Lorraine-Lee Tyerman, It's a Mug's Game (DOCO 2022)

My partner and I live on a sheep and cattle station in the NSW Outback, where life is hard, hot and dusty, and you need to be a Jack-of-all-trades. My partner always tells me that owning and running at station in the outback is a mug's game. On any day you need to wear a variety of hats for different job titles, for example, from a heavy machinery operator grading and maintaining the many roads on a property. Stockman, mustering sheep for market or to tag them is a tiring process which takes many hours for days on end to round up the thousands of sheep spread throughout the vast property. When the sheep are in the yard, you have to contend with being charged, knocked over, and being squashed, all in a days work. Labourer, in times of drought there is no additional money to hire people to do various jobs like replacing a concrete trough so that water is readily available to the stock. Vehicle repairer, at any point on the station you can have a malfunction of any type with a vehicle, generally it happens when you're more than ten kilometres from the house and workshop. You never go out without a good supply of tools for any type of emergency repair, it's a long walk home. On this day we got a flat tyre heading for home after doing the rounds checking water supplies. One thing that is exceptional in the outback is at the end of a long hot day to sit and relax while watching the sun set to reflect on the the happenings of the day, and to hope the next day runs a little smoother and without incident. My partners boots show a lot of wear and tear which are testimony to the life we live on the land.

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