In Australia, there has long been a tradition where as a "rite of passage" the sons of wealthy, influential families take a year or three out from their teritiary studies to work as general hands/roustabouts (known as "jackaroos") on one of the giant cattle ranches (known as "stations") in the outback. They take this year to grow-up from callow schoolboys into being young men prepared to accept real responsibility, away from the protection of their families and the temptations of the cities.
Over the last 20 years it has become more common for these young men to travel through Asia and Europe, rather than go to the outback - however, some still do it.
This is an entirely fictional story about what working as a jackaroo might have been like on a station where the cane was still very much to hand to correct the backsides of the spoilt city brats sent to the bush to learn to be men.
Please e-mail me with any comments - if you like this theme I will write more. -----------------------------------
Justin McDermott looked out of the window apprehensively as the light aircraft in which he and his father were travelling, circled the airstrip of Diamantina Downs station in North Western Queensland.
His father smiled grimly and murmered "There she is son, that's where you're going to spend the next 6 months at least". Justin nodded glumbly as the pilot radioed for permission to land.
The plane landed with a slight bump onto the grassy airstrip and taxied back to where a truck sat packed beside some fuel drums and a water tank. Justin noticed a tall, lanky young man stand in the door of the truck and wave to the aircraft.
As the aircraft shuddered to a stop, and the propellors wound down, Justin and his Dad jumped out of the plane. As Justin turned to grab his suitcase from the luggage compartment of the Cessna 210, the young man he noticed bounded forward towards his Dad. He was a little taller than Justin, but broad shouldered and thin waisted with muscles bulgeing in all the right places, and the healthy tan of someone who spends a lot of time outdoors. He was wearing quite tight fitting work shorts and a work shirt and boots, as well as the trademark Akubra hat. He clothes were drenched in sweat and coated in dust.
"Mr McDermott ?" said the young man, with a ready smile, holding his hand out, as Justin's dad grabbed it and pumped it, nodding in the affirmative "Yes, and this is Justin" .
Justin turned to take the vice-like hand shake of the young man who smiled warmly saying "G'Day mate - welcome to the Diamantina station".
"My name in Jake Wilkinson" he said, leading them back towards the truck, "I'm the head Jackaroo on this station - so I'll be lookin' after Justin here while he settles in".
"Nice to meet you Jake" said Mr McDermott, before adding with a grin, "hope you can whip this no-hoper of a son of mine into a man".
"That's what we specialise in sir" said Jake with a grin as he opened the tailgate of the utility truck so Justin could put his bags in the back. Justin glowered in embarrassment - silently resenting his father for saying that, and begining to be really irritated this unfailingly polite and annoyingly handsome and fit looking bloke. He could tell that his Dad had already sized Jake Wilkinson up as an example of what his ideal son should be like.
Jake paused a moment to get a good look at Justin as he put his bags in the truck. The lad was tall and reasonably fit looking, but lacked the built up muscles you got from hard physical labour. He noticed that Justin was wearing impractical, light cotton summer beach clothes. Jake smirked and asked "Mate, did you bring any more practical work clothes than that ?"
Justin flushed again and murmered "ummm just some jeans, some shorts and a few tee-shirts ".
"Well, we can stop off in town and get you the stuff you need" replied Jake as he lept into the driver's seat, "but first, we'd better go and get Justin signed on with the boss - who would also like to meet with you Mr McDermott, then you can check out where he'll be living and working before your plane has to leave".
Justin's dad nodded in approval "Sounds great thanks," and got into the truck, soon folowed by a sullen Justin. The truck was soon rattling along corregated dirt tracks and Jake and Justin's dad talked about the number and type of cattle on the station, while Justin himself stared out at the desolate countryside - regreting that he was stupid enough to do so little work at Cambridge University that he failed his first term. It was no wonder that his father had recalled him to Australia following the three years of travel, holidays and part-time study he had enjoyed in Europe - he had achieved nothing, and his dad had decided that he "learned to grow-up". So here he was, just turned 21 and about to learn the hard way - with back breaking physical labour in the tropical heat of the outback.
