Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/412

388 much the same in Australia, the visit was not altogether full of novelty.

But our friends ascertained that one important difference between sheep-farming in the two countries was in the matter of snow-storms. We have seen how the New Zealand flocks suffer from heavy falls of snow; in Queensland there is no such hinderance, the sheep remaining out-of-doors the entire year, and needing no protection other than the yards into which they are driven at night or when wanted for shearing or selection.

An Australian sheep-station consists of two yards built of logs, brush-wood, or small saplings. Each yard must be large enough to contain fifteen hundred sheep; and there is a small hut for two men to sleep in at night. These stations are scattered over the run at distances of two or three miles from one another, and there is a head, or central, station, where the squatter or his manager lives, and whence the supplies for the men are sent out. According to the size of the run and the number of sheep upon it will the stations be multiplied. The run our friends were visiting had twelve stations altogether, the nearest being one mile from the head station, and the farthest fourteen miles.

In reply to his inquiry as to the duties of a shepherd, Frank learned the following, which he carefully noted:

"A good shepherd will let his flock out of the yard soon after sunrise and before the heat is uncomfortable, and allow them to spread out as far as can be done with safety. With the aid of his dogs he heads them towards water, and allows them to feed so as to reach the drinking-place about noon; then he turns them around and feeds them slowly back again, so as to get to the yards just at sunset. This is the routine day after day, with slight variations when the sheep are mustered for selection, which is not very often. Sunday is the same as any other day on a sheep-station, as the animals must be pastured exactly as on weekdays, and there is no relay of shepherds."

"It must be a terribly monotonous life," Frank remarked.

"It is indeed," was the reply. "The two men at a station are