IT looks like a river but it's actually a massive body of water in a paddock and the cattle are survivors from last year's horrendous North Queensland floods.
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They're a composite breed, raised on Australian Agricultural Company's Canobie Station, 200 kilometres north of Cloncurry, which was swamped.
Behind the iphone lens was Victorian-born Stephanie Griffiths, a nurse by trade with a passion for campdrafting and photography who went contract mustering in Queensland.
With her partner Nick Hancock and a team of eight other musterers, they swam the cattle through this temporary lake and when they stopped to water their horses, this was the sight before them.
"The boss said 'now that's a Kodak moment'. I said, I'm on it," Ms Griffiths said.
"You have to marvel at the resilience of those cattle, you'd think they'd be sick of swimming.
"We were moving them to a paddock that had been re-fenced. There's no service out there, I just take the phone for photos."
The photograph featured in Australian Community Media's 100 Stories of Hope competition.
Ms Griffiths, who grew up on a Hereford breeding property near Beechworth, said she had seen some pretty cool things in her time mustering and droving but such a large mob of cattle in such an incredible environment was special.
"You live in a trailer but you work with great people and see so many great places," she said.
AACo chief executive officer Hugh Killen said the company raises its cattle in some of the most pristine and beautiful country in Australia.
"Tragically, Canobie Station was swamped by water early last year, causing more than 40,000 of our cattle to die," he said.
"We lost infrastructure such as buildings and hundreds of kilometres of fencing as well. It was a tough time for our teams on station and the entire AACo family.
"The rebuild has been a huge project. As well as the buildings and fences, it has included new water infrastructure and dozens of bigger and better flood refuges for our cattle, to keep them safe.
"We are now better prepared, should similar weather hit us again."
About 800,000 hectares of AACo property was affected during the 2019 floods. Canobie station was one of the those that was heavily impacted. More than 500km of fences had to be rebuilt.
If placed end-to-end, the wire used in rebuilding the fences would stretch from Brisbane to Melbourne.
AACo estimates the cost of the rebuild at $9m.
Shan Goodwin
Shan Goodwin steers ACM’s national coverage of the beef industry. Shan has worked as a journalist for 30 years, the majority of that with agricultural publications. She spent many years as The Land’s North Coast reporter and has visited beef properties and stations throughout the country and overseas. She treats all breeds equally. Contact 0427686187. E: s.goodwin@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Shan Goodwin steers ACM’s national coverage of the beef industry. Shan has worked as a journalist for 30 years, the majority of that with agricultural publications. She spent many years as The Land’s North Coast reporter and has visited beef properties and stations throughout the country and overseas. She treats all breeds equally. Contact 0427686187. E: s.goodwin@austcommunitymedia.com.au
