Page 20 of Stockman's Stowaway

After a short trek down the rambling dirt track, Cap parked his trusty Tojo under the shade of some towering gum trees. On a small rise, the front window framed their view where the sun bathed the land in a soft buttery sunlight. Rolling open plains, red soils, and large clusters of strong gums were scattered across the landscape to share their long shade over assorted grazing fields, all beneath a dazzling clear blue sky.

Finally, he owned some country. A land he could work on the way he wanted to. Besides his dogs, this was what made him jump out of bed in the mornings, what drove him to all hours of the night researching for a dream that was so close he could taste it.

Now, licking his lips, he was finally going to talk about it. ‘This is my paddock.’ Turning off the engine, he patted Willow as she sat between them.

‘How can you tell? There are no fences.’

‘Not yet. Which is where you come in.’ He climbed out of the driver’s seat. Willow stayed with Mia, following her out the passenger side.

‘Have a look, you mob.’ Cap opened the cage door on the back of the ute and the cattle dogs poured out like beer from a pub’s beer tap, to happily sniff around the area, giving the new dog, Willow some space.

The introduction to the pack would begin soon enough. Yet, Willow obediently remained seated beside Mia’s steel capped boots, as if the dog had already bonded with her owner of choice.

‘Well, here’s the station’s map.’ He rolled it out across the Tojo’s bonnet, using his coffee thermos and a travel mug to hold it in place. ‘We have Starvation Dam there.’

‘Seriously?’

‘I didn’t make the names up in this place, but if you ask Charlie, he’ll tell you that each place has a story.’

‘Is this cattle station that old to have some history to it?’

‘It was established in 1910. Even though it’s not a great name, Starvation Dam is a good dam. And we have over seventy bores on the property, somewhere. Haven’t made our way around to them all yet, but I’m sure we will as the herd grows.’ He pointed to the coloured marks on the map.

‘So, plenty of water then.’

‘Yep.’ But it still niggled him that the neighbouring mine had tried to take their water.

‘And you’re looking at putting in some native corridors?’

‘Just this paddock, to start with.’

‘I should warn you, that even if this paddock is a much smaller scale than the work I did for the mines, it’s still expensive. You’re looking at seedlings. Irrigation. It all adds up.’

He could almost hear what she was thinking,The Riggs brothers were running a family station, not a mining site that had a big budget with their billion-dollar profit margins.

Cap might not have mining experience, or degrees in his pocket, but he had a solid working knowledge, and he knew what he wanted. To have someone with Mia’s technical skills was pure icing on his dream cake. Thank you, fate.

‘There’s a stack of irrigation pipes behind the shed. And I’m thinking of using one of the kennel structures to create a nursery.’ It was Bree who’d given him the idea, back when he first looked at the kennels.

He adjusted his hat to peer out over the land. ‘I plan to use this paddock to show my brothers how big an impact my ideas can have on this place. If we can run a successful revegetation trial, they’ll let me do it with the rest of the property.’ It was enough to have the adrenaline racing through his veins, as he licked his lips, again tasting the reality of his dream coming true. ‘If I can convince my brothers and get them on board, I can show other local cattle producers what we’ve done, to create an impact for positive change within this region.’

‘It sounds like a lot of hard work.’

Didn’t he know it. ‘I want this place to flourish.’ His words echoed around him, but he spoke from the heart. This was his passion. ‘I’ve done the same kind of work on other properties for crop farms, sheep and cattle stations, and I’ve been a part of their many trials and errors, so I know what works. As this is our family’s land now, it deserves to be treated right for our family to enjoy for generations to come.’

‘I get it. But it’s still a big ask. You’re talking about how many acres?’ She tapped on the map.

‘The station is 5,334 square kilometres or 2,060 square miles. That’s 1,320,000 acres.’ He grinned at the numbers that made him rock like Dex on his boot heels. Sure, they might seem small numbers compared to some of the other stations he’d worked on, but it was prime cattle country. ‘Don’t let the numbers scare you, there are plenty of pockets on this property that arepristine.’ He tapped on the map. ‘Wombat Flats is one of them. It’s paradise.’

‘So, it’s not all bad, then?’

He cracked a smile that barely contained his inner pride over his family’s land. ‘We’ve got lots of amazing grazing land that has been resting for a while now, because we’ve had no cattle. I think it’s been over a year since the herds were sold, but even then, Charlie looked after the grazing lands.’ Cap could see this station’s future. Like his brothers, they all saw the potential of this land to produce a high class of cattle, it’s what attracted them to Elsie Creek Station in the first place. And, as Ryder said, with all the cattle sold off the sale price dropped substantially.

Mia turned back to the map. ‘So, where were you thinking of creating this wildlife corridor?’

‘I was thinking either here or here.’ Cap indicated the likely spots on the map. ‘As well as the obvious benefits, it would also act as a windbreak to help improve our pastures, and potential dingo deterrents by putting something native between them and our livestock, to recreate that balance of nature.’

It was cute how she sucked in her cheeks while thinking. Yet he recognised that look of someone who was reading the land, just like he did. Only a thousand times prettier.

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