Three weeks in the dust...a boar catcher's daily journal

Ted drinking at the Serpentine...

Saturday July 18, 2009

LEFT with son Paul from his home just out of Inverell at 3.15pm. Nine dogs on board, the experienced Betty, Pepper, Ted and Mary. The green dogs were Donna, Gina and Stan and pups were Roger and his sister Susie. Our hunting partner Brett had already left South Australia to meet us in Augathella, Qld. We had about 1900kms to drive but Brett had to cover about 3000kms. We got to just north of Roma and camped on the road. Cold camp. We kept in contact with Brett on the mobile and he was in good spirits. He'd already seen a bloody good boar walk across the road in front of him near Tilpa in NSW.

Sunday July 19, 2009

UP at dawn. Cold start but into Augathella by 9am. Radiator leaking so got to work on that while we waited for Brett. Radiator repair a success and dogs well watered by the time Brett arrives at 11am. We all pressed on to Winton Qld and the Tatt's Hotel. Had a top counter meal and warm welcome from the locals. Stayed off the grog but looked a good spot to prop if you weren't on a mission. First of the backpacker girls we struck on the trip. Lots of European (particularly German) girls working in the Outback. Certainly brightens up the trip. Obviously very good news for the young blokes working in remote areas...

Brett, Paul and I camped on the road south of Cloncurry.

Monday July 20, 2009

INTO Cloncurry for the final shop. Turned north toward the Burke and Wills Roadhouse to fuel up. More backpackers in the middle of nowhere. Amazing how things have changed since I first came up here in 1983. We pressed on into the dark and hit the worst of the bull dust roads. Made it to within 20kms of our hosts camp when the road took its toll. The shock absorbers on my Rodeo gave up and Brett's trailer sheared a bolt holding on his springs. After a bit of discussion, Brett went ahead to get some new bolts from the owners place and we made some repairs. Good sign for the trip, not the problems but the way we handled them. No whinging, no tears, just form a plan, work together, and get moving again.

Made it to our hosts place and head for our camp about 70kms away in the scrub. Made it to about 10 kms from our planned camp and dropped our swags for the night. Very tired.

Tuesday July 21, 2009

PRESSED on to Blind Boar Lagoon and set up camp. Scrubby, seasonally flooded country. Hard going. Immediately got to work finding some of the bulls missed in musters before we arrived. Big bulls, crazy wild and dangerous. We shot a couple and marked their positions with a GPS. This was the plan. Hunt bulls, then hunt the boars that come in to claim the carcase from the 750sqkms of scrub we'd had been allowed to enter.

Went for a float in the boat on the lagoon to look for Saltwater Crocodile slides (they will eat you so we wanted to know if there were any near camp). Saw a good boar (but no tusks) digging on the water's edge and Paul got off a shot with a Ruger 308 to put him on the deck. First pig down.

Wednesday July 22, 2009

AWOKE to the heaviest dew I've ever experienced. Literally dripping off everything. Swags damp as buggery. Went to one set of the stockyards on the property to help with the drafting of the day's catch. A lot of cattle trucked out for sale are scrub bulls mustered with helicopters or caught alive by blokes driving bull catchers. Without doubt one of the most dangerous things you can do. The bulls are knocked off their feet by the bull catching vehicle and then swarmed by blokes who grab the tail, run it between the bull's back legs and hang back. Another bloke straps the bull's back legs while he struggles (off balance because of the tail man...) to get up. Same bloke straps the front legs. Couple of men try to hold the bull's head while the tips of the horns are sawn off so the captured bulls can't gut one another in the yards. Tied bulls are dragged onto a truck and taken to the yards. The are not happy campers at the best of times but by the time they are in a yard, they are furious. I have never seen anything as angry as a scrub bull.

We went for a scout in a potentially good spot but it had been thoroughly disturbed by the mustering chopper so no pigs were seen.

Thursday July 23, 2009

IN the stockyards helping with the draft. Mostly cleanskin cattle and all unhappy to see people. Had a lot of help from the local Aboriginal blokes. Friendly blokes who often spoke to one another in their own language, especially when there was a bit of action. Happy blokes, often laughing (mostly at us...) One very sad note, Athol, one of the Aboriginal boys received word that his four-year-old daughter had died this day from Swine Flu. Upsetting for the family, mates and we fellow workers. That was the last we saw of Athol...