He was just under 6'1 tall and always fancied that he was a bit of a stud. He thought he was in pretty good shape, but felt inadequate in comparison to Jake. He knew that he wouldn't fill out work shorts nearly as well !
Justin's mood was really souring when the pulled around a corner in th road and headed for the station compound. At the top of the hill stood the homestead - a beautiful colonial era house, and just below it was a series of low set work buildings. Jake leaned over and poked Justin in the ribs and said "Here's home mate" and laughed as Justin started from his day dreams and looked around wildly.
As they pulled into the work area Justin noticed a few other very fit and tanned young blokes who stopped work for a moment to wave to him and yell out "G'Day - see ya later". Justin waved back lamely as his father looked over the other guys in approval.
Jake turned to Justin and said "Just dump your stuff on the unmade bed in the bunkhouse mate, and I'll show you both around". Justin lugged his bags into the low slung building and past 3 neatly made beds and clean, tidy lockers and put his own bag on the empty bed in the middle of the row of beds - a couple more neat beds followed it. He winced as he sat on the hard mattrass and looked around the spartan surrounds ..... "they can't be serious" he thought as he joined his father and Jake.
He smiled weekly as his dad asked "well, what do you think?", and replied "It's great dad - real friendly".
Jake lead them down a row of buildings and into the office where a strong, well weathered middle aged man sat frowning at a lap top computer. Jake knocked on the door, deferentially and the man looked up and smiled at Jake - "oh come on in mate - got our new arrivals?"
"Yes boss -" said Jake, before turning and introducing "this is Mr McDermott and his son Justin".
"Great to meet you at last Mr McDermott" said the man as he lept from his chair and shook Justin's dad's hand before turning and giving Justin a second bone crushing hand shake for the day and saying "and welcome to the station young Justin"
He indicated for Jake, Justin and his dad to sit before continuing "My name is Bill Fraser, and I'm the operations manager for this station - so all the Jackaroos work for me and I look out for them. Everyone calls me Bill, except the jackaroos when they are working - they call me Boss."
He looked at Justin and then said "all our new boys get a mentor who'll teach 'em the ropes and keep 'em outta trouble for their first 3 months - for you mate, your mentor will be Jake-o here".
Justin looked up, uncertainly and said "ummm....ok ...ah ...boss".
"Good" he beamed "now Justin do you understand the sort of work you will be doing here?"
"Err ... sort of ... ummm I think so" he murmered.
"Well Jake 'll teach you anything you don't know," said the Boss before adding "and we'll need you to read and sign this agreement document saying that you agree to work under the rules we set for our jackaroos, including paying the penalties we have set out for misbehaviour."
Justin picked up the leaflet handed to him and leafed through it. He wasn't overly concerned about the work conditions as the only condition that he thought counted - the continuing flow of his allowance from his father, depended on him sticking out this Jackaroo job for at least 6 months. Any penalty fines didn't really bother him ,so he picked up the pen and signed his name .
"Great" beamed the Boss again " welcome aboard" as he shook Justin's hand again. "Jake-o, take Justin and show him around, while I have a chat with his Dad"
"Sure thing boss" said Jake who stood and led Justin out while the Boss and Mr McDermott agreed final fee payments for Justin's time here.
So Justin spent an hour being shown around the buildings and meeting the owner Mr Simpson and his wife Mrs S. He also met the other workers and the other jackeroos in blur of handshakes and names. His hand was sore by the end, when he and Jake drove his Dad back to the airfield.
Justin had very mixed feelings as his Dad's plane took off with out him, after a simple and strained good bye. Jake stood in silence and then said "Ok mate - let's go into town and get ya some gear".
