Chloe Ferris is a mustering contractor who captures the beauty of the bush on her camera

Growing up in Melbourne, Chloe Ferris’s former life was very different to the one she lives now. While attending university in the city after high school, Chloe felt underwhelmed at the prospect of a future behind a desk, so she set out to see what the bush had to offer. Fast-forward to today, and the 26-year-old is based on a property south of Clermont in Central Queensland, while contract mustering around the area. Through her photography business, Outback Creative Co, Chloe indulges her passion for the camera and documents the lifestyle she has come to love.

I spent my early childhood on my family’s cattle and sheep property near Mullengandra in New South Wales, before moving to the inner-city suburbs of Melbourne where I did most of my schooling. After graduating from high school, I started a Bachelor of Graphic Design. I spent most days taking the train into the city to attend classes, feeling like a sardine with someone else’s armpit too close for comfort. It didn’t take me long to decide that this, and a future behind a desk, wasn’t really what I wanted.

Even though I grew up in suburbia, I always had a love of horses. As a teenager I had saved for riding lessons and to buy a horse. So I left my graphic design course and went to study equine business management at Marcus Oldham College in Victoria; then I spent a year on a thoroughbred stud in Scone, New South Wales. After meeting people in the agriculture industry, I thought a career in ag sounded like fun, but wasn’t sure which sector was for me.

I spent the next couple of years taking on seasonal jobs in cropping, sheep and cattle properties around the country. I felt like I had contacted every farmer in Australia to get my foot in the door. My confession that I had no experience but was willing to learn was received with a lot of crickets. Eventually I convinced someone to give me a shot and did four months driving tractors, seeding, in the wheatbelt of Western Australia. It was the best experience and a big step outside my comfort zone. As you can imagine, I was very green and made some pretty embarrassing mistakes — the other staff had a lot of laughs anyway.

My best friend took a job on Millungera Station near Julia Creek in Queensland and seeing the difference in her level of confidence, hearing about all the exciting experiences she was having, and the fact she spent most days on horseback made me want to give it a go.

I took a full-time job at Iffley Station, a breeding and backgrounding property spanning approximately 99,600 hectares at Valkyrie in Central Queensland. Iffley runs around 10,000 head of commercial cattle and I was lucky enough to spend the better part of two years working for its manager, Rob McAuliffe. Working for Rob was a life-changing experience: his encouragement, commitment to the development of his staff and interest in seeing them do well is second to none. At Iffley, the crew was made up of four girls. I am so proud of all we achieved together and am grateful for the lifelong friendships that I made.

These days I am contract mustering around Central Queensland. I love getting to meet new people and seeing how different operations are run. I love the freedom and simplicity of life on the land. It is so different from the noise and hurry of life in the city. Getting to spend most days with my horses and dogs is a big bonus.

I really appreciate the difference in people out here. I’ve found that most people you run into are straight down the line, genuine and more grounded in reality than people in the city. I also love living in a camp situation where you are spending a lot of time together. When you go through so many challenges and experiences together, your co-workers become like family.

I think the biggest challenge I have is not being too hard on myself when I am learning something new and going through the phase of making a lot of mistakes. Being somewhat of a perfectionist has made it challenging to accept that there is no success without failure; that getting things wrong is how you improve.

In the past couple of years, photography has been a hobby that I have just continued to get more and more passionate about. I picked up my first camera in 2018 when I was working on a Hereford stud in Holbrook, New South Wales. I just wanted to take photos of cute calves when I was doing my morning tagging rounds. Now, my photography has become more about capturing memories for people and documenting the lifestyle I love so much.

I think photos are important because often we don’t realise just how precious they are until the moment has long passed and we are looking for something to remember it by. I enjoy the creativity of the editing process and bringing my own style to a photo. Creating photos that are real, honest and candid is what I am really passionate about, and I can’t wait continue to growing my little business this year.

See more of Chloe’s photography on Instagram. 

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