Let's get Crackin

So the days of picking are becoming long, hard and mostly boring; therefore, a solution is needed. Thanks to Amy and Tom back in Tasmania we had arranged a possible work experience at a sheep station (better known as sheep husbandry) as a farm hand in the bloody middle of nowhere. The family who hired us have two stations that have around 7,000 sheep and is roughly 140km north of Port Augusta and will require us to do pretty much anything...possibly including any of the following: shearing, tagging, riding dirt bikes and quads, mustering sheep, fixing fences, looking after the sheep, cleaning paddocks, driving all sorts of machinery, and probably general handy man work. Yahoo, the days of mundane, tedious, and repetitive work (all synonyms) are finally over though we have learnt a few things like knowing how to pick a good grape bunch at the supermarkets, the value of a well earn dollar, an increased level of patience, the general outlook of the grape industry, and how to play many orchestrated cricket games in the sand.

Now the fun begins or insanely hard work, depending how you look at it. The farm is located in the absolute definition of  in middle of nowhere based in the Woomera Prohibited Area which is a designated flat, normally dry, 127,000km square bit of land used for military test activities. Eeek! The website for the Woomera Test Range (WTR) area states that:

“A number of pastoral stations and homesteads are located in the eastern section of the WTR (US), with the land being used for sheep and cattle grazing. Arrangements are made to evacuate pastoralists and other personnel on a short-term basis when necessary for the safe conduct of trial activities”

Holy shit! Frick’n atom bombs are a goin’ off. Dave quote: “we’re screwed”

Lame..I know

Look through their website and see how long the list is for military missile trials. I’m mostly interested in the PRISM  Electronic Welfare Trails which reminds of PRISM Towers in Command and Conquer Red Alert. Just thinking of this Australian painted prism tower placed in a random area and a Soviet tank, or in our case a PzH 2000 Howitzer tank drives by and explodes all in our back yard. Nerdy yes, appropriate, probably not.

Plus there is a shit load of water! Great, 4WD LOW RANGE TERRITORY


But seriously, there is no issue with the location or the people!

We have arranged to be on the farm by the 2^nd of April, so our trip resumes from Robinvale following our noses heading through Murray River country, Bendigo for an oil change, the Great Ocean Road trail to soak up the beach atmosphere, then off NOW partially green and dry heat country to Adelaide and beyond.