kimberley
Susan's lived and worked in the remote Kimberley region for more than thirty-five years and says she may never leave.
She and her husband established a Flying Veterinary Service in Kununurra which they ran for many years. They then developed two of the most significant cattle stations in Australia's north.
Susan's abiding love for the land and people of the Kimberley inform her work to sponsor the education of Indigenous youth, and protect the Kimberley's ancient rock galleries.
AUDIOBOOK: BILL THE BASTARD
Bill was massive. He had power, intelligence, and unmatched courage. In performance and character he stood above all the other 200,000 Australian horses sent to the Middle East in the Great War. But as war horses go he had one serious problem. No one could ride him but one man - Major Michael Shanahan. Some even thought Bill took a sneering pleasure in watching would-be riders hit the dust.
You will need an AUDIBLE account to listen to this audiobook: https://www.audible.com.au/pd/Bill-the-Bastard-Audiobook/B00FO6HVTS
VIDEO | THE FLYING VET: DAVID BRADLEY
'The Flying Vet' features David Bradley and his wife Susan, who operated the biggest veterinary practice in the world, flying a tiny Cessna out of Kununurra to cattle stations across northern Australia. David was at the forefront of TB eradication from cattle in the Top End...
VIDEO: SARAWAK STOCK TAKE
'Sarawak Stock Take' from 1985, featuring the Rosewood Stockcamp and the first live exports to Malaysia - both include stunning aerial footage, including Bullo River Station, Newcastle Waters and Rockhampton Downs...
PODCAST: ALPHA BLOKES
Alpha Blokes is brought to you by a couple of mates who love all things outdoors, sinking tins, cooking up a storm, talking sh!t and having a laugh. Tommy and Cam are coming in hot to promote having a crack and build a community that loves life, deleting Headnoise one laugh at a time.
Jump on board and listen to the lads talk to different blokes (and a few non blokes) about their stories. Whether it be starting a new business, overcoming adversity or just a ripper tale that deserves being told.