Myella Farm Stay

This past weekend, we spent 3 days and 2 nights at the Myella Farm Stay in Baralaba, Queensland. To get there, we flew from Sydney to Rockhampton, aka Rocky - the Beef capital of Australia. We happened to arrive a few days before the tri-annual National Beef expo, which draws steers and farmers from the entire country (and some international folks as well). When we were walking around Rocky, we saw many signs and posters for the upcoming exhibition:

When we landed in Rockhampton, it was clear we were outside of the city and urban areas of Australia. For me (Grantland), personally, it felt like when I fly home to Tulsa. There were less minorities (everyone was white), a little overweight, wore a Western-like hat of some sort, and everyone arriving at the airport was getting big hugs as they were welcomed home.

After spending one night at the Rockhampton YHA (small but clean), we were picked up at 6:30 am and driven to the 1,040 hectares Myella ranch, which seems so big, but is still known as a “hobby farm” by Australian standards.

The farm stay is like the movie City Slickers. It’s designed to give city folks like us a chance to experience life on a farm. We rode horses, bicycles and dirt bikes (last one was Grantland only), milked cows, fed chickens and collected their eggs (and fried them over the fire), rustled up the cattle, went on a 4WD, viewed wildlife (insects, birds, scorpions, kangaroos), sat in hammocks, ate really good food, and got up at bloody 6:30 am everyday. The ranch is owned by an elder couple, Peter and Olive, and their daughter Lyn. They have been taking in tourists for farmstays since 1993. There are several friendly hired ranch hands to assist with the tourists and upkeep of the ranch.

Every morning, we went on a different horse trail. These trails were not just smooth and well maintained - we rode through thick trees, steep inclines, stone terrain, and got to herd cattle…well, it was only 5 cows, but it was still herding. After 2-3 hours of riding, we had to take the saddles off and wash the horses, and could also assist in releasing the horses out to their paddocks (free range pasture).

My (Shirley here) favorite part was learning to milk the cows. After years of reading the Little House on the Prairie series, I was eager to try it. You have to squeeze harder than you ever thought, and you don’t have to worry about it hurting the cow, because the calves treat their mom’s udder even rougher, often butting into it to increase the milk flow. I tried really hard for all three days, but I could still never pull as much milk as the regular milkers.

The farm also had a few house pets which were fun to play with. There were two birds – first one was Harry, a talking parrot who was found when trees on the property were being cut. Poor, unfortunate, Harry has Beak and Feather disease, which means he can grow feathers, but they will fall out almost immediately. It was like watching a store-bought chicken ready for cooking with a head and eyes walk around and talk. There is no cure for the viral disease, and young birds who catch it usually are abandoned and die. Harry kept warm at night with a warming light that was bought from the pet store.

The other housepet bird was named Pink Floyd, another talking parrot. He would say, "Scratch scratch," "what are you doing?," among other phrases. "Scratch, scratch" indicated that he wanted to be scratched around the neck and head, he loved it.

Floyd was a lot of fun. After several scratching sessions with him, he would follow me around the yard and kitchen. The Myella owners make a habit of taking care of animals who can’t take care of themselves – in the past they’ve hand-raised baby kangaroos.

While these tours can sometimes seem packaged, we didn’t feel that during our stay. Rachel, who took us horse riding each morning, and the other folks running the farm must have had to repeat instructions, directions, stories and explanations in a running loop with the tourists coming and leaving each day. But they never felt like looped conversations – the farm folks were always patient and more than willing to share information they must have surely repeated a million times a year. Myella was a different and fun experience (but not super cheap), we would recommend it to any tourist looking for something more rustic to do in Australia.