Sarah Wheeler spent a season at a cattle station in Western Australia’s Pilbara

I’m from a beautiful small country town, with the most incredible community. Apart from when I attended Calrossy Anglican School as a border in Tamworth from ages 12 to 18, this property has been my home since birth. I couldn’t ask for a better upbringing. A few memories of growing up on this place range from riding horses through the fields with my legend of a father, Gavin Reeve Wheeler, making cubbyhouses with my three sisters [Emily, 26, Jessie, 23, and Millie, 19], seeing how fast my tan Kelpie Bingo could run down the road on the quad bike — 60 kilometres per hour was the per­sonal best — and sitting in the kitchen with the most wonderful mumma, Therese Ann Wheeler, as she taught me to draw animals. She taught me many things throughout my years with her; both my parents did. They taught me patience, humi­lity, kindness, bravery, generosity, resilience, compassion and so much more.

I returned to New South Wales in late March due to the news that my darling mumma had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. She tragically gained her wings in July this year. My father had also gained his wings 12 years ago in 2010. The tragedies of my parents’ passings is still very raw and surreal. I just hold onto the hope that they’re up dancing in the sky, among the fields of barley, reunited for eternity. Since April I have been back on my family farm with my sisters, my boyfriend, Brady, and our two employees, Anthony and Stephen. Everyone has been such a big help getting the crop in this year — they know who they are — and I’d like to thank them, from the depths of the Wheeler girls’ hearts.

Last year I ventured 4500 kilometres north to the most magical and ‘hottest place’ in Australia: Marble Bar, Western Australia. I was very fortunate to be able to call Yarrie station my home away from home for just over six months. Yarrie station is owned and operated by a fifth-generation pastoralist, Annabelle Coppin. Annabelle’s property was founded by her great-great-grandparents in 1886 and is a 250,000 hectare rangelands property. It’s just north of Marble Bar along the mighty De Grey River in the Pilbara of Western Australia. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before: pure magic. As I drove in at the front gates I couldn’t stop saying to myself, “No way, no way, is this real?” I had goosebumps, head to toe.

First and foremost, Annabelle and Ann Coppin are the most incredible and inspiring women in agriculture that I have ever met. Yet they are so humble and kind, and hold so much respect for people, animals and the land. Annabelle and her husband Thomas have two beautiful little girls — Misses Tanami Ann and Daisy Pearl — whom I had the privilege of looking after for a few weeks. They reminded me of myself when I was little: barefoot and covered in dirt — as a kid from the bush should be.

The 2021 crew were amazing, so kind, knowledgeable, entertaining, and just really genuine people. They became like family to me. They’re the kind of friends I’ll have forever.

I soon realised that this was what true hard work felt like, waking up at the crack of dawn, carrying fresh rolls of barbed wire across the dry rivers and through dense scrub for a couple of kilometres.

I won’t lie, there certainly were many tears and a few good barb cuts, but with every thud of my beating heart, I’d never felt more alive.

The musters on Yarrie station are an orchestrated adrenaline rush. The stock team consisted of two choppers, one to two bikes, and eight or more horses. The type of mustering done here is called coacher mob mustering, which is where a few horses get sent out to block up a mob of cattle, then the choppers, bikes and other horses bring the rest toward the coacher mob. We then pick up any other mobs along the way. This way of doing things helps to keep the cattle quiet.