Lajamanu

I spent 5 months straight out at Lajamanu in 2020. The boys thought I wouldn’t last 4 weeks out there, and I'm pretty stubborn so I decided to stay out there for 20. I was out there with M+J tradie Royce, and he made living in Laj a breeze - there's not many people you can spend that much time with.

Lajamanu is located in the Tanami desert. It was definitely a massive eye opener. The price of food at the shops in particular would absolutely blow you away. 250g of bacon was like $25, a slab of soft drink was like $75 and Diesel was $2.20 a litre. 

I was working on the health clinic because the previous clinic was damaged by fire, and we pretty much had to strip out and replace everything. 

The highlight of this job was that I was able to take my little Blue Heeler Willa with me. I had my own ute out there so after work Willa, myself and the drone would go on adventures. 

There were donkeys, camels and 1000’s of horses. I actually have footage of a camel with its head inside my ute. 

I got to meet some pretty cool locals out in Laj and I had the chance to eat a liver from a bush chook they shot. It was still bleeding and the taste wasn’t the best - but a great experience nonetheless. 

Hermannsburg

The next bush job was located 1600km away from Darwin so Willa and I loaded up the MJ work ute and sent it down in 1 trip.

This was a new build on a little outstation about 20km out of Hermannsburg, near Alice Springs. The project went for around 5 months and this was by far the best job I have done for MJ. We did the whole lot from footings to framing to decking, roofing and fit off. 

Coming from Darwin weather it was a massive eye opener. The coldest morning we had was -5 degrees. I decided to go down to Kings Canyon and did the 6km sunrise walk. I’m not usually one to go walking but this was pretty amazing.

Mount Riddock Station

Another place we worked while we were down in the Red Centre was at Mt Riddock Station which is owned by Rebecca and Steve Cadzow. Aaron Mabon (Subcontractor) and myself spent a week there doing a bathroom renovation. 

Coming from a farm background this place was a home away from home and the family made the MJ boys feel very welcome. I had never seen a bison in my life but I managed to get some cool photos of some while I was there. They've got 3 males that live on the farm and they are some pretty cool looking animals.