He drove off away from the station compound and towards the town of Winton. It took nearly an hour to get to the town, but Jake led him into the general store and ordered a full work kit of 3 pairs of shorts, 5 shirts and a couple of pairs of moleskins as well as an Akubra hat and some boots. 20 minutes later Justin felt like a weedier version of Jake as he looked at himself in the same rugged ouback wear as his mentor was wearing, but lacking the muscles or the tan to go with it. He kind of hoped that he would fill out the shorts as well as Jake did, after a few weeks of hard work.
Jake grinned at him and slapped him on the back and said " Now you look like a jackaroo mate -- let's head back for supper" Justin winced at the slap and nodded weakly as he jumped back into the truck.
It was getting dark as they pulled back into the station compound and joined the weary Jackaroos as they lined up for a huge solid dinner of beef stew.
Justin was reintroduced to the other jackaroos - there was Andy - 23yr old mechanical engineering student who was on a year's break from his studies, Brett - 19 yr old son of the owner of another station in western Queensland, visiting Diamantina to get some experience, Charlie - 26 yr old artist, who was working in the outback to get the chance to paint it, Scott - 20 yr old high school drop-out, who came to the bush to find out what he wanted to do with himself, and Archie - an English guy aged 22 on a year's break from his studies, plus of course Jake - who Justin discovered was 25 and in his last year of Jackarooing before going back to Brisbane to complete his Master's degree.
Afer eating dinner and chatting Justin was begining to relax and asked "so what do you guys do for fun ?"
Jake smiled "well we go into town about once a month and spend the night in the bar there, but otherwise we are too busy working". The other guys nodded.
Justin looked about incredulously "but ... but ... what are you ... er ...we gonna do now ?"
"Oh" said Jake, "well we'll all take our turn having a quick shower and mostly we just read, chat and get ready for bed - we are all tired. We're usually in bed by 9:30 anyway."
"WHAT !??!" said Justin " no WAY ... I'm not going to bed at 9:30"
"Look mate" said Jake" you've gotta be up at 5:30 and ready for work at daybreak which is 6 or you pay a penalty and you don't want that on your first day, so you'll do better if you go to bed early".
Justin looked around in amazement as the guys all nodded and got up from the table and headed to the bunkhouse, after each cleaning their dishes. He followed them and sullenly followed Jake's instruction for getting his bed set-up.
The other guys had pulled out novels or text books and were reading or getting ready for bed. Sulking and unhappy as he was, Justin pulled out his walkman and put on a CD and turned the volume high and flicked through a few magazines.
He looked up to see Jake, dressed only in boxer shorts looking at him. Justin pulled his headphones off and looked at Jake who said "mate, I'd get to sleep now - you'll really cop it in the morning if you are late"
Justin gave him a whithering stare and said "Get stuffed - I'll go to sleep when I feel like it". He put his headphones back on and kept looking though the magazine.
Jake shrugged and went back to his own bed and got it and was soon asleep.
***********
Justin felt someone shaking his shoulder. It was Brett - "Justin ... get up mate, if Jake catches you still in bed when he gets back from the shower ... you are for it"
"Wha ... wha .... go away" mumbled Justin as he turned over. Brett looked at the other guys and shrugged - at least he had tried. All the other Jackeroos were dressed and ready to go to have a quick breakfast before getting to work. Jake liked everyone to be ready by the time he got back from his shower and shave. He got annoyed if you were still getting dressed and got angry if a guy was still in bed. Justin didn't seem to care.
The guys all tensed as Jake walked in the room and frown at Justin.
"Justin !!!" he barked "get up".
Justin ignored him. So Jake went over to his bed and pulled the sheet off him - but still Justin slept. He shook Justin a couple of times and slapped his boxers covered butt hard, yelling "GET YOUR ARSE OUT OF BED !!!!!!!"
"What the FU......" yelped Justin sitting up in bed.
"Mate .. I warned you that lateness wouldn't be tolerated!" said Jake - looking unammused. "You are going to have to pay the penalty !!"
