It has been an interesting March here in the land down under. I was moved from Bruce Rock to the Katanning region of WA which is about 300 kilometres southwest.

My first host family here was three guys in the small town of Broomehill. I was able to do a number of new things with the boys. Scott and I cleaned seed with a portable cleaner at his boss’ farm for a few days and cleaned up some bales and feed wheat to get it ready for sale. One of the members of the Katanning club was still shearing so I was able to go out with him for a day and see how the crew of five shearers and five helpers were able to shear about 800 sheep a day and grade all the wool.

On the first Friday in my new town, I went out with a group of five guys to participate in the local fox shoot. This involved two guys with spot lights and a guy with a gun in the back and a driver and a gate opener. The shoot started about 8 pm and went until 6:30 am. Our team shot 13 foxes and 30 rabbits and combined with the other team’s catches we shot a total of 144 foxes and 90 rabbits. A sponsor was donating five dollars for every fox shot in local shoots to the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Everyone met up at the community center after the shoot where breakfast was provided by the Katanning Rural Youth. The event was a big success with many teams walking away with prizes and $720 being raised for the RFDS.

I was also able to connect with the local agriculture department to go out for a day in the field with one of their bio security officers. In the morning we went and collected data from a field trial of chemical controls on a very invasive weed that is reportable in Australia if it is on your farm. Farmers are required by law to manage the weed if they do have it, so the Ag department was looking to see if there were any new chemicals that they could recommend to help stop its spread. In the afternoon we had about 20 farmers show up to go over the test plot to see the examples of control and get an idea of what they might try on their farms to save money and control the weed better then some of the current chemicals.

This is the part of my trip that gets a bit more interesting. On Thursday, March 26th after a day of working on a farm, three of us decided to take a casual dirt bike ride around the farm. Shortly into the ride I was dislodged from the bike after going over a ditch. I was in great pain so I went to the hospital to have myself checked out and was told that I had two fractured vertebrae in my back! I was kept in the local hospital overnight before being air lifted by the Royal Flying Doctor Service to Perth where I spent five more days in the hospital getting fitted for a brace and making sure my condition was stable. I was discharged the following Wednesday where a Rural Youth member picked me up in Perth and dropped me back off in Broomehill. I spent the remainder of the week on the couch doing very little, trying to aid in the healing process. The good news is that I am ok and just have to wear a brace on my back for three months.

The last weekend with Scott and the boys, we travelled northwest for about two hours where we met up with some other Rural Youth members to take part in a strategic planning meeting. There were twelve people in attendance where we discussed the future of the organization and what needs to happen to make it more attractive to new members and what events the state can run to get people talking about Rural Youth again. At the end of the weekend it was decided to look into changing the name from WAFRY (Western Australia Federation of Rural Youth) to something more suited to the organization. It was also decided to reduce the cost of membership and to look into holding a rotating B&S (bachelor and spinster) ball on New Years Eve that would go from town to town each year helping out local sporting and community groups as well as to help raise money and awareness of Rural Youth in WA.

I have four more weeks in WA before I head to Tasmania to take part in Agfest and have a short look around the island before continuing on to New Zealand for the 20th of May. I am looking forward to the remainder of my stay here, but am also excited to go to Tasmania and see what is sure to be some of the most stunning scenery in the world.