Warragal Park, Darkan in Darkan, Western Australia | Farm

Warragal Park, Darkan

Locality: Darkan, Western Australia

Phone: +61 8 9736 3068

Address: 119 Telfer Road 6392 Darkan, WA, Australia

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25.01.2022 Sometimes farmers don't want rain. Today is one of those days...

24.01.2022 While the rest of the family is holidaying on the coast, Roger is stuck at the farm. Water is scarce so managing the sheep is a matter of logistics. The sheep also require supplementary feeding. In the middle of the day when the weather is hottest he has been doing office work in the air conditioning.

24.01.2022 Bonnie has just sent through this photo of a tree across the driveway near our front gate.

23.01.2022 Some beautiful rain fell on the farm over the weekend - 36mm over four days - a very welcome drop :-) Listening to the rainfall report on the Country Hour on ABC Radio it seems it was pretty well right throughout the Southwest land division. Wonderful for Farmers!!

17.01.2022 Shearing Poll Dorset rams today, and it is a new experience for both the rams and us. In the past it has been a big ordeal for the rams and the shearers, injecting the rams to sedate them before the shearers tackled them with great difficulty. This new system consists of one shearer, and his cradle that holds the rams securely while he shears them. Looks easy!! Thanks to Tanja, our Danish visitor, for taking photos today.

11.01.2022 In the last two years there have been lots of new fences going in at the farm; some completely new while others are replacing old fences which could be fifty years old. We had an old post-hole digger but have invested in a newer and bigger one. Now strainer posts are planted two metres deep, allowing them to stand strong while eliminating the need for complicated box sections.

10.01.2022 Sitting at the Dome coffee shop in Bunbury this morning and I flip through the paper to see a photo of one of our old shearers. I don't suppose we'll be seeing Julyan in the shed again. But good on him for taking on a new career at an age when many are looking forward to retirement.

06.01.2022 We’re looking forward to hosting our extended family for Christmas on the farm this year. There will be lots of people, from both the Telfer and the Solly families, here to celebrate together.

06.01.2022 Today marks the end of an era for Warragal Park. Today our few remaining cattle were sent to the Boyanup saleyards. From the time the farm was established by Roger's father Don in the 1950s there have been cattle on the farm. First they were dairy cattle, supplying cream and milk, and in more recent years we have been farming beef cattle. In the 1990s we had 250 breeding cows, and put baby beef through the feedlot to supply a specialist grain-fed beef market. The majority of the herd was sold in 2007 before we had our year in France, and since then there has been only a small herd in the background of our farming operation. Somehow I think I'll miss those beasts.

05.01.2022 Meet Zara. She is Matthew's new sheepdog - a young Black and Tan kelpie. She isn't trained yet, but she has a good eye for sheep, and Matthew is spending a lot of time with her.

04.01.2022 Tanja from Denmark (she is Danish, not from the seaside town) has left Warragal Park, after having a real farm experience. She helped with many sheep-related tasks including lamb marking, crutching, shearing, drenching, and weaning. That's something she wouldn't do in her everyday life working in a toy store in Horsens! She also kept our house tidy, which makes everyone happier :-) Thanks Tanja Juel, we will miss you!!

03.01.2022 Mother Nature has a weird sense of humour. After an extremely dry season last year, many farms have recorded more rain in two days than they did all of last year. More rain than the yearly average in two days in the middle of summer! The main area of flooding is not far from us. Yesterday Roger tried to check our Wattle Creek farm but could only access a few paddocks due to the amount of water making the creek impassable. Our severe water shortage has now been transformed into a sever feed shortage. While Roger should be enjoying a few days of holiday on the coast he will now be spending a few days making sure that all is well and getting dry feed to wet sheep.