Lives and Livelihoods

Outstanding achievements by outstanding Individuals

Henry and Bernadette Burke

It seems incongruous that a Queensland bush boy who was barely out of primary school when he gave up formal education for a job in an outback saleyard, could now be the head man at Brunette Downs, the largest single lease cattle station in Australia.

But Henry Burke's passion for the bush and cattle work was destined to bring him to the attention of Australia's pastoral powerbrokers, including AACo which has based him on Brunette to oversee operations on its group holdings across the Barkly Tablelands and into Queensland.

Henry, married to Bernadette and with four offspring - Timothy, 21, Jessica, 18, Sam, 16 and Patrick, 7, was the fourth of eight children born to a beef cattle family working a 'battlers' block at Dougall River near Cloncurry in north Queensland.

He left school at just 14 years to takeup his firstjob with Dalgetys in the Cloncurry cattle saleyards. He moved on to valuable skillbuilding stints at contract fencing and cattle mustering, and also worked for a while at Mt Isa's Mary Kathleen Uranium Mine before the lure of cattle work dragged him back onto the land.

A job offer on Canobie Station in Queensland's gulf country in the early 1970s introduced Henry to station work and began the ball rolling on a long and impressive career on cattle properties all over north and central west Queensland and the Barkly Tablelands. His employees have been among Australia's most powerful pastoral landholders- Australian Estates, CSR and the AACo (Australian Agricultural Company).

In the years between Canobie and his arrival at the Territory's sprawling Brunette Downs,

Henry ran a stock camp on Walhallow Station in the NT Barkly - and married Bernadette while there in 1980, then transferred back across the border to manage a Santa Gertrudis stud at Crowfels, an outstation of Millungera Station.

He gradually worked his way up the ranks as a valued AACo employee, becoming assistant manager at the corporation's Wurung outstation of Canobie Station then Headingly Station in 1985, then managing Wondoola Station in the gulf country for nine years, from 1988.

In 2002, after one more gulf job, as senior manager at Wrotham Park Station, Henry transferred to Brunette Downs as manager in charge of the AACo group holdings in Queensland and the Territory Barkly region. The 1.22 million hectare Brunette Downs Station, 350km away from its nearest town, Tennant Creek, carries 60,000 mostly Santa Gertrudis cattle. It turns off an average 20,000 head a year',both for the domestic meat and live export sectors. One of Henry's most important recent roles has been to oversee breeding and production trials on the innovative Barkly composite cross cattle,which comprise 50per cent Santa Gertrudis, and 25 per cent each of the Senepol and Charolais breeds.

The station's 1O,OOO-strong Barkly composite herd has emerged from an AACo breeding initiative introduced 10 years ago. The Brunette trials are looking at heterosis (hybrid vigour), meat quality, fertility, fly resistance and other aspects that will determine the cross breed's potential for meat production in the future. The results so far are looking good. Brunette Downs cattle are trucked then railed into feedlots and meat markets in all directions around the country, and others are shipped live out of Darwin to Asia.

Our Santa cross cattle go mainly to self-sufficient AACo owned Queensland feedlots such as Goonoo andAronui," Henry says.

"As well, we have sold cattle to Victoria's Charlton feedlot and South Australia's Naracoote meat markets. We also bring in company-bred Brahman from the gulf to grow out at Brunette for the live export trade, and last year we shipped 10,000 head out through the Port of Darwin.

"We might be a long way from our nearest neighbours here at Brunette Downs, but from a commercial perspective, we're pretty central to most markets around the country."

Henry Burke is confident about the Territory cattle industry's future, though he has misgivings on some issues - like the difficulties in attracting skilled staff to work in the bush and make it a long-term commitment.

"There is a lot of interest from keen young people wanting to experience station life, but only one or two out of every 20 stay in the industry.The others will either go home to work on Dad's farm, go to university or follow other pursuits back in town.

"Retaining a skilledworkforce for the bush is one oftbis industry's biggest problems. For a start, families on remote cattle stations face above-normal living costs. I believe governments must start seriously looking at providing tax and other incentives to keep these families in the bush and attract more good skilledpeople to come and work in these remote areas. The lack of good, reliable health services has also been a major concern for Barkly region people since I have moved here and is one that I feel the NT Government must address immediately."

"Infrastructure, such as roads, in the NT's outback areas, is another problem. It's gone nowhere in the last 10 years. There's not enough recognition of the value of this industry and nowhere near enough money being spent to make remote Australia more economically viable."

Putting such issues aside, Henry sees exciting times ahead for the cattle industry over the next 10 years or so.

"Taking into account all the new technology, emerging markets and generational change that is starting to come through, mixing them all together and making them work for the good of the industry, is going to be quite exciting," he says.

"Add to this the quality assurance schemes that will give easy trace-back and help promote om clean brand of cattle, and I can see that in the next few years our product will be the best in the world."

Source: Kerry Sharp