Rosalee Station

by Magro, Mandy

  ‘Shit, there’s half a bloody cow on my plate. Awesome!’ Daniel beamed.

  They helped themselves to the salad bar and poured tomato sauce over their chips. Sarah was actually salivating by the time she got back to the table. They ate in silence, too busy enjoying their food to utter a word. Sarah collected the scraps off the plates and rolled them up in a serviette for Duke.

  ‘You guys ready to head? We still have another two hours’ driving.’ Sarah downed the last of her light beer.

  ‘I’m ready as ever. That was a great piece of steak.’ Daniel stood up, undoing his belt a little.

  ‘I’m going to crash as soon as my head hits the pillow tonight, even after my three-hour nap.’ Lily yawned.

  They lethargically wandered out to the Cruiser for the final leg. Nearly there, Sarah thought, as butterflies started in her belly. She couldn’t wait to see her new home at Rosalee.

  Lily and Daniel were asleep within ten minutes of leaving Mount Isa. Sarah flicked the radio on low for company, and hummed along. She finally hit dirt road and thought about all the stories she had heard about the min min lights. They were famous around these parts – there were even signs up on the side of the road warning people about them. Talk about putting the wind up a person, she thought. These mysterious lights appeared in the darkness and sometimes moved, and no one to this day had been able to really explain the phenomenon. They freaked Sarah out, and she was glad she had the two sleeping bodies in the car with her. There were so many different yarns about what they were and where they had originated from that you didn’t really know who to believe.

  She had been driving along the dirt track for about half an hour when she felt the steering wheel tug to the left. She sat bolt upright and gripped the wheel, her adrenaline rush making her feel acutely awake. It felt like she had a flat tyre and had lost control of the steering. The truck bounced and jerked, pulling over to the side of the road. It felt like driving on ice, and Sarah yelled out in fright, thinking of Victory in the float. Daniel and Lily snapped awake.

  ‘It’s all right, just calm down, Sarah,’ Daniel said, clutching at his ribs. ‘You’ve just hit a stretch of bulldust, that’s all.’

  ‘Bull what!’ Sarah yelled, still struggling with the steering wheel. ‘You better not be pulling my leg, Dan!’

  ‘Just go with the flow, and you’ll find you’ll float right out of it. Keep your foot down on the accelerator about halfway, cos if you slow down too much it’s even harder to drive through, but if you go too fast it will take control of the Cruiser,’ Daniel explained, trying not to laugh at his sister’s face as she concentrated hard on his instructions. She hunched forward like an old person trying to see out the windscreen, her knuckles white from gripping the steering wheel so tightly. Lily burst out laughing.

  ‘What are you two buggers laughing at, then?’ Sarah said, her face cracking into a grin. She was a country girl, that was true, but she hadn’t ever driven out any further west than Charters Towers. This was her first lesson in the real Australian outback.

  They drove on for another hour, chatting to each other to stay alert. The corrugations in the road were teeth-shattering, and on top of that the truck was dodging cattle left, right and centre, so Sarah had to drive with extreme caution.

  It was close to eleven when they realised they were nearly there.

  ‘Keep your eyes peeled for an old Toyota bonnet with “Rosalee Station” written on it,’ Sarah said, barely able to contain her excitement.

  ‘I can see something just up ahead. The headlights keep catching it when we hit the corrugations,’ Lily replied.

  ‘Yep, that’s definitely it. Look at the big red arrow pointing the way to go – no road signs out here. You gotta love it!’ Daniel laughed as the truck swung past the sign and followed the dirt track for another ten kilometres or so before arriving at the front gates.

  Sarah flashed her headlights to high beam, and within a minute she could see Brad walking towards the gates. She had to contain her urge to jump out of the car and kiss him. Brad smiled when he got close enough to see them, his pearly whites shining in the headlights. He opened the gates, directing them through with a cheeky grin. Sarah drove through slowly and stopped when Brad was level with the driver’s window.

  ‘Hi there. Wanna lift?’

  ‘Don’t mind if I do.’ Brad leant in the open window to give Sarah a kiss. Daniel and Lily moved to the back of the truck and Brad got in the front.

  ‘How was the trip, babe?’

