Ladies' Day

Last Saturday was Ladies’ Day. Officially called “The Barkly Women’s Day at the Barkly Homestead,” Ladies’ Day is a chance for the women of the Barkly Tablelands to get together for a morning of lectures followed by lunch. This year’s speakers included 2 cooks, a homeopath, a chiropractor, and a personal image consultant. All of them related their talks to the lifestyles of women in the outback- far from services, with few resources at their disposal, and surrounded by a male-dominated world. Some speakers were better than others, but overall it was a good morning. The lunch that followed was especially nice because it wasn’t beef. We had lamb and chicken ceasar salad – both rare treats on stations where anything that isn’t beef has to be trucked in great distances in a refrigerated truck. There was also pumpkin salad with avocado (another rarity), spanikopita, asparagus quiche, and other tasty varieties of “chick food” that no self respecting jackaroo would be caught dead eating. Naturally, I loved it. For desert there were several types of pie and cheesecakes, and an ample supply of champagne.

Once the legitimate purpose of the day had been concluded, the drinking began. The women had come from all over the region, some from as much as 4 hours away, and ranged in age from 18 to 60+. The younger girls, there were maybe 20 of us, were mostly governesses and jillaroos, while the older women, about 80 of them, tended to be the wives of station managers and employees. Following lunch, the women rounded up their children and either headed home or went outside for a wine and cheese picnic. The Barkly Homestead (affectionately called “the Bark Hut,” or just “the Hut”) is a road house, and like any Australian road house, is mostly popular for its bar, which we younger girls made sure received ample business through the afternoon. At about 6:00, once they had finished work for the day, some of the boys from the closer stations, mostly Brunette Downs and Walhallow, drove out to show their appreciation for the ladies of the Barkly.

It was wonderful to escape the Walhallow bubble for a day and it was especially great to meet the jillaroos from the other stations. Some of them have been at this work for a while and are really awesome tough cookies, with lots of war stories about crazy horses, psycho bosses, and nightmare musters. It was such a relief to sit around and laugh about all the things that can, and often do, go wrong in the bush, regardless of where you work. The governesses (called “govies”) were fun too – mostly 18 year old girls on a gap year before university. We all enjoyed the company of other females for a change and a break from the constantly male-dominated conversation.

That night Lucy (the other Walhallow jillaroo) and I rolled out our swags in the back of the Toyota and slept under the stars. A “swag” is a bedroll complete with sleeping pad, sheets, comforter and pillow, which rolls up in a big canvas envelope. It’s huge but everybody here has one and they are surprisingly comfortable and warm. In the morning we rolled them back up, ate a quick breakfast, and made the 2 hour drive back to the station where we promptly went back to sleep for the rest of the day.