Lorraine-Lee Tyerman, In a Grazier’s Shoes (DOCO 2024)

I have a deep respect for those that choose to live on the land, the people who are nameless, but manage through a variety of circumstances to put food on your table. It’s hot, dusty, thankless, and tiring work, but for people like Geoff, it is his world. Living on the land in the outback of NSW is a different life; the isolation is foremost in every grazier’s mind as you need to be self-sufficient in many ways. I have only been living on Brindiwilpa Station three years, and I can’t help but admire my partner Geoff, like many other men and women that choose this life they rise to any challenge that station life throws their way. One of these challenges was when I broke my back just three months after moving out here, which let me incapable of helping Geoff on the station and providing valuable help. Times have been tough out here with drought conditions, stock prices falling drastically, and financial hardship. My permanent disability was one more thing to cope with, and losing valuable help I could provide for such a short time was, and is hard. Primarily a documentary photographer, I feel the need to document and record the day-to-day lives of these unsung heroes to share what I see with people who live in the cities and suburbs that have no knowledge of the daily battle that station people face. While Geoff is my partner, he is my hero in many ways. Geoff maintains 113,000 acres, thousands of sheep, and a few cattle by himself. He is not alone in this situation; there are many unsung heroes in this outback desert country. When the sheep are brought into the yards they need to be drafted according to size, sex, and age. This can be a dangerous job where the sheep will charge at you and using their horns, rip clothing and gouge skin. It may look like an easy job in the photo, but the heavy gates are constantly opening and closing at a rapid rate to separate the sheep into different pens. There are many roads to maintain on the station, it is a never-ending task. Geoff is well-versed in using many types of machinery to keep the station running. A reality that people don’t like to talk about is that feral animals need to be kept under control so they don’t kill stock, in particular lambs. Personally, feral boars with large tusks petrify me when I see them charging other feral animals. It’s not often Geoff will take up a position on the ground commando style, but for a clean shot at times it is required. We live a long way from anywhere, so if a pipe bursts, it’s up to Geoff to fix it. The main water pipe to the house is buried quite deep under the sand so it takes a bit of digging before the pipe can be repaired. The days are long out here and at the end of a hot busy day, Geoff prefers nothing more than to pull up a chair in the shade of the shed and have a quiet beer.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.