Somewhere in the midst of the travelling and filming I signed the miniseries contract. So despite my years of trying to slow my life down, the first few months of 1998 saw it soaring completely out of control. But these were all exciting developments.
As I finish this book it is only April and I have already shot a laundry detergent commercial, have been appointed the Territory’s ambassador for the new Olympic Club, have signed a contract for a miniseries and in May will appear on the Today Show in America with a viewing audience of a mere seven million!
I have my fingers crossed that our appearance on this show will spark interest in my book and maybe I can finally get the book published in the great U.S. of A.! Then I really will be able to have a holiday—something I just can’t seem to achieve at the present.
Of course life is never a constant bed of roses. We still have no market for our cattle so there is no promise of income from that part of our work. So the cattle will graze and grow while we move more heavily into tourism. I will also take a lot more speaking engagements than I intended to this year. It looks like my bringing-my-life-under-control program will have to wait!
So as I type the last words of this book, life once again is offering me unlimited opportunities with one hand, while hitting me in the face with new challenges and problems with the other. But that seems to be what life is all about … or my life, anyway. And who said any problem or challenge is unsolvable?
Epilogue
It is April and Bullo is at the end of another wet season. The soft breeze and sunlight play games with the crops, sending ever-changing patterns of silvery waves rippling across the land as far as my eyes can see. Nearby, cattle move slowly through a sea of feed, eating contentedly.
I commit every detail of this to my memory for replay in the hot, dry, dusty, windy, desolate months later in the year. Months I know must be endured before the next rains again miraculously change the land back into a sea of green and plenty.
We have learned to expect these vast and violent opposites from this land and it never disappoints us.
I remember when Charlie brought me here so many years ago. He stood gazing out across a harsh, desolate landscape of scrub trees and salt flats distorted by dancing heatwaves.
But somehow Charlie saw potential. A vision for the future. ‘One day you will see top-grade, stud cattle grazing on improved pasture for as far as the eye can see. Mark my words.’ (A quote from Charles Henderson, circa 1963.)
At the time I thought he was insane and put the whole thing down to a midlife crisis.
But as my eyes wander over the landscape before me my thoughts turn to him again, ‘Well, Charlie, your dream has finally come true. But I have the feeling that you too can see this picture of perfection; you have been very active in my dreams lately … maybe saying, “Thank you”?
‘Heavens to Betsy, Charlie, are you going soft on me? The job is done, you god-damned, son-of-a-bitch, Yankee bastard. Rest in peace, Charlie, your dream is now reality. Now it is my turn!’ (A quote from Sara Henderson, 1998.)
Danielle and Martin cutting their wedding cake.
Club Med II, where I was guest speaker on the cruise.
Franz and his mum, resting while working in the cattle yards.
The bogged fuel truck that Marlee and Franz had to rescue.
Natalie Clair Jennings, first-born child to Danielle and Martin.
Natalie with her little brother John.
Baby John with Dad.
One of the many conferences at Darling Harbour.
Marlee with me in San Francisco, signing books.
The view from my window in the Ranacher home, where I was finishing Some of My Friends Have Tails.
Marlee, Franz and me at Gold Deck skiing resort in Austria.
Papa Ranacher working in the 400-year-old workshop.
When I stepped into this room I felt I was in Santa’s workshop.
Marlee at Katherine Show with Bazza, our Bazadaise bull, who won first prize.
Signing books on tour for Some of My Friends Have Tails.
Aunty Sue, trying to teach me to pose, at her place in Caloundra.
Ben at five weeks of age.
Ben with his dad, Uncle Robert (Franz’s brother) and his first Barra.
Ground check for spot fires after the Auvergne Station fire.
Marlee, Ben, me, Danielle and Natalie.
Eleisha Thompson and Munro, as a puppy.
Munro resting on ‘The Book’.
Jack Thompson talking about his love of the Territory at the launch of Billy Thorpe’s book Sex and Thugs and Rock’n’Roll.
Family and friends on ‘This Is Your Life’.
Ben wasn’t so sure what to do with birthday cake no.1, but he had no problems with no.2.
Ben on the bull catcher, ready for work.
Giant Bottle tree.
Tourists on the ‘Bullo River sightseeing bus’.
Bullo then.
Bullo now, with new roof and pool fence.
The birdbath in foreground.
The Finch decided we were friendlier than Mother Nature, so she built her nest in our indoor pot plant.
Bird nest with babies.
Birds are not the only wildlife we find indoors. Five frogs and a soup ladle.
Munro helping me to sort through the mail that survived the Katherine floods.
The helicopter pushed these cattle off an island, created by flooded rivers and creeks, to higher land.
Thankfully the house and airstrip were high… but not dry.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As life continues to be a charmed existence, I realise more and more each day it depends on so many, many people for it to stay that way.
‘you never really achieve anything in life on your own’
If you analyse any of your achievements you will find someone has helped you somewhere along the way.
So many people have helped me with my writing career. My publisher, the sales reps, my publicists, the designers, editors, booksellers and most important of all, you, the reader.
I thank you all and a special thanks this time goes to Cath—she knows why.
ABOUT SARA HENDERSON
Sara Jane Henderson (15 September 1936 – 29 April 2005) was an Australian pastoralist and author. She was named Businesswoman of the Year in 1991 for managing the Bullo River cattle station, 360 kilometres south-west of Darwin in the Northern Territory. In 1993 she published her autobiography From Strength to Strength which focused on her family’s efforts to manage Bullo River after her husband died in 1985. She became a spokesperson for BreastScreen Australia and urged women over 50 to have regular mammograms to discover breast cancer. Ironically, in 2000 she discovered that she herself had breast cancer. The tumour was removed, but her cancer recurred and she died at a hospital in Caloundra, Queensland on 29 April 2005.
ALSO BY SARA HENDERSON
From Strength to Strength
The Strength in Us All
Some of My Friends Have Tails
First published by Pan Macmillan Australia in 1998
This edition published in 2013 by Momentum
Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd
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Copyright © Sara Henderson 1998
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The Strength of Our Dreams
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