Stories of the Douglas Daly - Our Community

The Douglas Daly is a close-knit community of families, most of whom have moved into the area in the past ten years.

Like many Territory families, they love their lifestyle, their environment, animals and fishing.

There are two small schools in the region: one on Tipperary Station and one at the Douglas Daly Research Farm, as well as a weekly playgroup that meets at the Fleming Community Hall.

The farmers and graziers of the Douglas Daly are progressive and environmentally aware.

For them, healthy land is a capital asset that is too valuable to degrade.

Their ambition is to hand on their properties to the next generation in a better condition than they found it.


New Tricks: The Howies at Maneroo Station

A new generation of farmers is bringing radical new ideas to the land, say Douglas Daly farmers, Phil and Annette Howie.

Once upon a time, to go on the land, you just followed in your father's footsteps.

Today's young farmers have tertiary degrees and join Landcare groups. Their tools of trade are quad bikes and computers. They do budgets and business plans, negotiate workplace agreements, and compare notes about weeds, pastures, crops and composite cattle breeds.



No ordinary Mortgage: The McBeans at Ruby Downs Station

The house had been vacant for eight months, so the garden was a jungle and the mower was out of petrol. There was no phone, no Internet, no television and on the first night in their new home, the generator didn’t work, so there was no power.

But for Sam McBean and his fiancé, Sarah-Jane Fletcher, these were small challenges. It was just exciting to be first home
buyers.

First priority was a trench so Telstra could connect the phone to its nearby tower.


Cattle and pearls, it’s all in a Day's Work: Mary Muldoon at Midway

Marie Muldoon works from home, offering exquisite Paspaley pearl jewellery to Paspaley clients around the world.

She had mentioned this to a New York client but nothing had prepared the lady for the ear-splitting bellow that suddenly rent the office air. Excuse me. What was that?” said the startled buyer.

“Stella,” apologised Marie. Stella is the poddy calf that thinks it’s one of the family. She was protesting at the office door, two feet from Marie’s computer.


Rolling in Turf: The Thomsons at Ceres Downs Station

Dan Thomson is used to neighbours hanging over the fence to check out his latest experiment. He has already branched into sorghum for silage (cattle feed), and uses rotational cropping as the basis for paddock management.

But no one expected the cattle grazer and cropping farmer to produce the district's biggest lawn.

Dan and his wife Sarah began their turf farm a year ago on Ceres Downs, the Douglas Daly property bought in partnership with Sarah's Darwin family in October 2004.