  ‘It was long, but amazing to see how the countryside changes as you drive here.’

  ‘Here, Sarah, take a left turn and you’ll see the stables just ahead.’ Brad pointed the way.

  They quickly got Victory settled into his new home, unhitching the horse float. Victory seemed pleased to be out of the trailer and in a wide open paddock again.

  Sarah drove on to the workers’ cottage and parked her Land Cruiser under a giant paperbark tree so it would shade all her stuff when the sun rose. She left her headlights on for a moment, studying the magnificent, papery layers of the tree standing powerfully in front of her. She jumped in fright as a ringtail possum scampered up the massive trunk, its eyes glowing eerily red in the beams of the headlights. Paperbarks were Sarah’s favourite native tree, utterly striking to look at; she would admire its beauty more tomorrow.

  ‘Bugger unpacking until morning,’ she mumbled to Brad as she turned off the lights and cut the engine. She sat in the driver’s seat for a few more seconds; gazing up at the infinite blanket of radiant stars filling the night sky with their brilliance. She shook her head in awe. She had never seen anything so beautiful.

  In the distance Sarah could hear the generator clanking and sputtering, supplying the station with electricity. A quick glance in the back of the Cruiser caused her eyes to widen – there was a film of red dust covering every square inch, including Duke. He jumped down off the tray and Sarah gave him a loving scratch on the head.

  ‘Come on, mate. Let’s see our new home.’

  Duke tipped his head as if to let Sarah know how much he was enjoying the attention. If he was a cat he would have purred as loud as the generator.

  Sarah, Daniel, Lily and Brad headed for the workers’ cottage with Duke in toe. He was sniffing the ground as he went, investigating all the new smells.

  The outside of the large cottage was clean and simple. It was made from corrugated iron with a rustic Aussie charm. There was bougainvillea hugging every corner of it, the magnificent colours bright under the fluorescent light that lit up the cottage like an outback lighthouse. Millions of insects buzzed around, drawn to the lights, and geckos feasted on this endless buffet.

  Once they set foot on the cool cement of the front patio they took off their boots, placing them near the other pairs thrown haphazardly about, and stepped inside. Sarah smiled: here she was, at Rosalee Station.

  Chapter Six

  SUNLIGHT flooded the bedroom through the crack in the thick, blackout curtains. It stirred Sarah out of her deep sleep and she stretched and yawned slowly, forgetting for a few moments where she was. It took her a second to get her bearings and then she smiled. She was lying beside Brad on a working cattle station in the heart of the Australian outback. What a dream come true! She rolled over to where Brad was sleeping and kissed him gently on the lips.

  ‘Good morning,’ Brad said sleepily.

  Sarah was itching to get out of bed and discover the new place she was calling home. ‘Would you like to make your lover a cuppa? I’d kill for a cup of tea and some Vegemite on toast, if it’s not too much trouble,’ she said, playfully poking him in the ribs.

  ‘Sure thing,’ Brad said, smiling as he commando-rolled out of bed to ward off the tickling. ‘We’ve got a big day ahead, showing you the ropes.’

  As Brad headed into the hallway, Sarah got up, wearing one of Brad’s T-shirts and boxers, and ripped open the curtains. The view took her breath away. It was not one of nature, but a naked guy
walking on the cement path outside, with a towel tossed over his shoulder to the outside shower. He was whistling away like he didn’t have a care in the world. Sarah gasped. Before she had time to drop out of sight, the guy looked up and caught her at the window. She saw his lips shoot out, ‘Shit!’ as he covered his manhood and ran to the shower, his iridescent white arse glowing. She giggled to herself and tried to take in the view minus the nudity, but the shower and toilet block were in the way.

  Just then the smell of toast reached her. She headed out towards the kitchen and found a much better view from the kitchen window. The land rolled in front of her like she was looking at a work of art. There was no end to the vast, flat, red plains. Dust floated in the air like it had an inherent right to be there and galahs flew about squawking to each other, enjoying the bliss of the morning sunlight. She could see the horse paddock too, and could just make out Victory with his head down, grazing. Great, she thought to herself. Looks like he’s settled in quite happily.

