Fight or flight at Kinross Station

He considers himself among the lucky ones who could earn a dollar elsewhere to ride out the sheep and wool depression of the early 1990s.

Reflecting on the hard times doesn’t come easy for Brian, Kinross Station, 20 kilometres north-west of Pooncarie, who is a third generation grazier on 38,850 hectares.

But it was the years spent contract mustering in northern NSW and southern Queensland that enabled him to make ends meet, he said.

“Nearly everybody was in the same boat. You did whatever you could do to prop things up, otherwise you wouldn’t survive. I was fortunate I could fly.”

Just because he pulled through didn’t mean it was easy though.

“We went through the sheep depression when sheep were worth nothing and the wool reserve price scheme was dismantled," Brian said.

“Farmers were paid more to shoot a sheep. They were shot by the thousands.

“The only thing harder is shooting horses. They look at you; they know exactly what’s happening.”

Now on his property Kinross Station, near Pooncarie in the State’s south-west, Brian continues to fly.

Now it’s for the love of it.

His wife Rosemary watches on as Brian musters sheep in one of the paddocks on their 38,850 hectare holding.

When asked whether she worries about her husband flying in the single seat gyrocopter, her answer was simple.

“I have learnt worry is faith in the wrong thing.”

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