Retired stockman in Yalgoo

Patrick Simpson spent much of his life on horseback as a station stockman

I asked Noongal and Carlaminda station owner, Ellen Rowe, about Yalgoo’s characters, and she took me to meet Patrick Simpson and his sisters, Joanne and artist Charmaine. Patrick was one of her stockmen for many years.

As we sat on Patrick’s front verandah, the last house to the west, the siblings reminisced about their carefree childhood in the bush before being taken from their family and sent to a mission. They talked about the loneliness and the confusion - “we weren’t even allowed to speak our lingo”.

Their father was a stockman and their mother also “worked the cattle from the back of a horse” - it was only natural for Patrick to follow in their footsteps. He spoke fondly of his memories, mustering by day and gathering around campfires in the middle of nowhere at night before falling asleep under the stars.