Recipes have been decided and the ingredients bought for the gin cocktail competition brewing at Landsborough Downs for Christmas Day.
Situated on the channels of the same name that head up the Thomson River, about two hours driving to Longreach, four-and-a-half hours to Townsville, or a quick 80km to Hughenden, the Nisbet family is looking forward to a big family Christmas in the bush this year.
Big believers in not sweating over a hot dinner in a hot climate, they've already loaded up their freezer with a tasty selection of seafood from All Wild mobile vendor Andy Tobin when he visited on his pre-Christmas round, and have a couple of sheep hung in the coldroom, along with a box of mangoes kindly dropped off by an agent.
With three branches of the family - Sam and Angie and their children at Landsborough Downs, her sister Shona, husband Steve Larkin and their youngsters across the boundary at Kentle, and the girls' parents Jim and Terry Lindsay not far away at Evandale, plus another sister Sasha Lloyd, husband Graham and three boys flying in from Brisbane - it will no doubt be devoured in feasts of massive proportions.
"It's just an over-indulgence of food for about three or four days," Sam Nisbet said, praising his mother-in-law's culinary skills. "Terry's very experimental, she'll whip up these phenomenal feeds."
Angie paints a picture of Christmas festivities familiar to many in the bush - the excitement of Santa's visit, breakfast and presents, the 10 kids in their togs splashing about on a water slide on the lawn.
But it's the gin competition that's bringing the most anticipation in the adult word - each family has been taste testing in preparation for the big reveal on Christmas Day.
"We each make a gin cocktail of choice and we all get scored," Angie explained. "At the end of Christmas we all find out who got the highest score and winner takes all."
It will take a bit to knock Terry's Long Island iced tea off but Sam and Angie are sure their fruity concoction will do the trick.
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Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications.
