Day 40

A few days ago met a guy at the Royal Flying Doctors Service tour who had just come back from a week on an outback station and we thought we would give that a go too. So we called them up and they were heading away to pick up rams but it was arranged that we would start today.

So, in exchange for a few hours working around the station, we get bed, board and beers and more importantly to us, the experience of an outback station. We are tasked with repainting 2 of the rooms in the Shearers Quarters.

Mt Gipps sheep station, owned by Kym and John Cramp is a historic 85,000 acre property. Before it was sub-divided into all the properties that exist today, Mt Gipps was a much larger station with one 'paddock' named the 'Broken Hill'. It was on this paddock that one of the farm hands, a Charles Rasp, discovered what he thought was tin and reported this to the station manager. They then staked their claim which was the formation of BHP and once the realised it was silver and not tin, this led to the city of Broken Hill being formed.

After we settled down in a cute 3 bedroom cottage, we did a few hours painting and then had a long lunch with a tour group that stopped in on their way back from Cameroon Corner (point where SA, QLD and NSW meet).

In the afternoon went with Kym and Snappy the Jack Russell to pick up the ute John had left at the start of the track he was grading. Michael drove this back to the station via the highest hill on the station to watch the sunset with some beers Kym produced.

Overnight: Mt Gipps Station