In the midst of that Paul and I went for a ride in a bull catcher with the hostess and the bull catching son. Didn't see a bull but had a bloody good scoot about. Good drivers and real good mechanics/welders (same thing up here...).

Got away from the yards and went for a look along the Serpentine. Ted put up a little mob and grabbed one. Brett (the bloke) grabbed one as well.

Friday July 24, 2009

VERY hot today. Did a lot of walking and checking water holes for sign. Visited the Croc Hole, a remote bit of water that has displayed big saltie croc slide marks in the past. No new slides and nothing much in the Redclaw traps. Spooky spot. Oozes danger in the water...

Went out for a hunt at about 10pm to check baits for activity. About midnight hit our first proper boar, a mad fighting pig on Rogan's Waterhole bait number 1. Slashing good fighter, long pig with average tusks for up here and a genuine test for the dogs. He had claimed the bait and was lying up about 80 metres off until it ripened. Pigs can't eat meat like a dog, they tear it off and swallow it so the meat has to be decayed to the right degree for them to do their thing. Mary the dog wore a puncture in under the butt of her ear but is in good spirits. Bit of bush vet work and she's fine.

Saturday July 25, 2009

PAUL and Brett grabbed the quads and went for an explore. We used GPS technology and bush smarts to find likely spots when we had time to look. I stayed in camp and washed my filthy clothes in a bucket and made some Hardtimers, little biscuits that cook well in a camp oven, last for ever and fill a void when you are hunting hungry.

Out again at night and grabbed a good boar on a big bull bait about 500m from camp. Brett's dog Wolfie did a great job picking up this boar. We saw a couple of dingoes in the headlights and hung the trail camera on one of the baits at Rogan's Waterhole. Checked Redclaw traps in their new spot and had plenty.

Sunday July 26, 2009

WENT for a walk around Blind Boar Lagoon after crossing it in the boat. Totally unprepared we were barefoot and without a catching dog. The boar we'd shot on the water's edge had been chewed up and moved by another pig so were were looking for more sign of the size etc of the animal that was working the area. Good tracks led off in one direction and I followed them. Brett and Paul were further out on the wings when I came across the boar just nosing about in the sand. He stood to bluff me and I was very aware I was without a hound to help so I called for Brett and Paul for back-up. The boar started to head off but Paul and I (barefoot remember) started trotting and trying to turn him back toward the lagoon. He'd chase us a bit but we had some luck because it appeared something from wrong with his siting capabilities, couldn't get a could target on us. Meanwhile Brett, the fittest of us, ran back to the boat, roared off to camp, grabbed Paul's Betty and came hurtling back. After much running about in circles to keep the boar within site and interested in us, Paul saw a chance and committed himself to grab it. He's a big bloke but remarkably quick when he needs to be so he rushed the pig from what we worked out was it's blind side and grabbed his tail. Boar played up and swung to get Paul but Brett was coming through the scrub with the cavalry. Betty hit the boar and it hit her in the shoulder...

All good again after a few dog repairs and a lot of fun for the day. The boar had a crook eye and that's what buggered him for charging, no binocular vision to judge distance.

Went out for a look at the baits at 10pm and hit a good boar on Three Bull Swamp, Brett's dog Bucks and my Pepper did the honours. Good teeth and no dog damage. When down to Rogan's Waterhole bait number 2 and found a good black and white boar that jumped in the water. Scary stuff. There are crocs in that water. Brett did a quick strip and went in knee deep or better to help Bucks and Pepper. Bad place at night, fighting a good pig in deeper and deeper water where the salties live. Brett got hold of the boar and dragged him to us and we pulled them all out of the water. Good boar.

Arrive home at camp at about 3am to find dog Donna dead on the chain. We thought snake but more likely ate a cane toad, according to the property owners. No good.

Monday July 27, 2009

WE walked again near camp and found the remains of a very old Bora Ring, a ceremonial place used by Aboriginal people before white people came to the area. We stayed out of it and left it in peace.

Went bull catching again. Brett was in on the bull catcher this time and did a few nosedives into the front when the holes, ant hills or trees were hit. Wild and crazy stuff. Saw heaps of bulls caught. Some were killed in the process so we marked their sites in some new country for potential pig baits.

