LOCAL 19 year old resident, Jasmyn Hamilton lives a bit of a different life than most; when she is not living in Katunga and working on riding and breaking in horses with Daryl Olney to ready them for competitions, she is up in the Northern Territory mustering cattle.
Last year in April, Jasmyn headed north and ended up picking up some contract work mustering cattle on Newcastle Waters station 400km south of Katherine.
Four months on and she landed a job on Avago Station, a 400,000-acre farm 80km west of Daly Waters and a whopping 380km south west of Katherine…literally in the middle of nowhere.
From this week, Jasmyn is making the three to five day journey back to Avago Station where she will do it all over again until the season’s end in December.
Jasmyn said, “My best friend did this when she was in year 10 and she said that I would love it, and she was right.
“At Avago there is about 16,000 head of cattle and 80 horses, 12 to 15 of which are work horses. We each get three horses to use throughout the season to muster the cattle. We also sort the cattle, brand them, give them their injections and quite a bit more. You get something different every day.
“I love meeting new people and dealing with the animals. People come and go throughout the year and at the start of the season you start off with about 12 but by the end that number is closer to five.
“We are so isolated that our groceries and supplies come in by plane once a fortnight.
“This is definitely something I would suggest for others to do. It is very rewarding.”
