Outback Australia’s constant battle with drought. A lifeless landscape with the remnants of what was once the dog fence built to protect sheep grazing country from the ravages of wild dogs.

In an ideal world the bar that drives the shears could have been better positioned but this was not a posed shot.

I was more interested in framing the photo to include the dog, the window and the sponteneity of the two old shearers in conversation.

It is one of my favorite images from the Commonwealth Hill Station shoot in Outback South Australia I did for the R M Williams publication “Best of Outback Stataion”s back in March.

The old chap on the right is 73 years of age. He’s been shearing for 53 years and his tally is over a million sheep shorn in that time.

25-thousand sheep brought in from all parts of a 10-thousand square kilometre station, shorn over 40 days and on their way back to the paddocks.

The last day of this mammouth task shows in the eyes and stance of the station manager who’s orchestrated it all….until the same time next year.

Simon Robinson, Commonwealth Hill Station. Woomera Prohibited Area, South Australia.

Fuji X T-1 35mm prime lens f4.00 1/2000. ISO 400 ©Copyright 2014 Peter MacDonald Photography. All Rights Reserved

The Place – Commonwealth Hill station. the second of my assignments for the Best of Outback Stations publication.

Commonwealth Hill is a really interesting and remote location, and without going into all the details of the story, a station that has rarely been seen in print before.

The photo – early morning drafting of some of the 25,000 sheep brought in from the far flung paddocks of the station for shearing each March.

Fuji X-T1 camera with 50mm prime lens. f4, 1/800 sec. ISO 1600 Peter MacDonald Photography – All Rights Reserved

I  had the good fortune recently to shoot an extended article on Commonwealth Hill station for the R. M. Williams publication “Best of Outback Stations”.
Commonwealth Hill is a vast 10,000 square kilometre sheep station in  South Australia, north of Tarcoola.
It is in the Woomera rocket testing zone.
While I was there they were shearing 25,000 sheep.
This is a portrait of one of the shearers sharpening the combs of his shears at the end of a long day in the shed.
Best of Outback Stations will be out in early July and you can read the full story there.

©Copyright 2014 Peter MacDonald Photography. All rights reserved.

Electrical storms are good for photographs..either before, during or after the event.

There’s a certain blue colour that not seen at other times that has been caught in this picture.

The colour is quite pronounced. It’s  usually seen in the afternoon on a stinking hot day when the storm clouds are building and there’s a bit of crackle and fizz in the air.

In these conditions, there will often be only a few drops of rain on a land that desperately needs it. Every living thing is in search of water. Birds gather at the bore tanks. Kangaroos, emus,sheep and cattle hang around the water troughs as another scorching sun sinks into the west.

©Copyright 2014 PeterMacDonald Photography. All rights reserved

Virga, the meteorological term for rain that doesn’t reach the ground, at least produces a rainbow to mark the occasion.

Country Road south of Jamestown in South Australia’s Mid North.
©Copyright 2014 Peter MacDonald Photography

They say shooting landscapes in the heat of the day is not a good idea. However this road caught my eye for two reasons. 1 , a simple and  interesting composition and 2, it illustrates summer in the country.

It was well over 40C when I took this shot. I think the glare of the road and the sun dried fields illustrate summer pretty well.

A far cry from the streets of Paris. Ringer, Sophie Evans and Lolly escape the midday sun while on a mustering break, Anna Creek Station, far north South Australia

Head stockman Gordon Warren working a herd of cattle on the Kidman pastoral property at Anna Creek.

This picture best illustrates for me the vastness of Anna Creek Station.

The KIdman station is the largest in the world. The statistics say it is 6 million acres or 24,000 square kilometres and as big or bigger than some countries, but that is hard to imagine.

This scene, with the Margaret Range in the background is just a tiny part of it.

Anna Creek station’s Cessna 172 in action spotting cattle for the ringers on motorbikes below.

Without the flying experience of my friend Trevor Wright from William Creek, shots like this would be impossible to achieve.

Working cattle from the air is an essential part of cattle production these days.

On a vast property like Anna Creek Station in South Australia’s far north, using an aircraft to spot cattle spread out over big distances saves time, money and the efforts of the stockmen on the ground.

The subject of many a story, poem or film, the Australian farmhouse is central to life on the land.

It’s a family home, a gathering place, a haven from harsh conditions.

This farm house has seen many a long hot summer, drought, crops aplenty and bad, dust storms and good times.

It’s been been surrounded by flood waters too.

In this picture though it is enduring yet another summer dust storm.

When big herds of cattle are brought in from far afield on outback stations, the crows nest is an important part of how they are sorted and processed either for market or recording.

It has often amazed me how few people actually work on a cattle station these days. I am on Anna Creek station where just eight people control thousands of head of Santa Gertrudis and Brahman cattle spread over a vast area in conditions that many would describe as inhospitable for much of the year.

Anna Creek is part of the famous Kidman empire and cattle are trucked here from the company’s properties in northern Australia. They spend about a year at Anna Creek before heading south again.

Sophie Evans from South Australia’s Clare Valley is a ringer on Anna Creek. Her grandfather was a manager here years ago and now here love of horses has brought her here to work.

It can take days to bring cattle to the yards, and camping out is a regular occurrence.

Once the cattle have reached the yards, this is where the crows nest is invaluable. Essentially the cattle are brought in stages to a run where each animal enters a circular pen.

Head stockman Gordon Warren assesses each of the animals. That’s Gordon behind all the rails while aboriginal ringer Gary Gibbs scrambles to safety.

Depending on size, age, and sex Gordon decides the fate of each animal and signals to Sophie, who is operating the crows nest, which gate to open that lets the animal into another pen.

These cattle are immensely strong and some far from docile, so the ability to manually sort them via the crows nest reduces the number of people involved.

The Stand Off. A test of wills where the winner was a foregone conclusion. Angorichina station sheep dogs at work.

Head stockman Gordon Warren and his dog Lolly leading the herd with a motorbike rider following along behind. A mix of the old and the new on the S. Kidman and Co. Anna Creek station in far north, South Australia.

Lolly is an experienced cattle dog and it is fascinating to watch her at work. She almost instinctively knows where to be when things start to go awry.

Once the herd is back in formation and heading in the right direction, Lolly is back out in front. After all with all that experience why be eating a lot of dust.

Shearing contractors dogs working sheep into races that lead to the interior of the shearing shed.

The dogs, here working in pairs, are so active they need to be spelled and are rotated with other teams as thousand of sheep are moved in an out of the shed.

Angorichina station, central Flinders Ranges.

The Margaret Range….Anna Creek Station…Outback South Australia.

The Kidman station’s Cessna 172 heads for mustering work on the world’s largest cattle station.

Aircraft are a must for modern day cattle production on Australian cattle stations that are often bigger than some nation states around the world.