At Work

Most days of the week Dr Alison Shearer hits the floor at 6am. Fifty minutes later she’s at Roma Airport ready for a 7am take-off, with a triple-shot latte and protein bar in hand. As the...

It's long past midnight. A full moon shines down on the Northern Territory’s Tanami Desert. Far from the comforts of home, Brian Hampson rests under the blanket of a huge night sky....

“Shake hands like you mean it.” That’s the advice Colleen Barnett was given not long after she commenced work as a stock and station agent in Gippsland, Vic, eight years ago....

Jack Shick was eight years old when his father first took him to the top of Mt Gower to look for the egg of a flightless bird on the brink of extinction. His search for the abandoned nest of a Lord...

 A 569-kilogram dressed bullock, flocks of sheep, pigs, goats, deer, buffalo, even ostriches – Robert Newbigging has slaughtered them all during his 11 years as a mobile farm butcher....

  Don Sallway sits motionless in the late afternoon light that envelops him and the waterhole. It’s quiet, apart from the occasional twitter of a pair of small honeyeaters and the...

They look like normal hands, perhaps with a little more grease on the knuckles than most. But for many graziers in south-west Queensland these are the magic hands that kept their ’dozers...

He’s dressed everyone from petrol sellers to pastoralists. He can size up a bloke’s shirt, shorts, workpants and sock size at 50 paces. And there are few short cuts and back roads on his...

“Nice, isn’t it?” Paul Graham asks with obvious admiration for the firearm in student Mark Milligbirr’s hands. “That is the most widely used sidearm on the planet at the...

It’s the little things that can cause the most damage and it is these little things that Scott Templeton is after. The lanky and gregarious 43-year-old plant biosecurity inspector and senior...

It’s a sunny, glinting but piercingly cold winter’s day at St Helens on Tasmania’s north-east coast. Along the shoreline, a fresh, southerly wind of 30 knots is blowing and a storm warning has...

The sun is shining, it’s a warm morning and Terry Bryant is at his workbench − a sheet of metal out in the open beside the Birdsville service station. In front of him are various bits of...

As the first rays of sunlight splinter the sky over Yaraka, in far western Queensland, the morning silence is shattered by the shrieks of white cockatoos. A vehicle grumbles and UHF radios crackle as...

Take 45 tonnes of railway iron, nearly four kilometres of steel cable and more than 20 tonnes of two-inch (5.1-centimetre) steel pipe. Mix it with 120 kilograms of welding rods, a lot of bush...

The first task of the day for Kevin Milton is to join the search for a missing corn snake. It’s just another morning for the zookeeper at Dubbo’s Taronga Western Plains Zoo, in central...

“Okay folks, you may as well order another drink. There’s no way we’re taking off in this heat. We’ll wait a while and see if she drops below 40.” Peter Moore’s...

The sun has just disappeared behind the horizon and the western sky is filled with the spectacular band of colours that are unique to the outback dusk. Across the Cobar district men are knocking off...

The “Empress of the Tarkine” is how local conservationist and beef farmer Geoff King refers to Lalani Hyatt, the ranger in charge of the Arthur-Pieman Conservation area in the remote...

Few people cover more of outback Australia’s baking bitumen and dirt tracks than a road-train driver. From cattle to cars, apples to ammunition, these triple-trailer vehicles provide a vital...

Imagine being on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Then go one step further and imagine your partner is in the same situation, in the same job. Dieter and Penney Lang thrive on it. This...

As the fifth generation of his family to breed cattle on Kholwha Station near Gloucester, NSW, James Laurie is amply qualified to be this year’s Devon judge at the Sydney Royal Easter Show. He...

Mandy Muir has just announced that six salt-water crocodiles inhabit the stretch of Jim Jim Creek that is in her family’s backyard, but she’s still nonchalantly wading knee-deep through...

Pilot and mustering contractor Danny Hayes hovers the helicopter carefully and scrutinises the mob below. The lead cow continues walking; head high, not even glancing up. Danny patiently edges the...

When a child is diagnosed with a serious disease such as cancer, life becomes a roller-coaster ride for the entire family. The subsequent treatment period, which can last anywhere from days to...

An Australian pub can be a great place to eat, drink and relax with friends. However, even if it serves the best range of drinks and the most delicious food, it is the character and the atmosphere...

The subject of wild dogs is a contentious issue in Australia. On one side are those who admire and respect Australia’s wild dogs, on the other side are those who would rather see them all dead....

Joy Peters is a foot soldier in the battle against mental illness in rural Australia. As a recipient of a Hollie Jackes Memorial Scholarship, Joy runs Mental Health First Aid courses in rural...

As you walk through the shop to the workshop at the rear, noting the extensive collection of miniature carriages on your right, master saddler George Poulter asks you to “excuse the...

Like primitive tattoos, hot steel cattle brands have scorched the large square of hardwood sleepers set in the floor of a Queensland blacksmith shed. Collectively, they hint at a story that is around...