Far West farmers would back a national aerial mustering safety group

Other industry voices, meanwhile, say there would need to be heavy grassroots input in order to prevent an increasing number of private operators ‘heading underground’ to avoid perceived arduous regulations on aircraft training and instructing. 

The Pastoralists’ Associaiton of West Darling will make helicopter and fixed-wing aerial mustering safety a key plank of its annual general meeting on May 18.

President Lachlan Gall said the group had become increasingly concerned about the implications for farmers who use or hire aircraft to muster livestock in the event that something goes wrong.

Civil Aviation Safety Authority senior investigator Paul Campbell will address the group at the Broken Hill conference. 

There are ‘hundreds’ of private and commercial pilots in the region, according to Mr Gall, with varying experience. 

The son of a pilot, and someone who hires pilots to assist with mustering and checking water points out at Broken Hill, Mr Gall said he’d back the formation of a national safety and networking organisation.

“Everyone in the far west is either using the services of a pilot to muster livestock or they know someone who does,” Mr Gall said. 

“I have a number of friends that have unfortunately died in aircraft accidents. Safety is paramount. It’s no good taking a risk to get a clean muster if you’re not going to come home.

“Woody vegetation has increased greatly in the far west, make it very hard to see livestock on the ground. You fly past an old ewe hiding under a bush, looking over their shoulder and trying to turn the aircraft at the same time - it’s one of the classic mustering accident situations.”

A national aerial mustering safety committee was launched in 2016 but has since gone off the radar. 

The Northern Territory Cattleman’s Association heard at its annual conference last month that there were five recorded aerial mustering accidents in Australia last year alone and 15 fatalities between 2007 and 2016.

Retired Air Chief Marshal Sir Angus Houston told the conference that aerial mustering in the Western and Northern regions ‘needed a culture change’. He also said a national safety group was paramount. 

Far West commercial helicopter pilot Jamie Henderson said a few solid seasons for goats and sheep out in Western NSW meant a number of new people were entering the aerial mustering game. 

He said he’d back a national safety group “so long as it’s a common-sense approach”.

“We’re already pretty heavily regulated, which is good. But sometimes there’s not a lot of focus on the grassroots level, where a lot of flaunting of the rules comes from. A lot of people who have made a bit of money out of the goats get a chopper. They want to keep getting that money in and might not be ticking the boxes.”

AERIAL mustering veteran Craig Crumblin said he’d also back a new version of the Aerial Mustering Safety Committee, but only if training and mentoring ‘was less of a bureaucratic nightmare’. 

Mr Crumblin, who has been in the industry since 1986 and is based on the Sunshine Coast, said many experienced pilots wanted to help teach youngsters coming into the game, but were put off by ‘the multiple hoops and onerous regulations’ in the way. 

”Young people coming in aren’t afforded the mentoring the way we did years ago,” he said. “Aerial mustering isn’t a ‘tick the box’ job. It’s more of an apprenticeship. 

“But if it’s so hard to follow the rules then you’re going to push things underground. It is a growing sector and the culture is changing. 

“For some they treat it as though they’re getting on a motorbike. 

“I feel for the young guys who get thrown in there and teach themselves or they’re learning from someone who shouldn’t be teaching.”

Terry Smith at Scarsdale Station near Menindee got his general aviation licence a few years ago. 

He is allowed to complete some mustering tasks on his own property in his Savannah fixed-wing aircraft. 

He said the aerial mustering industry – like any industry – had its ‘rough edges’, and safety body based on farmer and industry feedback would be a good thing. 

”Listening to the people on the ground, doing the job would be the way to go,” he said.