We’d never heard of it up until a few weeks ago.  Stafford had a fever for a week and ended up in hospital because it was so debilitating for him.  After a 4 day stay in hospital with an enlarged liver and 5kg weight loss, the diagnosis was Q Fever.  It turned out 2 of the other shearers caught it as well.

Q Fever Facts:

Q fever is an infection caused by Coxiella burnetii, a type of bacterium found worldwide except New Zealand. The infection is almost always related to direct or indirect contact with animals such as cattle, sheep or goats, although a wide range of animals including cats, dogs and kangaroos may carry the infection.

Signs and symptoms

• fever, which may last for up to 4 weeks
• severe headache
• sweats and chills
• fatigue – and a prolonged fatigue (post Q fever fatigue syndrome) may follow infection
• muscle aches
• confusion
• sore throat
• dry cough
• chest pain on breathing
• abdominal pain.

more Q fever facts here…

The sheep at the station they caught it from were way overdue to be shorn due to the farmer’s wife being in hospital with cancer.  I guess it was a stressful time for the farmer and the farm suffered as well.  Apparently there were a lot of sickly sheep which in turn effected the shearers.  Wow, it shows how crucial a farmer’s job is.

Stafford has recovered fairly well now but it can take a while to get it right out of your system…and at his young age (NOT) getting back into the grueling shearing work probably isn’t wise. He’s lucky he has options for work and will be going back to his vocational training job.

So it looks like we’ll be cutting our yearlong adventure short and heading back home in a few weeks.

We still have a few more adventures we are hoping to squeeze in before we head home…it’s not over just yet!!!!

The shearing team changes from shed to shed, but here’s the team for Mount Woowoolahra this year.  They are all Maori accept for Jenny the classer.  She determines the quality of the wool.

Jenny the Classer

Aaron Paewai

Karl

Jonnie

Lance from Waga Waga

Stafford

Ringa Paewai

Terina…another Paewai

Will

Eru from WA

Scary from WA

We can’t forget the most important job of all…the COOK.  Thanks Ngakita we were well fed…again!!!

Ngakita

Renarda’s on a roll with her video making…I just have to share this one!

Mt Wooowoolahra is just down the road from Lynray Station.  We had to go back to Lynray to pick up our camper trailer which we left there when we went to Copago.  When we saw the little mount the kids and I couldn’t wait to climb up it.

Climbing the mount

The view from the top

Sundown and the sheep are all ready for the next day of shearing

Before

After

Chris (the owner of Lynray) in action

By the time we got back to Lynray station the shearers had almost finished shearing.  After the slow start with all the rain Lewis enlisted all the top gun shearers to motor through all the sheep.  Here they are in action…(thanks to Renarda for the video)

It’s when you shear the sheep’s face and crutch…just to give them a bit of a spruce up.  I know…I KNOW what you’re thinking.  WHY… would you want a job shearing sheep bums all day!  My thoughts exactly…hahaha

Just to show you the end product, here’s Collin the pet sheep walking home after his makeover.  I wasn’t quick enough to get a before photo.

Wills job is to keep the pens full of sheep for the shearers

While everyone else is hard at work the kids and I have been busy exploring.

We were in such a rush when we came here we forgot the school books…oh well…we had to make do with this as our classroom!!!  The kids didn’t mind one bit!

These nasty things are called three cornered jacks.  They run rampant out here in the outback.  They’re as hard as wood and it doesn’t matter which way they lie, there’s a hard spike ready to stick into your feet.  The kids soon learnt to always wear shoes.

Just hanging out at the shed

After a long days work it’s time to relax.  It’s starting to get a bit cold already here in the outback.  The open fire in the dining room was really cosy.  Jill lent us an Australian history book with a lot of information about the shearers in the olden days and the old Aussie songs like “Click goes the shears”.  It was quite cool reading some of the stories while being in a setting that they would have experienced back in those days.

We left everyone else at Lynray and shot over to Copago for a few days to do some crutching.  Jack and Jill (yes their real names) are the farmers there with their 14 year old son Coner.  Copago is  84,000 acres and has been in Jacks family since his Great Grandfather bought it in 1906.

The house and old shearing shed were built in 1907.

Remnants of the old shed with the long drop in front

The good old dunny again

Luckily for us the toilets had been upgraded.  They even had separate ladies and gents bathrooms with a single FULLY PRIVATE shower for the ladies….that was Heaven after sharing old, unprivate unisex bathrooms for the last couple of months.

The ladies toilet and shower…a big deal!

You still have to fire up the hot water with the donkey though.  We’re getting pretty good at lighting fires now.

Di Lighting the fire

Will trying to keep the fire going

The hot water comes out of the barrels and into the showers

This is the new shed built in the 1990’s.  It’s big, open and spacious and has a raised board, meaning the shearers shear on a platform and the wool handlers don’t have to bend down to pickup the fleece’s.

Jack was handed the farm from his father in the late 90’s.  His son Coner will be the 5^th generation to take on the farm…if he chooses.  He has a few years to make up his mind.  I don’t know much about farming but he seemed to love roaming free on his motorbike and helping out on the farm.  I think he’s got a great future at Copago!

Coner and Jill

Jack, Coner and Jill

We’ve had a great time here at Waka Station and Bodie and Rachel (the farmers) had a bumper crop of wool this year.  Last year the shearers filled 120 bales, this year they filled 200! Not because there were any more sheep, but probably a mix of good rain, good feed, and great farmers. Jenny, our classer said the wool was top quality and to top it all off Rachel told us that the price of wool had just gone up the day before as well! Happy days for them!

the farmers income

whew…another shed over

The final bales

Jenny the Classer doing the final count

always playtime for the kids

Here’s some more details about Waka Station and a great interview with Bodie and Rachel.