PHOTOGRAPHER Al Mabin had only planned to spend an afternoon taking pictures of one of the great modern musters as 18,000 cattle made their way from central Queensland to Hay in south-western NSW.
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During last year’s severe drought, South Australian farmer Tom Brinkworth purchased 18,000 cattle from the Australian Agricultural Company properties in central Queensland.
The $8 million transaction was the largest single purchase in the history of Elders Livestock.
Having purchased the cattle, the next question was how to get them home to Brinkworth’s 35,000 hectare property Uardry Station near Hay.
After doing the sums, the cost of trucking the cattle was on par with the cost of walking them down.
The journey started in June last year, covering 2000km and crossing two States, as the cattle were walked south ‘On the Long Paddock’.
“I tracked down the phone number of head drover Bill Little and asked if I could take photos of the drove,” Mabin said.
“I found myself thrown on a horse and joining the drove.”
Five months later, Mabin had covered the entire journey both physically and through the lens of her camera.
She decided to tell the story of the Brinkworth drove using some of her photographs in a book.
‘The Drover’ is a self-published pictorial book that goes to the heart of the Brinkworth muster, the people involved, and most importantly, the cattle.
It is Mabin’s first book and she has already sold more than 10,000 copies across the country.
The book is on sale in Gloucester at Channell’s Newsagency.