We reset our Redclaw traps with fresh meat and headed off into the evening to drive a creekline about 60kms from our camp. We had Coco, Ted, Hassle and little pup Susie on the truck and Ted and Coco found a little boar, Hassle joined in and Susie had a bark. All good but a long way back to camp. Arrive home very tired from the day.

Tuesday July 28, 2009

DAY off. I cooked more Hardtimers in the camp oven. Love those biscuits. Eventually went for a ride and found a big permanent water hole to our west. Called it Water Big, and found croc tracks there. Only small so probably a freshie but still wakes you up a bit. Paul did a bit of exploring and Brett had an encounter with as bull in the scrub. He surprised it while he was exploring on the quad and it shook it's head and came at him. At 20 metres he stood up on the quad and fired a 30/30 into the bull's face. A couple actually. This baulked the bull giving Brett time to gt off a couple more shots and turn the bull. A 30/30 will stop a lot of things but it is definitely not a one shot stopper of these bulls. Death or Glory moment for Brett. Lucky to get out of that.

Wednesday July 29, 2009

A 2.30am start. We check a couple of baits for no result. Got to Three Bull Swamp and the dogs started going off. Ted and Stan flew straight to the second bait at the site and grabbed a cracker. He had great teeth and put on a good show. We threw the boar and killed it, all the time calming the dogs down and making them sit and behave. We find this gets things back on a controlled footing very quickly and reduces the potential for dog fights etc among a mixed team of hounds. It also allows the dogs to start thinking again. And that's what happened. Ted and Stan calmed and were let go again and flew off to find another boar not 50 metres from us in the long grass in the dark. The boar rushed and came straight back to us with Ted and Stan right behind. Little Mary was right in front with us and took the boar head first in a great, gutsy tackle. Very very happy with her.

We checked more baits until after dawn and then checked the Redclaw traps. Heaps, so we had a big lunch of the crustaceans. Tasty when cooked in a boiler full of salty water. We ate about 60.

Went for another daytime scout and found a mob on Super Secret Creek. Picked up a couple of mob pigs but it looks like a good spot for pups in the future. Paul saw Stan chasing one pig then to be joined by a dingo on the chase. Weird. Dingo eventually twigged to Paul and evaporated into the scrub.

Thursday July 30, 2009

ANOTHER early start. About 2.30am. Hit a good black and white boar with one tusk. Wolfie did very well to persist to find this bloke. On the way in I ran off an embankment and hit the other side of a channel at (what is for me at 49...) full pace. Stunning but not a knockout. Brett rolled his ankle as well. It's seasonal flood country so cattle tracks and pig wallows make for dangerous running in the dark.

Pressed on to Rogan's Waterhole to check the trail cam. A good pig had been on the dead cattle there about an hour before us. We let the dogs settle down and just do their thing and it was Wolfie again who started to drift out. He started zig zagging and then took off in a big arc to the west. We could tell from the tracker which way he was going so we cut across and covered 1.25kms before we hit Wolfie and the trail cam boar. Real good boar but Wolfie was hot and tired. Hassle the pup flew in a lugged the boar one out allowing Wolfie to relax and start to cool down. Good effort by Wolfie and very happy with Hassle's heart for the rough stuff.

Picked up more Redclaw from the traps.

On the way home in the daylight we noticed a good boar's tracks right near camp and the tracks of a dingo bitch and pups trailing the boar.

Later in the day we went exploring again. We finally made it to a secluded waterhole deep in the rocks. Amazing spot. You wouldn't know it was there.

A bit further on Brett confused a dingo by dropping to all fours and drinking at a lagoon. Dingo stayed and watched before suddenly twigging and disappearing.

Friday July 31, 2009

EARLY start to be in the stockyards 80kms away from camp for a big day. We helped with the drafting of captured cattle, marking calves, loading bulls onto the road train for their trip to the meatworks. Big day, lots of work. Brett got chased in the yards by a bull. I got a squashed finger from being too slow to get my hand out of the race. One nasty black bull killed himself in the yards rather than go up the race. Ferocious animals.

Picked up the new shock absorbers we'd had trucked in for my Rodeo and put them on back in camp.

Saturday August 1, 2009

FISHING and crabbing day. Went down to Mud Crab Camp with the bull catching bloke and a couple of little boats. Dragged for live bait and picked up heaps. Set the crab pots and started fishing. Fish were quiet but we landed Mangrove Jack, Skipjack, Spotted Cod, Shark, Shovel-nosed shark and catfish. We did very well on the crabs as well. Heaps of tucker.