"Yeah , yeah ... whatever ... " said Justin "just dock my pay .... "
"Pay?" frowned Justin "no mate ... that's not the penalty ... say ... didn't you read the terms of your agreement to work here ?"
"I just glanced at it .... why.... what's the penalty?" asked Justin feeling nervous.
Jake looked around at the other jackeroos "Why don't you blokes go and get some breakfast, and we'll come along shortly "
The other guys looked sympathetically at Justin and walked off, saying "Ok see you guys ..."
Once they were alone - Jake turned back to Justin saying "The penalty is that you get your backside caned."
"WHAAAAAT !!!" exclaimed Justin " I didn't agree to that ... you ... you ... you can't do that!!!"
"I'm afraid I can mate - you signed the form "said Jake sadly "now let's get this over with so we can go and get some breakfast."
"But .... but ..." blustered Justin, standing and backing away from his bed.
"Look mate - if you don't want this - you can leave the Station, but I'd have thought you wouldn't want to explain that to your dad - you can keep your boxers on and it's only four strokes, so come on let's get on with it !!!"
Justin stopped backing away - his surprise at this turn of events turning to acceptance ... even appreciation. He thought back to the canings he had had at school and thought - maybe this wouldn't be so bad. He felt a stiring in his groin - and grinned slightly "Ok, fair enough - let's do it."
Jake turned to his cupboard and pulled out a fearsome looking cane, saying "Bend over the end of your bed and prepare for four". He swished the heavy cane about and Justin began to have second thoughts. This cane was a lot heavier than the one from school and he had less proection on his butt. Still, with a deep breath he bent over the bed and grabbed the sheets. The thin fabric was tightly stretched across
Jake lined the cane up against the centre of Justin's butt, tapping it a couple of times. He drew the cane back and .... swwwwwwwwish ..... THWWWWWWACK !!!!
Justin tensed with shock and gasped in pain.
Jake tapped Justin's butt again before drawing back further .... swwwwwwwwwwish .... THWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Justin gasped again .... "ahhhhhhhgh .....bloody hell Jake that hurts "
Jake paused and smirked "It's supposed to mate - you came out here to sort your life out ... well you can't do that unless you respect the need to be responsible ... now shut-up unless you wan it to be six"
To underline his point - Jake tapped Justin's butt again, drawing the cane back .... swwwwwwwwiiiiish .... THWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!
"Owwwwwwwwww" gasped Justin leaping up from position and rubbing his enflamed butt - his eyes moist with pain.
"That got you two more mate - GET BACK INTO POSITION" said Jake - pointing with the cane. With a sigh and a last rub Justin bent back over. "If you move again" added Jake as he tapped again "you can have the last three bare butt" . He then drew the cane back ..... swwwwwwwwwwwwiiiiiiiiish ..... THWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWACK!!!
"Ahhhhhhharrrrrrgh" yelped Justin, who managed to hold on and stay in position.
Jake tapped the cane again, drawing the cane back .... swwwwwwwiiiiiish .... THWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAACK ..... swwwwwwwwwwiiiiiiiish ......... THWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!!
"YEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW" bawled Justin.
"Ok mate" said Jake puting the cane away "you can get up - go and take a very quick shower and get over to breakfast. Be there in 5 minutes or I'll give you another 6"
Justin sniffed and nodded before running off to get ready.
Jake headed over to breakfast and sat down with the other Jackaroos. The boss looked up and asked "Where have you been mate? "
"Sorry boss - Justin slept in and so I had to give him his penalty"
"What already ?" grunted the boss "that boy is going to have a very sore arse if he gets himself caned that easily".
All the jackeroos laughed at this, but lapsed into sympathetic silence as Justin ran into the room, breathing heavily. "Help yourself to breakfast mate" offered Jake.
Justin smiled uncertainly as he collected his breakfast, wincing slightly as he sat down. He was begining to realise that this whole experience was going to be more painful than he had thought .....
To be continued.