What happens when the rain comes

A walk along the slippery Dairy Creek-Mount Augustus track to where the Geeranoo Creek crossed it
Ainslee Steadman organises a fresh water supply

It was in the Gascoyne area just east of the the little hamlet Gascoyne Junction. A sheep and cattle Station Dairy Creek was on my agenda for study during my 1996 field trip. Two days after I arrived at the station, the owners Ainslee and Trish Steadman, loaded their utility and truck and set forth for the Gascoyne Junstion Picnic Races, a great event for everyone for many miles around. They left Friday evening, leaving me to feed the dog, pet baby magpie, the fat cat, start the lighting plant to run the lectricity for lights, fridge and freezer and generally be prepared for when the Aboriginal staff turned up requiring food. On Saturday I wandered around the station homestead complex, and accompanied by their dog Kori, which is Aboriginal for girl, wandered off across the wide Geeranoo Creek to the shearers quarters and shed. The sky was overcast, and as my wanderings progressed around the shearers quartes, the clouds progressed also and thickened and darkened. By the time I made my way back to the homestead, a light rain was falling. By evening when I went to start the lighting plant, the rain was falling heavily, which boded ill for the race meetings. Next day a very wet world greeted me, and the Geeranoo Creek, which ran behind the homestead, was running a banker. The creek washed out the piping from the well to the homestead complex that was the necessary water supply. Ainslee and Trish arrived home after slithering their way along the notorious Gascoyne-Landor Road, now a muddy quagmire, followed by a young couple in a van, who were stranded because the four roads leading out of Gascoyne Junction were closed. Within two days the homestead tank was empty of water and we were on rations from two jerry cans. The rain had stopped by now. The following day, three days after the floods, Ainslee was able to get out and get an engine from one of his outcamps. This he proceeded to set up, with the necessary poly piping, to pump water from the lowered creek to the homestead tank. Trish, her sister Jill, myself and the young lass Linda did the biggest wash you ever saw. The rotary clothes line was full, all bushes had articles draped over them, the veranda with its railings around the buildings were covered with articles. Gascoyne bore water is a dreadful brew and very hard and salty. What Ainslee had pumped up was lovely, soft clear water.