Saw buffalo tracks but no buffs and negotiated a boggy salt pan to get in and out. On the way home Brett's boat came off his trailer rack when the welds on a cross member gave way. More repairs...

Sunday August 2, 2009

GOING again at 2am, and onto a great set of tusks at what we called the Hated Baits Mate. The Hated Bait was a bull that didn't produce a boar and it's Mate was one we shot nearby but dragged to a new spot. So the Hated Bait's Mate yielded a beauty. Super thick teeth.

Back home I washed more clothes before heading off to further explore the area around Water Big. Brett went off to cut an Ironwood rail for his trailer (ended up carrying his boat the whole way home...) Paul cooked and we had excellent crabs. So many you got sick of them...

Monday August 3, 2009

A 2am start. We went to the big bull 500 metres from camp. There'd been tracks on the path nearby and a trail cam experiment had shown a good boar was on the carcase at that time the night before. We let the dogs out and started walking to the bait. We closed on the bull and the dogs shot straight past and onto a toothy old boar. Great start. Up on the Hated Bait's Mate, Wolfie started doing concentric circles closer and closer in until he hit a great fighting boar. He was young and full of go. He hit Wolfie in the shoulder and opened him up. Ted and the trainee Stan hit the boar and he threw the lot around, rushing them through the sand. Paul grabbed the pig and rolled him. An even better night. Some vet work on Wolfie. The wound took about nine staples and we spent some time dressing it properly. Pressed on at dawn to a new spot and Ted spooked a mob in the long grass after a major exploration. He grabbed a big sow, Stan found and grabbed a sow and Wolfie grabbed another passing sow. Paul was following a boar from the mob and called Ted through to grab it. Another four but nothing special. We sat around camp for a while after that, too hot to get any sleep. 2pm and we headed for a remote spot to try our luck.

Three more for the afternoon. Two little boars and another sow. We were now running Mary, Coco, Bucks and Hassle. The dogs run in shifts to allow recovery time... Of the three Hassle caught his first on his own. And I knocked myself out (briefly) crashing into or over something during the chase.

On the way back we did the baits again and hit a ripper pig on the Rogan's Waterhole 1 bait. Coco and Bucks drifted off and picked up a good fighting pig about 100 metres of the bait. First find like that of their own. Good work.

Home at 2am. 24 hours without sleep.

Tuesday August 4, 2009

BRETT and I rode off cross country on the quads to find Lake Mystery (that's what I called it anyway after the odd fruitless search for swamps...). It was a freshwater lake in a dry, salty area and we thought we knew where it might be. Paul took the truck around the two known tracks to circle us. He might have to get us out and either way, if it worked we'd all meet up at Mud Crab Camp to check out traps. We broke through a lot of scrub. Quads went very well. No tyre trouble. Amazingly we met Paul as though it was all planned that way. He had scored a top boar along the way with Brett's Coco. Boar was lying in a mud wallow and took off when the truck stopped. Coco nailed it within 50 metres. More good work.

We parked the truck and jumped on the quads to go a bit further. Brett had Ted, Hassle and Coco on the back when he found another good hog, a black and white boar and our last for the trip.

We checked our traps to find some commercial fishermen had their net strung right across the estuary. They'd also ratted our crab pots. They didn't find all of them however, and we still got a great feed.

Both quads made it home on reserve tanks.

Wednesday August 5, 2009

PACK up day. Spent the morning sorting and packing all the gear. Made it up to the house late in the day having already flattened the springs on the Rodeo. First the shockies and now the springs... We shifted the load around on the Rodeo and got about 25mm of travel in the suspension and set off to get past some of the worst roads. We camped near the Leichardt River Falls but well up out of croc height.

Thursday August 6, 2009

GOT going at dawn after given the dogs yet another walk and water. You have to do lots of this if you want your dogs in good condition. They can suffer on the big trips. We had tea in Longreach and Brett went on ahead. He had his timetable and we had ours so that was the end of our joint trip. From their Paul and I camped south of Barcaldine and we kept in touch with Brett by phone.

Friday August 7, 2009

DAWN start and we made it to Moonie in the day. We stopped to rest the dogs and ourselves. Brett got home to SA that night at 10pm. Big drive.

Saturday August 8, 2009

LANDED at Paul's place to a big reception and started unpacking...until next time.