Peta Stockwell grew up inspired by ‘The Sisters’. Here, she tells their story

Their story began on the lush Atherton Tableland in north Queensland, a far cry from the dusty dry season of the Northern Territory. This is where their mother Val, a nurse, met their father Barry Utley. After getting married in 1957, the couple worked in northern Queensland for nine years before deciding to take their four young daughters on a 1500 kilometre trip to Anthony Lagoon station in the Northern Territory for work. Today, 62-year-old Sheron McDougall, the eldest of the girls, remem­bers their dad driving the truck and Val following in the Valiant station wagon with the caravan — and the youngest, 14-month-old Bev, standing on the front bench seat by her mother’s side.

What was meant to be a six-month stint on the Barkly Tableland saw the Utleys spend the next seven years working between Anthony Lagoon and Tanumbirini stations, living for some of the time in a 16 foot caravan.

Growing up, Sheron shouldered a lot of the domestic work, looking after her three younger sisters and helping them with their school work. “I remember being kept home from school to look after Bev so Mum could go and work in the cane fields. I would’ve been 10 years old,” she says.

Roxie, who is the second of the girls, loved helping outside. “She was a strong personality. I remember her going exploring, often walking for miles in creek beds. One day she brought back an orphaned brumby foal,” the next sister, 57-year-old Glen Holzwart, recalls fondly.

While the sisters admit there were fights, they were very close and protective of each other. “Life was rather primitive. Looking back, we went without a lot but we didn’t know any better. At one stage we had no meat so we ate topknot pigeons for a week or two. Mum and Dad expected us to work, with schoolwork often the second priority,” Glen reflects.

In the early 1970s the family moved to Sunday Creek station, west of Daly Waters in the Northern Territory, first as fencing contractors, then managers, before buying the property in 1981. The 205,500 hectare block was largely undeveloped, so they began building from the ground up.  “Once we moved out of the caravan and into a house on the station we started collecting as many pets as we could. At one point Bev had a brood of ducklings convinced she was the mother duck, and I tried to ride every horse I could, tame or feral,” Roxie recalls.

As the girls grew up, they in turn began to leave Sunday Creek to explore the world. Sheron was the first to go, leaving to join the Navy in 1977. She says the idea of an ordered, structured environment was appealing. Roxie was next, venturing to central Queensland in 1979 to work on stations. “What a shock!” she says. “I had been very sheltered. It was a giant learning experience, but I loved the challenge.”

Glen left for Emerald where a job, and her future husband, was waiting. She had travelled there for Roxie’s wedding to Keith Holzwart in 1981, and had met his cousin Kerrin. They wrote to each other for 18 months before she left for Queensland.

“I needed to leave home and spread my wings but I felt bad that Bev was left with the responsibility of helping our parents. For years I felt guilty I wasn’t there during the tough times.”

Despite the vast distances and lack of communication services, the sisters kept in contact through letters and the occasional visit. “It was hard when Sheron and Rox left because we didn’t have a phone,” says Bev. “I remember organising that they would ring the Hi-Way Inn [a roadhouse 35 kilometres away in Daly Waters] at a certain time so we could talk to them.”

Roxie returned to the Territory for a visit in 1987 and discovered Sunday Creek station was being subdivided. “The Territory was, and is, a place where opportunity knocks. Owning a chunk of virgin land with no improvements sounded like a great idea, and we bought Avago in December 1987.”

Roxie and Keith made the first improvements while still living in Emerald, before making the move with their young family in 1995. “It took me a while to accept I would never again own a clean car, or clean kids for that matter! I can’t remember whose great idea it was to give up a well-paid job and a nice house to move the family somewhere with no schooling or medical services,” Roxie jokes. “It’s entirely different living in the bush as a child with no responsibilities, to being responsible for schooling three kids plus cooking and working in the paddock.”

Meanwhile, Bev and her husband Tom bought what remained of Sunday Creek in 1994. After seeing the challenges faced by her parents, Bev admits taking on the home block was an intimidating prospect: “Perhaps the arrogance of youth made me think I could see my parents’ mistakes and avoid the same traps.”

Roxie and Keith had a bare block with no fences, homestead or water. They planned to move into a caravan, but Tom and Bev offered them the Sunday Creek homestead to live in.