Friday, 8 December 2017

Story 27. Highway Slaughter.

Mt Gunson Cattle Grid Mine, sat across the boundary of two station properties.

To the east Pernatty Station.
To the west Oakden Hills Station.

Between Oakden Hills and Mt Gunson mine was the Stuart Highway, the National Highway that ran northward from Pt Augusta, Alice Springs and finally on to Darwin completely crossing the continent from north to south.

Almost opposite the Mt Gunson turn off is an area known as the Bellamy Hills, a sandy area with patches of dense scrub, low trees and a sizable dam water supply, an ideal place for cattle to roam.

Most of the properties along the Stuart Highway ran sheep and cattle and in the early 1980's before the highway was sealed and with only sparse traffic using the road very few sheep and cattle station properties bothered with boundary or highway fencing.

Very late one cold night with the temperature nearing zero, news came through a number of cattle had wandered onto the highway and been knocked over by a passing semi-trailer, the story told was there could be as many a five dead cows spread over the road.

The overseer, his wife and a roustabout headed off in the inky blackness to investigate, taking with them their butchering knives just in case there was a possibility of being able to restock the stations meat supply.

They arrived to find a number of dead cattle spread along a section of highway. these they cleared from the road and after surveying the carnage the group set about butchering the cattle using the vehicle head lights to see by as they skinned and cut the beasts into manageable size pieces, placing them on a growing pile on the back of the station's utility.

It was pitch black and freezing and well into the early morning hours as the small crew were finishing off, in the distance they could see the lights of the first vehicle to use the road in hours, approaching.

They could hear it slowing down as it neared, obviously alerted buy the headlights of their vehicle parked off to the side of the road, eventually pulling up and stopping next to the stations vehicle.
The station overseer walked out of the darkness and into the head lights as the drivers window wound down.
The driver his eyes springing wide open as he watched a tall stranger completely covered head to toe in fresh blood and carrying a very large bloodied knife in his hand, approach.
The engine suddenly revved loudly as the gears crunched and the wheels began to screech along the bitumen as the terrified driver took of in an almighty hurry.

Leaving the small group a little puzzled by his response as they listened to the car as it continued accelerating away from them for quite some time.



     


      

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Geoff.

Windoze ME Hi team I hope to eventually introduce new pages to the Blog.     On Aviation. Flying, Gliding and the other forms. 1971...