Gap year

From working on cattle stations to childminding in remote locations and experiencing life in the military, many of Australia’s school leavers are heading bush for a formative 12-month period, before settling down to study or work.

Story Kirsty McKenzie  Photo Ken Eastwood 

Based on Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) research, 14% of Australian school leavers take a gap year, either as a planned break from study or as an opportunity to save money to fund future study or training.

Nineteen-year-old George Swanson followed his older sister up to the Hughes Pastoral Company’s 4,380sq km Miranda Downs station in Queensland’s Gulf Country. As part of the ‘early crew’, he returned to the station in February at the tail end of the wet season. George spent the first part of the year fencing from dawn to dusk to repair flood damage before the rest of the team arrived in April.

“At first it was just me and another station hand, the chopper pilot and managers Tom and Tanya Arnold,” he says. “But the full team is 14 between the homestead and the outstation.” George is in his second year out of school. When he graduated from Toowoomba Grammar at the end of 2023, he went home to his family’s cattle station at Augathella in Queensland’s central west. “Miranda is such a contrast,” he says. “I love working with such a diverse bunch and I’m learning heaps. At home, we stopped using horses and went to motorbikes when I was about 12, so I’m gaining confidence on a horse.”

George also appreciates the experience of working on such a large-scale operation, with a herd of up to 55,000 head of cattle – Brahman transitioning to Wagyu – compared to dealing with maybe 600 breeders at home. When mustering starts, it’s customary to work 10 or 13 days on and a day or two off. “When we do get breaks, the social life is great,” he says.