Trilby station on the Darling

Mid November 2012 (days are hazy now)

Trilby station is 127,000 acres big, roughly 1000 times bigger than Mum and Dad’s place at Beaudesert, has it’s own airstrip, two planes, the Darling river flowing through it and was the first place in Australia to have a completely mechanised wool shed. It’s roughly 91kms from the homestead to West Trilby, another part of their property.

It’s a fifth generation farm and it is beautiful. There are over a dozen, private campsites along the Darling but the riverbanks were steep and slippery, and there were a few too many “widow-maker” red river gums over these sites. So we chose one of the campsites along the Billabong beside a Coolabah – where else?

We’re staying here three nights and two days but could easily stay here longer.  We’ve got yabby nets in the Darling river, so far with no gain; the bigger kids have both learned how to kayak, we’ve gone canoeing down the billabong in the evening and early morning, spotted so much bird-life; swam in the homestead’s pool and Simon’s half-heartedly thrown a fishing line in the billabong.

To top off our visit, we saw Dermot, the father of the owners land his plane on the airstrip when he came to visit and got to watch him take off. Not a bad way to keep an eye on your sons, getting in your plane and popping in and out of the sky!  He’s in his 80s and is great fun and is in the sky most days.

Next time we’ll be staying at Trilby for a week.