Family affair in the Kimberley

It’s been five months since Kelli-Anne and Anthony Elliott packed their three children, five horses and their home of two years into trucks and traversed the Northern Territory border, bound for the Kimberley.

The pair are now gearing up for their first cattle muster as managers of Lissadell Station, two hours south of Kununurra on Great Northern Highway.

The station carries 20,000 head of grass-fed Brahman-cross cattle, with weaners exported to South- East Asia via Wyndham Port.

Mrs Elliott said mustering at the 1.8 million acre property would kick off soon.

“This is our first go here, we hope to kick off early to mid-May,” she said.

“We are just getting ready to go, putting fences up, flood gates in and getting everything ready.”

Lissadell has dried out after wet season rainfall, leaving the station primed for moving cattle to the station yards before being loaded on to trucks bound for Wyndham, 300km away.

The Elliotts and their three children moved to Lissadell after two years at Limbunya Station in the Northern Territory. They handled 46,000 head of Brahman-cross cattle for North Star Pastoral.

Relocating to the East Kimberley was as much about lifestyle as it was about a new opportunity.

With their children enrolled in Mount Isa School of the Air, Ms Elliott said the couple wanted to give them the best chance to socialise and spend time at rodeos and campdrafts.

Cambell, three, Lucas, eight, and Aidan, 11, are all keen future stockmen.

Their old home was a six-hour drive on a “gruelling” road to the nearest social event at Katherine, while Lissadell is a comfortable two-hour drive to Kununurra, most of which is on a bitumen road.

Ms Elliott said the boys were already signed up to ride in the poddy calf division of the Kununurra Bushmen’s Association rodeo.

They have also settled into their new schoolroom on the homestead’s front veranda.

“We were intrigued by the Kimberley and wanted to move west,” Ms Elliott said.

“We have just fallen in love with the beauty of the station ... we feel very lucky to be here.”