APTLY named, this Sturt Plateau NT cattle station located to the west of Larrimah and Daly Waters has evolved from a virgin slab of 1578km2 (400,000 acres) of unfenced and unimproved savannah to a 15,000-head cattle property through determination, good science and sheer hard work.
When Keith and Roxie Holzwart bought the block in 1987, the local view was that it might be worked up to run 3000 head. But Keith reckoned he could see potential for 4500 at least and so began a modern-day version of the challenges faced since early settlement in bringing untapped pastoral land into production.
Keith and Roxie were no strangers to northern Australia, having worked in the Kimberly, Northern Territory and Gulf regions. It was in 1983 after coming back from a season of bull catching, that Keith made a promise to himself that he wasn’t going back to that country until he could afford to buy a block of dirt up there somewhere.
In the meantime, he and Roxie bought a 160ha (400 acre) block at Emerald in Central Queensland and started to develop it.
He took on the job of superintendent at Emerald saleyards and applied his practical skills to the task of refurbishing an aged and rundown facility. As Keith remembers and many agents could attest, when he took over there was only one gate in the whole yard that swung properly.
The gates were rehung and the worst of the wooden yards were rebuilt with contractor Lionel Johnson, who is now one of the Holzwart’s neighbours to the north of Avago.
The Emerald job lasted for 10 years between 1986 and 1995 and it was during this time that their three children Megan, Russell and Dean were born. It was also during this time that the NT block came up for sale. There was
a bit of boundary fencing on the eastern end but that was it. No surface water, not even wild cattle, nothing.
However, the lack of surface water was appealing, because from previous experience Keith knew that if he could control the water he could control the stock which made mustering a more viable proposition. They signed the contract in December 1987 and sold the Emerald block to fund the purchase.The 400 acres all but paid for 400,000 acres on the Sturt Plateau.
Their first cattle were 62 heifers bought at an Emerald sale. It took three trips in an old Leyland body truck to get them up there.The Leyland was later traded on a Volvo with a dog trailer.“We thought we were Kidman then,” Keith said.
Probably the only likeness to Sir Sidney was the vast distances then travelled in the next few years. A lot of young people try to develop a rural property interest while maintaining their day job but not many would have commuted the distance between Emerald and the Top End of NT to do so.
“Young and no brains,” was how Keith described this period of their life.
Their first paddock was fenced on one such trip in 1989 with the assistance of some of Keith’s cousins. In four and a half weeks they cleared and put up 50km of fence, driving posts with a hand dolly.
However, no matter how hard they seemed to try, the effort and money being spent was not really getting them very far. By 1995 breeder numbers amounted to only 279 and a decision had to be made. They were either going to have to sell the block or get up there and make things happen.
They decided on the latter and were initially prepared to live in a caravan until they could make a start on a house.
Tom Stockwell, well-known regional director of NT Department of Primary Industries in Katherine at the time, offered a better solution for their early living arrangements. He had recently acquired neighbouring property Sunday Creek, which had a spare house.
Through a barter arrangement, this became the Holzwart’s home for the next six years. For Roxie, the move to the Territory meant that when she wasn’t working cattle with Keith she would be tutoring their children as students of the School of Distance Education. Her own life experience had been very similar as a schoolof-the-air child growing up on Tanunbirini and Sunday Creek. Keith recalled that it seemed to take forever to get to 1000 breeders.
The biggest obstacle was probably lack of finance. As Keith saw it at the time, the banks only seemed interested if your address was VRD or Barkley Tablelands.
Water was the next biggest issue and drilling was a one in three chance of getting water in those days.
Gradually, progress was made. The Holzwarts found that by demonstrating to the bank that they could deliver on their promises, attitude began to change.
Getting involved with government research and applied science also yielded results. R&D produced underground basalt maps, which in turn raised the probability of finding water.The last five holes put down at Avago resulted in five new waters. As for breeding cattle, Keith’s approach was not entirely orthodox from a Territory perspective.
He went against the trend for high-grade Grey Brahmans and determined from the outset that they needed a beast that could be sold into any market. They have maintained that approach ever since. They also set out from the beginning to maintain a stud herd for bull breeding and sourced Red Brahmans for that purpose from Peter Pacey at Emerald. The commercial herd on the other hand had a wide mix of breeds, even some Murray Greys at one stage. Keith initially sold all of the heifers and just looked for good types of crossbred cows to bring into the herd.
“When we started down that path we were told that there was no way we’d sell those types of cattle on the boats but we’ve never had cattle knocked back for the boat trade,” he said.
The result was enough Brahman content to go on the boats but they also sold cattle to feedlot, bullock fattener and as stores into Queensland.
Nowadays, they keep their own heifers. A couple of years ago the commercial herd was getting too much Brahman, so part of the stud herd was sectioned off and Senepol bulls were introduced. Senepol/Brahman bulls are now out with the commercial cows.
Roxie is the studmaster and attends to all the herd recording.
“With the land itself, there was no development on the Sturt Plateau when we started; no one to ask,” Keith said.
“Now we have a best-practice group which includes just about every station on the plateau.
Understanding the nutrition is the hardest part.
“It is 27-inch average rainfall country and every year there is a wet and dry season but the biggest issue is the length of the dry. If the wet cuts out in February and doesn’t rain again until December that is a long tough year.”
He said supplements played a big part and once you got the licks right it made a big difference. This was another area that R&D was helping to drive productivity.
“But we have to be environmentalists to survive.We stock for the bad years not the good years,” Keith said.
Now with about 10,000 to 11,000 commercial cattle as well as the stud herd plus agistment stock taking the numbers up to around 15,000 head, Keith believes they have only really scratched the surface.
“We have only got 2500 acres cleared and about 300 acres of that under intensive production,” he said.
“If we cleared and improved pastured 10,000 acres we could fatten nearly all the cattle that the breeders would produce.”
With an irrigation dam site picked out and thoughts turning to leucaena, development seems likely to be on the agenda for some time to come.
Slaughter