A Flight in the Muster Chopper !

A Flight in the The Muster Chopper !

I was fortunate enough to be taken up in the helicopter by the boss as a late birthday present to watch a muster. The chopper is a small 2 seater and is used to muster the cattle. Our boss, the pilot, organises the ringers who are on bikes on the ground from the air.

Now, this special event was a while coming because each time the boss tried to take me something stopped it from happening. The first time it was an unusual event... it rained overnight. The second time I told the boss I was too busy in the schoolroom. His very smart answer to this was to take me up the day after we arrived home from holidays and before school started back.

We left early in the morning at 6:15 as the sun rose, and had a wonderful view across the property as he explained where the boundaries were. 

The four ringers worked the cattle on the ground riding dirt bikes. They mustered the cattle from one paddock into the 'chase' where they could be easily moved through to another paddock further along. A chase is an ingenious way to move cattle across large distances. They are long passages that make it easy to drive cattle from one paddock or property to another. The paddock was in the boss's words, ' a couple of thousand acres.' It took an hour for a chopper and four ringers on bikes to move 400 cattle, a mix of calves, weaners and bulls.

While in the air he flew up over the new dam that they are having built to help make the property more drought resistant. When completed it will cover several acres which are a natural catchment and provide gravity fed water via a pump and solar power to the cattle. When rain eventually comes and the dam fills it will sustain their cattle for up to 7 years.

As we approached home on the way back we had a great view of the homestead - the main house, kitchen, ringers quarters, sheds, house dams and our own house.

It was a memorable morning !

By Lynne