We were looking to visit Eighty Mile Beach and Bec and Justin had recommended this place. It’s not on Wikicamps so it’s quiet and a slightly different experience staying on a working cattle station.
We ended up arriving later than expected as we ran into the legendary Sway Family again. After our meet up just outside of Kununurra we’d hoped to cross paths again. I had a feeling they may be on this road and then when we heard chatter on the UHF about a family on push bikes we knew they weren’t far up ahead. We pulled over and spent the next couple of hours chatting, drinking coffee while the kids ate and played. Such lovely folks and hopefully we make the cut on one of their videos.
Our first evening at Anna Plains we arrived just in time to help feed the calves whose mothers had rejected them. This was a new experience for the kids and great to be able to get involved.
The next day Ken and I both woke up feeling pretty poorly. Ken has had a sore back for a few days and I just felt like I’d been hit by a train. We’d planned to hit the beach but I was exhausted just standing up. Most of the day was a complete write-off. It was, or seemed to me anyway, to be very hot and eventually I just had to go back to bed. Fortunately after a sleep I was feeling a little better. We hoped the beach would be good for us and it was.
The drive down to the beach takes you through the station, a couple of gates, past Brolga Wetland (aptly named with the amount of Brolgas around), passing cattle and Brumbies or stock horses as you go. It’s not long before you hit the dunes and then the water appears……
Not what we were expecting. We’d seen pictures of aqua/turquoise water but this was muddy cloudy. Right enough it was late in the day and the tide was out and you could just catch a glimpse of those colours far out on the horizon. We continued up the beach some 18 kms to the point and turned around to find a place to settle for the sunset. We’d also heard about the shells on the beach being amazing and they weren’t wrong.
The next few hours passed with much creativity and playfulness, building a shell palace, city and housing it with hermit crabs. There were crabs galore on the beach. It added another element of fun having to keep track of where the Princess was now and recapture her as she would often break through the palace defences while the guards, (other crabs), were either sleeping or too frightened to come out of their shells. We’d had such fun the day before we decided to head back down the beach and see if we could catch that amazing colour of the water at high tide. Unfortunately we missed the tide but had another fun beach session. Ken got to fly the drone and fish a little, and for the girls there was much exploring, building, crab capturing and shell hunting to be done.
We returned to camp in the early afternoon for lunch and a sleep for Lulu, all to the music of the mooing cattle. That morning a muster had taken place. The horses were separated from the cows and the herd contained in a large pen close to the campground. They were a noisy mob all afternoon and well into the night.
Anna Plains has 25,000 head of cattle, sells about 30% and breeds about 30% each year. I think the figure was $600 per head for a sale. The horses on the property are more of a nuisance and they are happy to give them away if they could find someone to come and get them. Before Helen “Boss lady” took over there were plenty of Aboriginal stockmen on the station but they wouldn’t work for a lady apparently so walked off and left the station, leaving the horses to mix with the few good race horses that were bred here.
Since then musters are done with helicopter and LandCruisers. They have some permanent staff and then have kids on their gap year come up for the season (Feb – Oct). It’s hard work, long days but seems like it would be an awesome experience.
The other big problem on the station is wild dogs. They lose about 700 calves to dogs or dog attack. That afternoon we popped down to feed the potty calves again and a new one had been brought in. He’d been found on the muster, very dehydrated, and suffering from a dog attack. Having cleaned the wounds, administered antibiotics and continually trying to rehydrate the animal all day, Ed the farm hand was going to need to make sure it was well looked after overnight.
There is a dog man on staff trying to minimise the effects and trauma the dogs inflict. They use bait and shoot them apparently, having killed 150 this year already. A real eye opener for us city folk. Anna Plains Station has been a great little experience and adventure. We can see why they have regulars that turn up every year for months on end.
