The high country and the animals that live there have been Colin Clark’s life.
After leaving school at 15, he worked on Cluden Station at Tarras for 50 years. As a musterer, he used to get up at 3.30 or 4.00am and ride a horse to the 5000 foot tops by daybreak. It took five men two days to muster the back block and three days to muster the ewe block. Once the sheep were mustered from the tops, they were put in a single mob and driven into Tarras.
These days Colin farms 50 acres at nearby Hawea Flat, where he runs Rhino Park Merino Stud, fattens a few cattle, cuts some hay and breeds a few racehorses.
He occasionally goes back to Cluden. It is like returning home as he worked for three generations of owners and is godfather to two members of the fifth generation.
There are 160 km of roads on the property now and the back block has been fenced into 11 blocks. Aerial top dressing, irrigation and rabbit control have seen sheep numbers increase from 3500 to 12,000.
Now days, the mustering day starts with breakfast at the station, then the dogs are put in the back of a truck for the hour-long drive up to the tops before the big walk down with the sheep.
After a lifetime as a stockman, Colin knows merino behaviour well and can predict where they will be at any time of day, and how to use this natural behaviour to advantage.
“If they are in a big paddock, in the day time they work their way down to water by about 4pm and then work their way back up. If you get out early in the morning you will normally strike them on the tops and they just move. If you leave it too late they are camped up in gullies. They don’t shift even if you bark up.”
Dogs remain an essential part of the muster, which gives Colin a chance to give his team a run. Colin has had working dogs all his life. He has bred hunterways and heading dogs and won “the odd open or two” in dog trials.
“I love the land and the animals that are on it. You learn to live with them and you take an interest in them as they grow up, especially if you bred them.”
