Bush Kids

As I sit here in the midst of a New England winters day, my fire is going and misty rain falls outside, both my girls are home sick, courtesy of Daycare germs.

I can't help but think back to the days of clear blue skies, warm sunshine and the very few times they got sick when we lived 'up north'. How different the experience is to have a pharmacy down the road and not be worried about an airstrip.

When we lived at Humbert River Ruby was only about 6 months old and she rolled off the bed hitting her head on either the bedside table or the concrete floor - bad mother moment, I had left the room to go to the loo and didn't see it happen.

I was alone, Jordan off fishing at a neighboring station and it was Easter so the local clinic wasn't open. I had to call the District Medical Officer who was based in Darwin to get their advice. I was a first time mum living at what I thought was a pretty remote outstation at the time. I was only 30kms to the closest clinic and if I left at daylight I could do a daytrip into Katherine and back. I had it pretty good but the worry ate me up that day. Ruby had a bump on the head but was fine.

Ruby spent her days with me, sometimes sitting under the flame trees or the boabs playing with her blue dog hokey. I'd strap her to me and go Barra fishing or we'd cart her to the yards to see some cattle work. Some day's i'd even attempt to push the pram through the sand into the Judbarra national park for a walk. I fell pregnant with Della here and this was also mid covid. Ruby hadn't been sick yet. These days looking back were an idyllic part of our transition into a family of 3. I do recall sometimes being lonely though and wishing I had another mum to talk to or have a coffee with. Even just having family visit would have been nice but wasn't possible.

Within 12 months we moved next door to Victoria River Downs, Helimuster was based here so I had constant access to helicopters and light planes which for any mother living in the outback is a comfort.

Our stint here was brief as the opportunity to manage Birrindudu came up, after flying down heavily pregnant to have a look, madly we took the job.

I travelled the 4.5hrs into Katherine from VRD to await the birth of Della - who was 11 days over!

We bounced our way through Jasper Gorge, me clutching my tiny 3 day old baby in the back seat so her head didn't wobble off as the other road we would usually take was cut by water.

We tried to leave VRD and head to Birrindudu and our first attempt I think we managed about 10kms in 3hrs because of the rain. A day or so later we got out but went the long way round due to flooding. I felt like we were driving to the end of the earth.

My parents naturally were more than a little worried by the move. They thought we were crazy to move somewhere so remote with two little girls.

It wasn't until we left that I became aware of just how many hardened territorians had an opinion on us living down there with the kids for as long as we did. Many have done it before us and did it much tougher but it was a comfort to know that perhaps the things I had found hard were infact hard, I wasn't soft.

I flew to Katherine from Birrindudu just the once with Della, I was sure something wasn't right with her - I was turned around and basically marched back out of Katherine hospital and told to start solids. I flew home again still knowing something wasn't right and thankfully The Australian Breast Feeding Association solved my problem for me.

The flight you may be imagining is comfortable but I can tell you it was a small plane, it was hot as hell and we had to make stops at communities along the way to pick up and drop off passengers. Imagine someone being sick in such a confined space or even just the rank smell of body odour.. flying to town wasn't something you did lightly.

We didn't have a bitumen airstrip at Birrindudu and Ruby has been chronically car sick since about a year old - you can imagine the toll this took on her and us when town was 700kms one way.

We were hit with gastro, afternoon was approaching and I hadn't slept in over 24hrs, I knew I couldn't drive but was getting seriously worried about Ruby's condition.

I was also concerned driving would make her lose more fluids and after 12hrs she couldn't afford to lose anymore.

Thankfully a helicopter was heading to another station in our district and he stopped off at the Kalkarindji Health clinic to grab us some medicine and drop it off. Not exactly on his way but this saved us a hellish trip to town.

She started to improve, after 36hrs awake I fell asleep on the lounge room floor - to then be rolled by gastro myself the next day.

We had the usual head knocks and bruises and the odd rash or two, many times I had the phone pressed between my shoulder and ear, describing symptoms whilst packing a bag one handed in case I needed to get one of the girls out asap. Thankfully it never came to that. Their heads were tougher than I knew they could be although Ruby still sports a black front tooth due to impact.

Della once shoved a rock up her nose - thankfully Jess our cook was a quick thinker and we had it out within minutes.

I think the one thing that worried me most was snakes. in 3.5years at Birrindudu we didn't see too many in the homestead area - not until that last wet season when we were practically crawling with them.

The kids had a school room only about 20metres from the main house and Ruby asked if she could grab something from it, I said yes but then decided to check the lawn for snakes. I killed a brown right where she would have walked.

I was pretty set on keeping the lawns short, I think I ran over 5 snakes in one afternoon.

We had browns in the kitchen, in the boys quarters, and pythons in buildings, the head stockman even had one on a ceiling fan in his room.

Four of my dogs went mad by the creek one afternoon and I saw the flash of scales in the sun. They were onto the fattest brown snake I had ever seen. It bit Ruby's Jack Russell she somehow lived. I was again completely alone when this happened, everyone on the station had gone to a bbq on the driveway.

That snake wasn't far from my house and my kids so I killed it. I screamed at it when I was killing it. All my fears, my stress and my anxiety and some anger pouring out of me. I'd been in a constant state of stress for months by this point.

The funny things is looking back now I wouldn't change it.

We experienced some once in a lifetime events as a family while we lived in the NT, good and bad.

Our girls communication skills are great, they are quite matter of fact about most things. Ruby sat at the table with all our staff at Birrindudu once and informed them all that her little dog Dot was dead because she had picked up a dog bait. We actually don't know what happened to Dot but Ruby had listened in enough to daily goings on and made her own assumptions, it broke my heart a bit but maybe it gave her some closure.

Inspite of this they still love Disney princesses just like other kids, they dress up and believe in unicorns.

I was worried about how they would transition from bush kids growing up on a cattle station to going to Daycare and school, worried they'd drop a few swear words or talk about killers and dingoes. They have adjusted better than I could have imagined and I can see how good this change has been for them.

I want to take them back one day, just for a look. Take them back to Birrindudu and show them where we were a family and talk about all the things we experienced there.

I truly believe raising my girls in the bush gave them a great start to life. I hope maybe they were young enough they can forget my shortcomings and the times I perhaps didn't handle things so well because it was bloody tough to be a mum with no family close by.

One of my greatest friends with kids was still a 5hr drive away but then she moved, we only saw each other at the odd campdraft then. I cried when she told me she was moving. The isolation and trying to keep it all together as a mum, a wife and a boss was all consuming and I am still working through these things.

One thing I know for sure is I am proud that Jordan and I worked hard to give my girls the experience that I am sure one day they will revisit as Ruby often says 'i'm a ringer'.

Grace x