TRAVELLING to Mount Isa by train this week to attend the annual Camooweal Drover's Camp Festival gave a man who spent the best years of his life working on the land the time to reflect on some of his best experiences.
At 78 years of age Gordon Iles, who now lives in Townsville, said he couldn't recall how many droving trips he went on over the years because he was virtually born in the saddle.
Many of those trips were spent covering the great country through the North West, from the Diamantina Shire to Camooweal and into the Northern Territory.
A man of the land, Mr Iles was born in Springsure, spent time in Barcaldine and later moved to Winton to take up a job.
His role was to fill up the water bottles so the cook could boil the water.
It was a modest first post but Mr Iles said he loved every minute of it.
One job on the land turned into two and more until the teenager was given regular droving missions with cattle and sheep.
"I was 14 or so when I did my first droving trip," he said.
"I only went to grade 3 at school but that was the way it was back then.
"You had to learn how to ride a horse because that meant you could work. If you could ride a horse you had a jo, but in those days you didn't need much education to do it."
Mr Iles started working on the land in the 1940s before moving into droving sheep and cattle for 20 years from the 1950s to 70.
Between droving jobs he sheared sheep in sheds throughout the state and worked in Mount Isa Mines in the 1970s.
In the 1980s he moved to Townsville to work in the seafood industry.
"I was in to a bit of everything really," the drover recalls.
"I was a drover, a sheep musterer, a shearer, a miner and a cook's assistant. I'd do anything that was needed. That's the way it was back then."
One of his first droving trips through the North West was herding sheep through Dajarra and Boulia to Winton in 1953.
On the trip the drovers moved 9000 head of sheep, which Mr Iles said was a much easier task than moving cattle.
"With cattle you've got to be with them seven days a week, 24 hours a day because they wander off," he said.
"You can have more time off with the sheep and rest because they camp under the trees and stay there. If you leave the cattle unattended you turn around and they are gone."
One of Mr Iles' fondest memories of droving cattle through the North West was the job he'd secured that never eventuated.
Based in Winton he'd travelled to the Northern Territory to drove bullocks back to his home town.
"I went out to drove with Dick Willets at Eva Downs but the deal fell through," he said.
"Some other blokes took the cattle for the job so I missed out on the bullocks and two weeks work.
"I got a lift with the truckies into Tennant Creek, caught the bus back to Mount Isa and then found my way back to Winton and guess who walked right into the pub after droving the cattle back to Winton not too long afterwards?
"The guys who had done me out of the job."
Mr Illes recalled stories of times spent droving with Allan Remfrey, the Pendergast brothers and even Wally Mailman.
In the 1970s Mr Iles recalls trying his hand at being a miner but said it wasn't for him.
"I was in the copper smelter, but there were too many bosses for me," he said.
"I only lasted three months."
The failed stint at mining turned into a successful time shearing sheep in Boulia and surrounding stations where he worked for five years.
"Work was tough in the shearing sheds but we were never short on work," he said.
"I went to all of the stations and know everyone from the stations from Elrose to Westwood.
"I would have worked in hundreds of sheds during my 20 years shearing through Cloncurry, Dajarra and Boulia.
"Jim Scott was my first contractor and then Merlin Jenkins. He always had 10 shearers in his shed going constantly."
It was not until the 1980s that Mr Iles did away with working the land and switched to working the sea in a fisheries shed in Townsville.
He said he loved working in the sheds but missed the call of the land.
"It was a pretty tough life on the land but we enjoyed it and learned to make the most of it," he said.
"I've grown up on the land and you learn to love the land when you've been on it your whole life. We covered a lot of country and saw a lot of the land."
Now living in Townsville, Mr Iles often reminisces about his droving years, although memories are all he has to rely on because he never had a camera back then.
He said in his latter years he had made up for the early days by snapping pictures of almost everything.
"My room at home in Townsville is covered in photos," he said.
"These days I take of photo of anything that moves."
And he wasn't exaggerating.
While talking about his love for photography the old drover hands over a photo of his bedroom which shows the walls littered with snapshots of his large family and some friends.
Held close to him for the Camooweal Dover's Camp Festival he carries several packages of photographs to show the event committee's president, Liz Flood, who happens to be his cousin.
Mr Iles said family was very important to him.
The 78-year-old comes from a family of 10 but was not aware just how large his family was until he delved into uncovering his family tree which took about 10 years.
"I've traced our history back to the 1700s in England," he said.
"Our family was around in 1757 and there is a lot of English and Irish in us on my dad's side but also Aboriginal from my mum."
This weekend Mr Iles and his sister Frances Davidson will travel to the Camooweal Drover's Camp Festival to take part in the celebrations and catch up with other Australian's who worked the land.
Mrs Davidson used to be married to rodeo rider and ringer Charlie Thomas and said she tried hard to stay off the land but kept getting drawn back in.
"We lived in the bush when we were kids and I swore I'd never go back but I ended up marrying a ringer," she said.
"I went on a droving trip once myself but I had to cut it short because I was having a baby."
Mr Illes and Ms Davidson said they were looking forward to catching up with family and taking part in the festival.
"I've been three times before and I come for the atmosphere and to catch up with the old ringers," Mr Iles said.
"It's good to share stories and share our love for the country.
"There is something special about the landscape and the people. People in cities don't even say G'day to you."
The Camooweal Drover's Camp Festival is on Friday until Sunday in Camooweal.
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