Mustering: the First Yard of the Year.

  There was tension and anticipation building amongst the group as the date for the first muster of the year approached. As we drove in and out of the homestead paddock each day, we could see bull catchers appearing from under tarps, yards being reinforced and hay arriving just as the skies were clouding over.

  We had seen this four years ago and were eager to be part of the game…However, we aren’t of particular use unless we’re helping to set up the yards and move vehicles before and after the muster…BUT in return, we get a front row seat in one of the bull catchers!

  Bull catchers, four in this case, are old utes (landcruisers of course) with the roof, windscreen, doors, and seatbelts removed and replaced with steel panels all around to help ‘encourage’ the cattle/buffalo in the right direction…For those of you worried about safety with the lack of these relatively necessary structural components, their absence actually makes it safer for the driver and passenger should a cow or buffalo want a ride, so to speak.  You can get out and start running for safety!  On the front of the catcher are usually two old tyres (tires), wired to the bull bar that helps to buffer the animal and car should they hit at speed. On one bull catcher is a motorised “arm” that can be used to hook buffalo or cattle around the neck and restrain them.

Naughty bull in the arm!

  The set up of the yard is quick with many hands; the panels are pinned and roped together to form pens—one for the cattle, the other for the buffalo (they do not play nicely together). Hessian wings (burlap for our American followers) are then set up like a V from the pens out about 200m on each side (see photo). The hessian is held up by star pickets and wire ties, so all a matter of illusion really…but the animals don’t know that!

  Out here the terrain is so rugged that you can barely navigate it in a 4WD, let alone have any chance of getting out of first gear to chase cattle!  But these guys have been doing this for awhile, and can run down a stray cow no matter the kind of country.  Well, everything has limits, but if you saw where these vehicles go you’d be impressed.

  Most of the cattle are kept within a paddock not far from the homestead, but aging fences and naughty buffalo that can bulldoze their way through anything unscathed means that some of the cattle mustered the year before have now found their way to some far flung part of the sanctuary. There are also cattle that have been missed in previous musters or are so mad that they were deemed not worth the effort. This all means that there are several areas that are mustered every year, in all corners of the sanctuary. 

  The only way to round up the cattle is with a helicopter. The pilot does most of the work, pushing them towards the yards, while we all sit and wait on the outside of the wings of the yard. It’s an ambush of sorts, and sometimes camouflage is employed to disguise the bull catchers so the animals don’t see us and run away.  When the mob comes close we are off and running.  Speed is the aim so as not to give them much of a chance to think about what’s happening or where they are headed. The four catchers close in on them, racing their way across the flats, dodging trees, termite mounds, pig wallows, logs, rocks and any other type of obstacle that might just result in either you being flung from the vehicle or busting something on the catcher, neither an ideal outcome.  All four catchers converge at the neck of the funnel, forcing the mob into either yard, depending on the species.

  When all is said and done, they get loaded up into the big trucks and get taken to the yards near the house for processing.  All very simple sounding, and some of the most fun you’ll have on four wheels.