WHILE many Queensland cattle producers will remember 2009 finishing up as one of the driest and most challenging in recent years, for the Harrington family of Brinard Station, Julia Creek, it's been one of the most extraordinary, during their long history on the southern Gulf property.
After weathering their fair share of average seasons, New Year's Day 2009 brought with it the start of two months of steady, soaking rain - 1258mm (50 inches) in fact - which helped set them up for the year.
Most recently they received more rain in November in some handy storms, which will help mitigate the threat of fires from summer storms on their savannah-type country.
Scott and Gina Harrington said being cut off at Brinard Station for six weeks at the start of this year was not an unusual situation for them. But the rain and the way it fell was something they hadn't experienced for years and they will be spending this Christmas and New Year's at Brinard wondering if 2010 will put on a repeat performance.
"We have a 17-inch average annual rainfall, so to get more than 50 inches at the start of the year was incredible," Gina said.
"There are channels throughout the place and we rely on floods in channel country, so just for a change, this southern gulf area was in good shape."
"But it would be nice to put the good seasons and some good cattle prices together - it just doesn't seem to happen," Scott added.
Scott and Gina's children, Beau, Dudley and Annabelle, are the fourth generation of the family to grow up on Brinard since Scott's family first settled there in 1937.
Today Brinard is run in conjunction with another aggregation, comprising a total of 64,750 hectares.
Brinard was both a Merino and cattle operation up until 2002, but is now 100pc cattle since the family made the decision to gradually move out of sheep.
Indeed Brinard was once Australia's northern-most Merino property, producing 21-22-micron wool. It was also the place where a shearer named Teddy Reick broke legendary shearer, Jackie Howe's shearing record.
In 1950 at Brinard, Reick machine-shore 326 sheep in one day, beating Howe's record of shearing 321 sheep with blade shears in one day, which he set back in 1892.
Brinard has been running red Brahmans since the mid-1970s, but in September this year the Harringtons bought 13 red Brangus bulls at the annual on-property sale of Bill and Kay Geddes, Doonside Brangus, Milman.
"We bought the Brangus bulls to get our cattle a little bit softer," Scott said.
"I don't run with the pack but Angus/Brangus seem to have traits that fit into our environment, or as many traits as a cross could.
"We join all bulls at Christmas and then pull them out around May, so they're in about four to five months.
"Most of our calves drop around Christmas time and normally here we have a green pick at the start of the season and that allows us to get them off early and reduce our lick usage.
"We try to have our weaners off before the end of June, beginning of July.
"We get our calves at the right time of the year and it allows the cows to have a spell.
"Our plan has been to run less cattle and produce more kilograms of beef, and we've found the controlled mating has probably been one of the main tools we've used to do that, and it just makes management a lot easier.
"Our steers get to 280 to 300kg kill weight in normal seasons, and we send them to either Townsville, Rockhampton or Dinmore - it's all based on supply and demand."
Almost all of the Harringtons' cattle are transported by rail out of Julia Creek or Winton to meatworks - an essential service the Harringtons hope will be maintained for a while yet.
"The Government appears to be trying their hardest to cut the rail out, but our roads aren't standing up to the traffic now from the mining industry," Scott said.
"The actual railway station in Julia Creek closed a month ago so there aren't any personnel permanently there now.
"You just get the feeling that the next step will be no more cattle trains.
"Some years if we haven't got good enough seasons we've had to sell our cattle younger and we either go live export or feedlots or to feed-on people in the south.
"There's a lot of cattle from this area that go out through Townsville for live export and I think export has been a terrific avenue for cattle from the north.
"The biggest thing that's helped us with live export in Queenland is that we don't get nearly as many Territory cattle coming back into Queensland for sale."
Needless to say, during their time on Brinard the Harringtons have witnessed some vast changes in the State's north west, including a population shift as companies have bought out family properties, or properties have been bought up to create larger aggregations.
"We've seen a number of corporates come and go and there are a lot of places that have been bought by neighbours or corporates and have been amalgamated," Scott said.
"We have four properties that adjoin us that nobody lives on now. That has depopulated the area and the infrastructure that was in this country 25 years ago has gone."
Looking ahead, the Harringtons are preparing to see if 2010 will be a wet one.
"We have to be prepared for floods every single year ? the wet season may or may not come, but it's up to us to be ready," Gina said. "Six weeks is probably as long as we've been cut off.
"We have an all-weather airstrip, the medical kit is up to date, and the storeroom is stocked with enough dry goods for three months.
"If you're going to live in this country, you've got to be prepared."
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