The Great Sheep Drive of 1981/82
by Barry Sykes
It was about October of 1981 or 82, and things weren’t to good out in the wheatbelt, farmers were experiencing tough times, little rain which meant less feed for their animals. We in on the coast however had quite a good year, we had grown a good crop of hay and still had ample feed left, so Shannon and I decided to advertise to agist stock. Thus we would help those doing it tough, a farmer responded, came and viewed the property and was delighted with the amount of feed, so a deal was struck and the following week 500 of his “prime” breeding ewes would be spend the next 3 to 4 months, enjoying the feed on the banks of the Moore river. The “prime” breeding ewes arrived and settled in very nicely enjoying the lush feed and water in their new home. Time went by and then one hot Sunday in January, I received a call from the excited farmer saying that a stock truck would be arriving tomorrow to pick up the sheep, so could I get them into the yards please.
Now this is where the story gets interesting, Tricia couldn’t help as Daniel was still small, so man, dog and vehicle were all I had (I was one of them), but the two others added the rye twist, the vehicle, a 1961 VW (kids called it the Pink Dub) adapted for farm use, luxuries like sunroof (cut out with a jigsaw) and cut away mudguards so they would not catch in the scrub. And the dog, he was called Bulldog a red cloud cattle dog, who had “no” idea of how to work with anything, I think he thought that it his role in life was to go along with uncle Percy or anyone else to work with stock and get yelled at, so he came along for the yelling!!
It was quite a hot day, things were progressing very well, little yelling, dog on foot and man in Pink Dub moving the sheep along well, now ewes do a strange thing when they get a little hot, their go a little contrary in that they will just stop and lay down and sulk, you can try anything to make them move, you can drag them, kick, push, yell at them, yell at the dog to get them, but nothing seems to be able to move them, so I now had my first ewe just stop. Now I applied an old strange, but useful skill ,I learnt when working in the shearing shed, with sheep you can sit them on their bum with legs out in front and generally they will just sit here, that is what makes it easy to start shearing them in this position, added to that the ewe being hot and contrary, she's bound not to want to move, I picked her up and placed bum down in on the back seat of the Pink Dub, and she just sat there,, fantastic!!!
The sheep drive in more ways than one continued, bit of yelling, but moving on nicely, ewe two ( good name for an NZ band!!!),next stops and drops, ok, same procedure in the back seat and keep moving, because when you are herding sheep you have to keep them going in a flock otherwise they spread out and it takes a fair bit of work to get them moving again.Then things started to get a little intense as the third ewe decided to take a dive, but no problems and I heaved it into back seat with the other girls, so now, the back seat was full, with the farmer's prime little breeders, and back to the drive, with the sheep still in a mob and nicley moving around along the river flat, from there I was going to push them up a srcubby hill through the fence and into the stockyards.
Bulldog was doing his best to get yelled at, but things were still moving along nicely!
Then the fourth ewe decided that she had had enough, I think she realised that she would get the front seat, so in she went, now I had three ewes seated in the back and one in the front,,,,,, then as I was starting to push them up the scrubby hill, the fifth ewe dropped, I now had little time to waste so this one went under the front bonnet.
I was succesfully pushing them up the hill, moving around on the right of the flock,banging on the door with my hand then backing up, and moving the left side up then backing up and repeating the procedure, it was on about the fourth time when reversing, I backed the Pink Dub up onto a small blackboy (grass tree). This caused the rear wheels of the Pink Bub to come off the ground, and I couldn't move, panic set in, as I could see all of my work spreading out as the flock started to disperse, with Bulldog doing his best to acomplish this, I think I wasn't yelling at him enough.
Now Experts agree, in that they say, when you get in a fix, one should take time and think the problem through,, I should have used this philosophy, however in my mind I had no time, quick !! solve the problem!!!
The sheep were starting to spread out, and I couldn't get the Volkswagon to move, so I came up with a brilliant idea, put the car in gear, put something on accelerator to wedge it on and then get behind the VW and just push it off the blackboy, BRILLIANT!!!. So with the VW's wheels spinning in the air, I found a strong tree limb and proceeded to lever the Pink Dub off the obsticle,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Have you ever done something, and in a split second just as it happens, you have a brain wave and ask,,,,, now why did I do that??????
Because the minute the car dropped off the blackboy, it was off, off towards the river, then what next flashed through my mind was,,, How would I explain to the farmer, the loss of 5 of his breeding ewes in a car accident, where the vehicle plunged into the river! So I bolted after the Volkswagon, it was careeing through the scrub, the five ewes in the car oblivious to the peril they were now facing, actually the four in the car looked like they were enjoying the rough ride, with their heads moving to and fro as the Pink Dub bounced through the scrub. Me on the other hand, I was stumbling and cashing through the scrub to catch the runaway car, I managed to catch up to it after it ploughed through a banksia tree, fortunately for me in my moment of brilliant problem solving, I had left the drivers door open, I managed to get in the car and resume control of it. The four ewes in the car looked at me, as if to say, are we there yet, while the one under the bonnet must just have enjoyed the ride although a little bumpy.
Bulldog had tried his best to get yelled at some more by running around and through the flock, I guess he couldn't understand why I hadn't responded, I was too busy saving lives! Once back in control of the VW, I managed to catch up to the flock, although a bit spread out, I managed to get the girls regrouped, across the road and into the stockyards, unload the precious cargo, jobs done, phew now that wasn't that bad!!!!.
