Book Review: The Wooleen Way: Renewing an Australian Resource
Author: David Pollock 2019
This account of a young man’s quest to find environmental sustainability in an area of Australia in which he has deep roots is a worthwhile, inspiring, and maybe even a confronting read for some.
Back in the 70s David Pollock’s parents fell in love with Wooleen Station, a 153 000 ha pastoral lease in rangeland country in the Murchison Region of Western Australia, approximately 150 kilometers northeast of the coastal town of Geraldton, and inland from the popular coastal tourist town of Kalbarri.
Wooleen Station is just one of the many southern rangeland pastoral leases in WA, which combined, make up an area approximating that of France.
Like the majority of these rangeland operations, their life was one of incredible hardship as they attempted to eke out an existence in an industry beset by the vagaries of weather, fluctuating market prices; including a major crash in wool prices; and an exhausted landscape overrun with competing feral goats and kangaroos, and a decimated native fauna from foxes and feral cats. Added to this was an entrenched and unsympathetic bureaucracy intent on maintaining a status quo which possibly borders on criminal neglect.
The book takes the reader on a personal journey outlining the battle by his pastoralist parents and we learn of the desperation and early promise wrought by the introduction of farm-stay tourism by his enterprising mother, prior to her untimely passing. We read of his early memories of growing up, attending boarding school and a stint at university before travelling the world and earning an income as a young man from a range of sources including kangaroo hunting. Above all we are given a glimpse of David’s ingrained and infectious passion for station life and the land of his roots.
Taking the absorbed wisdom from the indigenous stockmen who had been born on Country and lived and worked for his parents on Wooleen, as well as knowledge gained from further studies, David embarked on a lifelong quest to right the wrongs of the past and discover a sustainable future for not only Wooleen Station; the custody of which he has eventually inherited from his parents; but the broader rangeland region and pastoral industry, with salient lessons for every arid area in every continent of the World.
Pivotal to the success of these changes on Wooleen was the initial unconventional and brave decision to destock Wooleen of all sheep and cattle. As if this was not crazy enough for his peers, he then defied the authorities and accepted wisdom and re-introduced the dingo as an alpha predator. With a meagre, at times non- existent income he was able to re-think and design the water supply strategy and slowly re-introduce cattle.
We learn of the vital native perennial plant species which have all but disappeared from decades of overstocking and neglect, the negative impact on the water table and soil, and the ingrained poor management practices which have been incorporated in inflexible government policy restricting and dis-incentivizing change, and finally, thanks to the author’s persistence; the gradual introduction of a promising alternative, which over time is proving the critics wrong.
Of course, he was assisted and financed in this quest by meeting and marrying a creative and industrious life partner, as well as the fortuitous publicity gained by a connection with the ABC Australian Story television program which has resulted in worldwide interest and a thriving and expanded farm-stay tourism business.
Enjoy ~ Dave Wood
