A FATHER’S JOURNEY: TV’s Barry Du Bois puts a positive spin on adversity

school. Together, it’s the longest-running jillaroo and jackaroo school in Australia and something we are very proud of. We have been doing this for the past 21 years.”

Tim says that when his father started the school, most of the students were young men seeking a start in the rural industry but over the decades the demographic has shifted. Now around 70 per cent of his students are young women, an indication that women today have become more adventurous, resilient and physically confident than their forebears.

“The girls I see are every bit as good as the young blokes and, in some cases, they’re much better,” says Tim, who lives on Leconfield with his wife Courtney and two young children, Blake and Margaret. “Most of the girls come from a riding background, which is a great start. But more importantly they’re willing to give just about anything a go.

“You take away what you want from this course. What we find is that it’s the girls who are usually first in line, whether it’s for fencing, lassoing or calf wrestling. And I’ll tell you what, there’s some tough girls out there.”

The pathway to becoming a jillaroo begins, not surprisingly, with a horse. Tim keeps a stable of about 20 horses on the property and has access to more if needed – his family holds around 3000 hectares in the area. Even in the 21st century, horses still stand at the heart of most stock work, and equine skills are essential for any prospective jillaroo.

“We teach natural horsemanship,” explains Tim. “And that starts with confidence – confidence between horse and rider. We ask the riders to stand in front of their mounts and muzzle them so that they can begin to be familiar with each other. That gets the horse to centre its attention on the rider and it’s the start of a bond. It settles the horse so you can put the halter on. It’s that relationship between horse and rider that is so important because you work as a team.”

Tim shows his students the way to control their mounts with body language. “Understanding how horses think and move is really important. Communicating what you want is straightforward if you understand what’s needed and that might be with hand signals or body pressure. It’s a much better way than older more traditional methods because you work together.”

Julia Hocken is from Samford, a small town outside Brisbane, Queensland. Her older sister did the course a few years back and raved about it, so Julia decided she’d give it a go. “My sister then went off and worked as a jillaroo on a station in central Queensland,” recalls Julia, 23, a qualified paramedic. “I’ve always wanted to do something like this and having graduated from university last year I’m now in a gap year between that and finding a full-time job. I want to work on a station and be a jillaroo,

mustering and all the rest of it while I still have the time, before I take a full-time job as a paramedic.”

Although Julia has some experience on horses, she is new to the concept of natural horsemanship. “I didn’t know the difference between natural horsemanship and other training methods,” she says. “But this seems very effective and it’s not cruel at all because it’s about you and the horse. You learn what the horse is like and what their personality is like. I’m riding Yoka and she’s very cheeky. It’s crazy how the horse understands all the signals, but it works. In the beginning she tested me out and disobeyed me, but as we got to know each other it just clicked.”

Dutch-born Samira Peters didn’t need to come back because she never left. Samira did the course last year and proved so good that Tim offered her a job as one of his staff. “I was coming here with a friend and we wanted to find a job, and my friend found the course on the website of our travel organisation. We discovered that the course has a very good reputation for getting a job after you finish so we came and did it. I enjoyed it so much I am still here.”

Samira has also been struck by Tim’s focus on the relationship between horse and rider. “It’s very different to the way we ride in Holland,” she says. “I think it’s very much better for the horse. I’ve ridden horses for 16 years, but this is a much better way.”

For Melbourne’s Alyssa Pietucci, being a jillaroo, even for a few days, was the realisation of a dream. “I work in retail as a sales assistant but I’m studying to be a primary school teacher,” Alyssa says. “The past year has been full of changes and incredibly full on, so I just needed to kick back for a little while and put that behind me. I just want to give myself a little space to go into the next couple of years. And when I found this, I realised it was perfect for me.

“I have always dreamed about horses and riding. I guess a lot of little girls go through their horse phase, but the truth is that I never grew out of it. I am very much an urban girl but in saying that, I think that now I will find myself heading out into the country and the mountains a little bit more to find my peace and find my space. This has certainly given me plenty of both.

“I have always wanted to teach in rural areas, so perhaps this is a skill I can use when I finally have my degree. It certainly gives you options and to tell the truth, this would be the dream life for me. But career first and then we can talk about making a life in the saddle later.” AWW