  Last night Brad had taken Victory to a paddock of his own instead of putting him in with the other horses. No doubt he’d had a bit of a gallop around and checked out his surroundings.

  ‘Brad, I just met one of the guys,’ Sarah said, turning from the window, embarrassment making her blush.

  ‘Oh, did you? That’s great. Hope he was on his best behaviour,’ Brad replied as he passed Sarah a piece of Vegemite toast.

  ‘Well, um, he didn’t really have the chance to introduce himself properly. I caught him walking butt-naked to the shower outside. Who does that in a house full of blokes?’ Sarah asked as she felt her cheeks burn even brighter.

  Brad burst out laughing. ‘Oh, that’s Liam. He’s a bit of a character. Comes from Ireland but has lived here for about five years now, with his brother Patrick. I worked with them both last year. Shit, he’s gonna be right embarrassed. Honestly, he’s hilarious, Sarah, and he gets up to so much mischief. You two will get on like a house on fire.’

  ‘Yeah, well, once we get over the fact I’ve seen him naked!’

  Sarah and Brad did a quick tour of the cottage. Today was the workers’ day off, so everyone was still in bed, apart from Liam, of course. There were six men, counting Brad, who worked on the station, and once you added Sarah herself, that meant seven bellies she would have to fill daily. I can handle that, she thought to herself. There was Stumpy, Patrick, Liam, Slim – who, Sarah gathered, was anything but – and a newcomer called Chris. Everyone except Chris had been working on the station every season for a while.

  She could see straightaway that the place was in need of a woman’s touch, but it was not badly kept considering it was used mostly by men. There was the occasional jillaroo, but Brad had told her that single women staying in the cottage had caused too many punch-ups, so the station owners tried to keep any women in different sleeping quarters.

  There were eight bedrooms centred round a huge lounge room with a massive box telly, which was right out of the eighties. Sarah was surprised it still worked. The floor was an incompatible mix of linos that looked to have been added at various times during the cottage’s existence, with some bits appearing quite new while other sections were nearly worn through to the cement flooring from all the foot traffic. Four mismatched couches were strewn with multicoloured cushions, parked around the television, and a massive coffee table made out of an old wagon wheel sat on a tired-looking rug. Sarah loved the homespun charm of it. Everything was a bit shabby, but cosy and inviting all the same.

  The kitchen needed a good scrub-down, but it was actually a lot better than she’d expected. Brad told her that the owners had renovated it two years back as the cooks were complaining constantly about the shitty equipment.

  ‘It’s very impressive! I thought I’d be cooking in a kitchen from the dark ages. I’ll be a happy little chef in here,’ Sarah said, relieved. The kitchen opened out onto a huge back patio with shade cloth protecting the makeshift twelve-seater table. She gathered this was where they would be sharing all their meals. Party lights were strung up haphazardly around the edges of the shade cloth, and Sarah was sure the place had seen its fair share of booze-ups over the years.

  ‘I’ll go and see if Lily and Daniel are up so they can join us for some breakfast. Chuck on some more toast, would you?’ Sarah padded off down the hall, enjoying the feeling of the cool lino on her bare feet.

  She tapped on their bedroom door. ‘Are you guys alive in there?’

  ‘Alive and kicking, my little sister! We’ll be out in a minute,’ Daniel sung out.

  ‘What’s for breakfast, cook?’ Lily asked cheekily a moment later as she cracked open the door.

  ‘Brad’s gonna make us a traditional Aussie breakfast – Vegemite on toast and a cup of Bushells tea. You better move your arses or you might miss out,’ Sarah joked.

  Sarah, Brad, Daniel and Lily were all sitting down at the table on the back patio, munching on their toast and laughing about Sarah’s first encounter with bulldust, when Liam appeared and introduced himself to them all.

  ‘Haven’t I met you some place before?’ he said, smiling as he shook Sarah’s hand. She laughed and felt immediately relaxed in his company. Brad was right. Liam seemed like a really cool bloke.

