I love the sayings of the bush. I can remember when I was a little girl trying to work out half the things a friend of ours used to say. He had spent

years working as a jackaroo so his everyday conversation was peppered with things like, “Where is your barrel of fat?” (Translation: where is your riding hat which you need to put on before I will let you get on that pony) and “All he said was nod his head” about someone sparse with words. So Annabelle Hickson’s column this month about what she calls ‘farmer speak’ reminded me of the lovely Chappie Howarth, who taught me a lot about horses and dogs, not to mention some interesting expressions. In this issue we head bush to visit Anlaby Station, one of South Australia’s grandest pastoral properties, which in its heyday was 65,000 hectares with a house that eventually grew to 32 rooms. Settled in 1839 by Frederick Dutton, it had only been owned by three families when Andrew Morphett and Peter Hayward visited on one very hot February day in 2003. “It was 38 degrees and it was just overwhelming,” explains Andrew. “In four hours, we’d seen everything once, and then we were in the car heading home, in stunned silence. It was just too big, too far out, too far down a dirt road, too everything! And here we are.” Turn to page 34 to see the results of the pair’s steady restoration of this magnificent property. But there is another house that has really captured my heart, and I think the woolshed/studio just across the garden and the small Jack Russell cross that lives there — and reminds me so much of my old dog — has something to do with it. The thought of Tamara Bowman’s Mudgee property (see page 48) is very appealing as I sit writing this in a busy city office!