The station hand wants a wife… and he got one!

Gerard and Jody Tully

Meet Jody who has a great story about how she met her farmer!

I first met my husband on a brown couch at 4am in the morning in the carpark of a B&S, we had a lot of fun on that couch and no not the kind you’re thinking of but a game in which we met a lot of passers by.

The next morning the rum had worn off and hubby to be was too shy to talk to me, I thought he being arrogant. Turns out he was best mates with some of my close uni friends and the next couple of years were filled with fun parties and get togethers at which we kept bumping into each other (hubby travelling 1000km one way for them), little did I know it was to see me.

Finally about 18mths later, another get together, there he was sitting by the fire, covered in blood from lamb marking, I knew something was up when I sat down next to him and he rushed off, coming back clean shaven and showered!

The wedding day

That night we finally hooked up and I think all our friends breathed a sigh of relief… and asked us when the wedding date was (no pressure).  This was followed by my first trip to his family place 180 000 acres west of Quilpie.

We decided to meet up at the Meandarra B&S, and the next day we headed off for Quilpie  rather under the weather in his non air-conditioned Landcruiser in 45 degree heat, via his mate south of Mitchell. When we got to the place his mate was working, the word had spread around that Gerard was handy on a bike and a mechanic, and that I could ride, before you could blink the station owner had Gerard fixing his old cruiser, the horses ready to go…this lead on to 3 days mustering (free!).

The dogs, horses, calves, cows and humans all suffering heat stroke as he didn’t believe in starting early or carrying water, only to be followed by a statement from the owner at dinner time of “love, you cook dinner it’s a womans job”!!! At that stage I was too polite to tell him where to go…I have learnt!

The wedding party

We managed to escape on to Quilpie where the husband had “cleaned” his cottage, this involved pushing the guns and ammo onto just one side of the table and putting the clean washing in a pile in the corner of the room, though he did impress me with cooking a stir-fry and having a clean bathroom!

We then spent the next few days in 45-50degree heat and about 100% humidity doing flood fencing….oh the romance, but it must’ve been love as we got married 3yrs later on a ridge of the property.  If you had told me 10yrs ago that I’d marry a man from the outback, be living 1000km west of Brisbane managing a 230 000 acre property, have 2 wild boys and be completely at ease with guns, bikes, snakes, cattle  and the isolation, I would’ve told you that you are mad… but the truth is I wouldn’t want anything else, the time in which I have known and loved my farmer has been an amazing adventure.