  One by one the men woke up and made their way into the kitchen to fill their empty bellies with toast, cereal and tea, joining the group at the table on the patio for a yarn. Duke, who’d spent the night on the porch, was jumping around like a toad in a sock with the excitement of it all. Stumpy got up first. He was the eldest of the lot and the boss of the jackaroos, with a weathered face that told a hundred stories of life in the saddle. His handshake was firm and genuine. Sarah could tell he was a man who said what he meant and meant what he said.

  Slim was next up, and he was definitely the opposite of his nickname. He was a six-foot, beer-barrelled bloke with a huge face and freckly skin, his hair blazing ginger. When he laughed, he warmed the place up like a fire on a cold night. He was closely followed out of bed by Patrick, Liam’s brother, who was the spitting image of Liam with his shaggy brown hair and cheeky smile, like a naughty boy who’d been up to no good. Sarah warmed to all of them. Chris, the last one up, sat down at the table with a steaming cup of coffee, smiling awkwardly. He was handsome, Sarah thought, and he seemed friendly enough. But that was it. He seemed friendly, but there was something there that didn’t feel genuine. Sarah shrugged off her vague feeling of distrust. After all, first impressions weren’t always right.

  Once breakfast was over, Sarah headed outside to start unloading the Land Cruiser. She found herself grinning from ear to ear as she stepped onto the front porch. She took a deep breath, as if trying to breathe in the landscape that lay before her. There were red dust plains as far as the eye could see. Gidgee trees stood tall amongst patches of saltbush, while a flock of northern rosellas filled the skies with their rainbow of colours. She pulled on her boots and stepped out into the brilliant sunlight, feeling as though she’d finally set foot in the true outback. The atmosphere was still, uncomplicated, with a certain smell to it, a mixture of clean, fresh air with a hint of dust and dung. The huge paperbark tree was beckoning her and she walked over to run her hands over the peeling bark. Sarah’s heart filled with joy as she realised that her new home was all that she had dreamt of.

  Brad, Daniel and Lily pitched in to help unload the Land Cruiser, and they got it done in half an hour. Sarah had tried to pack only essentials but it still felt like a lot. Her cookbooks were heavy, but a must – she wanted to provide decent meals for the men seeing as they had such a physically demanding job. Her favourite cookbook was just a notebook full of scribbled recipes she had gathered over the years from friends and family. It had some doozies in it that would knock the socks off even the fussiest of eaters – not that she expected to encounter fussy eaters out here.

  ‘Who’s up for a ride in the chopper this morning?’ Brad said once they’d finished. ‘The view from up there will blow your mind. One million acr
es to gaze at and about 20 000 head of cattle.’ Three eager faces stared back at Brad, giving him his answer without having to utter a word.

  ‘Righto, that’s settled then! Firstly though, we’ll all head up to meet the station owners. Judy will love the company. She could talk under wet cement with a mouthful of marbles. I think she gets a little lonely at times living all the way out here. She makes a wicked pumpkin scone, and normally has them on hand for anyone popping in.’

  ‘I’m looking forward to meeting her. And it’s going to be fantastic going for a flight with you!’ Sarah squealed, barely able to contain her excitement.

  They all piled into the Land Cruiser, Daniel and Lily jumping up in the back with Duke.

  ‘It’s beautiful out here, Brad. It’s amazing how such a vast space can be full of so much to look at. It just mesmerises you,’ Sarah said dreamily. Weeping bottlebrush hung over the side of the dirt track that led to the homestead, their brilliant red flowers stark against the dusty backdrop. Colossal anthills were all over the place, the outback’s version of skyscrapers, home to millions of workaholic ants that could pack a punch with one bite. They drove past a holding yard full of cattle, Sarah sniffing the air madly to catch the scent of them. The beasts bellowed loudly, kicking up billows of dust as they moved about. Next they drove past a huge shed full of machinery, new and old, before taking a turn down near a building that Brad said was the meat house, where the station butchered its cattle. Not far off to the right of the building was what looked like a professional bull riding area, chutes and all. Sarah felt her stomach lurch with excitement. ‘What’s that all about, then?’

  ‘Oh, that’s Matt’s baby,’ Brad said. ‘The station owner’s son. He uses that area to train his bucking bulls, and he also teaches young lads how to ride. You’ll have to come down and watch him sometime. He’s a brilliant bull rider.’