Anna and Ross Tindall are bringing new life to the historic homestead at Rockwood Station in North-Western Queensland.
If the walls could talk at the homestead on Rockwood station in north-western Queensland, they’d tell a tale of resourcefulness for making a living in often arid conditions in a remote location. They’d tell of births, deaths and marriages, floods, fires, droughts and fluctuating commodity prices the station has experienced since it was first established by a settler named O’Rourke in 1873.
Located 100 kilometres south of the outback town of Hughenden, and almost an equal distance from the small community of Muttaburra to the south, Rockwood today is a 77,000-acre (31,160-hectare) station backgrounding a mixed herd of about 4000 head of Brahman and Wagyu cattle before they are sent to feedlots or abattoirs. Managers Ross and Anna Tindall have lived there with their son, Clancy, since 2020, shortly after it was bought by Jack Mann of the north Queensland pastoral company Mann Beef.
“We were hired on a handshake by the side of the road,” Ross recalls. “It was a Thursday and we agreed to start the following Saturday. We didn’t even discuss money until about six weeks after we moved here. That probably tells you all you need to know about both parties. We knew we’d be a good fit.”
Coincidentally, Ross had worked briefly on Rockwood for its previous owners, the Delahunty family, 20 years earlier when he was fresh out of school. He’d grown up on another of western Queensland’s historic properties, Darr River Downs, about 200km to the south-west between Muttaburra and Longreach. His parents, Cam and Sharon Tindall, bought the station, which also has a stone homestead built in the 1870s or early 1880s, about the same time as the one at Rockwood. Darr River Downs is now run by Ross’s brother, Paul, and sister-in-law, Fi, and they’ve recently started station tours — with dad Cam on hand to tell colourful stories about the past.
Ross has built a solid career as a mustering contractor on cattle stations, working in every state except the ACT and Tasmania. An ebullient, enthusiastic character, he has a deep love of the land and its people and livestock. For more than a decade, he moonlighted as a rodeo clown, arguably one of the most important roles in the sport of rough-riding. He’s also known for a passion for history and chasing the odd camel. In the five years Ross and Anna have lived at Rockwood, they’ve become known for their generous hospitality, frequently hosting friends and neighbours for barbecues and parties. In 2022, they celebrated their wedding on the station, with 120 guests and a party to end all parties that went for a week.
Anna also grew up in the bush, on a sheep, cattle and cropping property near Quambone on the NSW northwestern plains. After boarding school in Armidale and a gap year including six months in Canada, she studied teaching and worked at various schools in rural NSW. She met Ross when he worked for her brother, Tom McLeish, and his wife, Belinda, and they were living in Longreach. “They were moving to their new station north of Winton, so I went up to help them with the packing up and to look after the kids during the move,” Anna says. “There was an instant spark and we’ve been together pretty much ever since.”
Anna moved to a teaching job in Longreach, then took a year off to work as a tour co-ordinator for Alan and Sue Smith’s Outback Aussie Tours, which has its HQ in Longreach. “That job gave me so many skills — not just in customer service, but logistics and communication platforms,” she says. “I went back to teaching for another year and had the most wonderful year six class, even though it was during COVID. After that, we got the job here, so I felt I went out of teaching on a high.”
Always keen to extend herself, Anna jumped at the chance when her sister needed a logo to promote her new Airbnb in Wellington, NSW. “I’d never have called myself artistic, but I was looking for a creative outlet as Clancy was a baby and I was not as free to go out in the paddock as I used to,” she recalls. “I really enjoyed the process and I found a couple of programs that help turn drawings into graphics and just went from there.”
These days, Anna Tindall Graphic Design is a fully fledged side hustle, and Anna has developed a niche
designing logos for the ag industry. “Everyone needs a brand,” she says. “Stations need logos, contractors, studs, clubs, shops and other businesses need them too… everyone in business needs a brand and I love talking to the clients and finding the essence of their work. I think that’s what resonates with people is I don’t sentimentalise the bush — there are no love hearts on kelpie collars — and the fact that I’m from the bush means I can talk their language.”
The burgeoning business has also served as welcome distraction in recent times as, tragically, the Tindalls lost their newborn daughter, Dolly, at the end of last year. Following what was ostensibly a smooth pregnancy, Anna experienced difficulties during labour and had to have an emergency C-section. She was airlifted from Longreach Hospital to Brisbane with LifeFlight, while Ross and Dolly were transferred to Brisbane with the Royal Flying Doctor Service. “We still don’t fully understand what went wrong, but she only lived for six days,” Anna explains. “She was a beautiful angelic baby and I’m not going to pretend it hasn’t been really tough for all of us. I find it helpful to talk about what happened and about her to others as it keeps her alive somehow. I’ve also found great support from social media groups.
Sometimes it’s a force for evil, but I’ve found online support from other families experiencing similar grief to be a blessing. Between this and the unconditional love from my beautiful Mumma [Sue McLeish], who has been there for me every step of the way, I am forever grateful.” Anna adds that in the months following the devastating event, hundreds of butterflies would follow her around the house and garden. “We also experienced the most amazing sunsets,” she says. “They are always good out here, but these were insane. It felt as though Dolly was yelling at us from the treetops. I now see her in all the beautiful things we have here in the natural environment.”
Anna has also channelled her prodigious energy into decorating the homestead and gradually restoring each room. “I’ve always loved rearranging furniture and interiors and here I’ve plenty of space to work with,” she says. “Ross is a mad scavenger and is always coming up with odd bits and pieces from the paddock or the dump and we work those artefacts into the decoration.”
“According to the datestone above a doorway, the Rockwood homestead, which is actually two stone buildings joined by a now-covered courtyard, was completed in 1882. It’s constructed of locally quarried stone, remarkably held together with ant-bed mortar, a material usually reserved for compacted floors and tennis courts. Like many station accommodations, it’s been added to through the years and there’ also a more recent timber addition housing the kitchen and living area, as well as numerous outbuildings. These include a meat house and a curious corrugated-iron and stone structure that looks like a roof on short walls, covering a large hole in the ground, potentially built as an underground tank or cellar.
Rockwood is enjoying a good season and the surrounding paddocks are bathed in green. “It was a dust bowl in the grip of a really bad drought when we arrived,” Anna says. “The only green thing was the lawn around the homestead. I spent hours dragging sprinklers around to keep it going. I was very aware that it had been there for 100 years and I didn’t want to be the one who killed it.”
The Tindalls say they are deeply grateful for being entrusted as managers of the land, livestock and station’s legacy. “The bush offers a great lifestyle,” Ross says. “Sadly for the average Joe Blow, the only way of living on the land is to work your way up the station employee ladder as it’s very hard to get a foot in the ownership door. We consider ourselves very lucky to be here and can’t ever imagine leaving.
