Wayne Brown
“….shod a lot of horses”
In May 2011 Wayne was working as headstockman at Gallipoli Station, an outstation of Alexandria Downs Station, Barkly Tablelands, Northern Territory.
The epitome of a “Channel Country boy,” Wayne was born in 1985, and raised at Santos Station, an outstation of Naryilco Station, South West Queensland. After finishing school, he clocked up a total of five years at Naryilco, during which he spent a year contracting “on my own,” and in 2009 he ran the camp at Nappa Merrie Station. Wayne then made a decision to move further
North, have a look around, and experience working with bigger groups of cattle “to get my numbers up.” He admitted to being “a bit sad when I left (The Channels)… for my own good I reckon. I stood on (the banks of) a turkey’s nest the other day, and I could see bores all around, and I’m looking around and wondering “What am I doing?!”
However, at Gallipoli there’s the opportunity to work in different country, using different cattle handling methods, and Wayne can still pursue a keen interest in horse riding. He bought a selection of Diamond Farrier Tools, for shoeing his own and the station horses. Since childhood, Wayne has accumulated a lot of experience working cattle with horses, and his comment, “I’ve shod a lot of horses” is more than credible. He’s attended David Famillo and other farrier schools, and benefited from their instruction.
Wayne’s recreational interest is Saddle Bronc riding, and in 2010 he won the title in the Queensland Rodeo Associations (QRA) Saddle Bronc. He also rode in the National Finals at Ipswich and was placed second overall. Wayne, like many young people in the industry, is keen to keep looking around and maybe follow his dreams which include rodeo, getting a chopper pilots licence and/or a diesel mechanics qualification.
For the time being, he’s “liking the isolation, away from towns,” and concentrating on broadening his experience in the wide open spaces of the Barkly Tablelands.