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Episode 8732:42

Tommy live from the outback

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#87

Audio Episode

Tommy live from the outback

0:000:00

Tommy is working on a film in outback Queensland, but the show must go on, which involves Tommy hanging on top of a water silo to get reception.

Show Notes

The Daily Talk Show — Wednesday May 16 (Ep 87) - Josh Janssen & Tommy Jackett

Tommy is working on a film in outback Queensland, but the show must go on, which involves Tommy hanging on top of a water silo to get reception.

The Daily Talk Show is on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/thedailytalkshow/

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At a glance

From this episode’s transcript.

  • –Qantas was founded in Longreach, Queensland, and its name is an acronym for 'Queensland and Northern Territory Air Service'.
  • –Professional dingo hunters ('doggers') in outback Queensland can earn over $300,000 a year through weekly retainers plus per-dog bounties from farmers.
  • –Australian bulls are commonly exported to the US and used in ground beef rather than consumed as bulls domestically.
  • –Remote cattle stations can span tens of thousands of acres (one neighbour reportedly owns 2 million acres in the Kimberley) with extremely sparse population and satellite-only internet.
  • –'School of the Air' was historically used to educate children on remote stations via two-way radio before modern tools like Skype existed.

Questions this episode answers

What does the name Qantas stand for?

Qantas is an acronym for 'Queensland and Northern Territory Air Service', founded by four men in Longreach, Queensland.

What is a 'dogger' in the outback farming context?

A dogger is a person hired to hunt, capture, and kill dingoes (wild dogs) that prey on livestock; skilled doggers can earn over $300,000 a year through weekly pay plus bounties per dog killed.

Why are Australian bulls sent to America?

According to the episode, Australian cattle stations export a lot of bulls to the US, where they are used in ground beef, possibly to be marketed or blended as 'Australian beef'.

#remote#outback queensland#farm#farming#water silo
Episode TranscriptShow
0:00

Mason: The Daily Talk Show, everyone.

0:02

Josh: I'm Josh Janson.

0:03

Tommy: I'm Tommy Jackett.

0:06

Mason: And were you delayed there?

0:07

Josh: Was, was that, was that you?

0:09

Tommy: No, I thought you were just giving it a nice pause between, uh, where we start.

0:15

Mason: Um, it's episode, uh, what are we at? Uh, 87. 87. And you are coming live from fucking middle of nowhere.

0:25

Tommy: Mate, I'm— we're not far from the most central point of Queensland, so like smack bang in the centre. That's probably like 60 k's away from us here. Yeah, I'm currently sitting up a water tank.

0:42

Mason: The centre of Queensland.

0:44

Tommy: What'd I say?

0:45

Mason: I don't know, I think you just said the centre. Oh, maybe you said— yeah, maybe it's early. It's It's 6:30 in the morning.

0:55

Tommy: And so the reason I'm up this water tower is because it's the only spot that you get really quality reception. Yeah. The photo on Instagram that we— that you posted, you can see water, like it's a full— it's half full. The water tank's half full. And it's currently freezing because it's like, it's so hot during the day out here, and then come nighttime it just drops and it's so quiet, dude. You've never heard it this quiet.

1:24

Mason: I can hear some birds. Is there lots of like— and I saw that you also posted on Instagram a photo of a frog on your— oh yeah, on your camera. Did you place that frog there?

1:36

Tommy: No, I've got a time-lapse. Last night I had a time-lapse going of the stars and, um, and I— and it went for about 2 hours and then I came back out after about an hour and there's a a green frog, like, smack bang on my camera, and I flicked it off and then came back 15 minutes later and the little bastard was back again.

1:53

Mason: You flicked it off?

1:55

Tommy: That would fuck you up. No, no, I kind of just brushed it off. Who, me or the frog?

1:59

Mason: No, the fucking frog. So, can you explain to people what you're doing, how you got there? I just want to get an update, basically.

2:09

Tommy: Yeah. So, I'm on a— this is like a working cattle farm, sheep. Farm. They've currently just sold it, but the person who grew up here— I'm out here making a video about the company that he's founded. And so this is like, you know, where he, um, you know, sort of, I guess, acquired all of these, you know, things in with who he is as a person, if that makes sense. Yeah, can hardly talk, it's so cold up here. But, um, it's 30,000 acres, the farm.

2:42

Mason: How many kilometres is that?

2:45

Tommy: Well, I think we worked it out, it's about 100 and I think it's 120 kilometres squared.

2:50

Mason: So, of his land, that's how much the farm has in land.

2:54

Tommy: Yeah, and this is a small property. Like, he's got friends with 90,000-acre farms.

3:00

Mason: So, 120 kilometers, that's the equivalent of fucking, like, that's a city, dude.

3:08

Tommy: It is. There is so much land, and Australia is so big, you just kind of I never really thought about it like this, but then when there's people out here with, you know, their own business on 90,000 acres. He was telling me that there was someone up in the Kimberleys that owns 2 million acres.

3:29

Mason: Fucking hell. So, what's the deal? What sort of actual— What land is it? Like, what is it? Is it like dusty? Is it red?

3:37

Tommy: Is it like— It is dusty and red and dry.. And there's things that— so, it's all for cattle grazing and sheep. So, they send them, you know, cattle out onto the land to graze on the what looks like fucking dusty plants, but they actually eat them. So, I mean, in comparison to say like Gippsland where there's green grass everywhere, it's the opposite, but they do eat the foliage here.

4:07

Mason: And that's all they need? Like, are they in a desert? Sorry, are they in a drought at the moment?

4:14

Tommy: Oh, yeah. I mean, over the last 5 years, they were saying it has been very dry, but they have come off the back of that and it is just a little bit less dry. But if you were to come out here, you see the ground, it's cracked and it's, you know, dusty and it's barren. It looks, you know, when you're flying into these places, it's crazy. There is trees.

4:32

Mason: It's quite—

4:33

Tommy: there is some— quite a lot of green trees, but it's just very yellow land. It's— yeah, it makes you feel like you're in a movie, like you're in an Outback Australia movie.

4:47

Mason: So, what's been the—

4:47

Tommy: Because it is Outback Australia, I guess.

4:49

Mason: You know what my favourite question is if we haven't spoken in a while?

4:53

Josh: It's what's the highlight been? What's been the highlight?

4:56

Tommy: You usually say, what's the highlight of your day?

4:59

Mason: Yeah, well, it's been a couple of days now.

5:03

Tommy: Yeah, you know what, I met some of Rupert's friends.

5:10

Josh: Yeah.

5:13

Tommy: One of his mates is a cattle musterer, a cattle farmer. No, actually, a grazier. Actually, I don't know, there's some terms. The thing is you can offend people that work on the land by saying 'Cause I don't think they're just farmers. You know, they're basically fucking grass scientists. Like, the complexities of owning cattle is crazy. Like, what were they saying? It's, you're not a cattle farmer, you're a grass specialist or something around that. Because you need to know how to actually grow the grass which feeds the cattle. But here's something interesting that you'll, I think, enjoy. So I said, they were talking around bulls. And, um, and he was saying that they send a lot of their bulls, you know, after they've kind of, you know, bred and, and, um, created more animals for them. Yeah, they send them over to America. And so Americans, a lot of Americans are eating Australian bulls in their ground beef.

6:20

Josh: Oh, really? And They— we don't do that in Australia.

6:24

Tommy: Yeah, I know, we definitely hit them here, but there's a, there's a big market to send the bulls from Australia to America.

6:32

Josh: I wonder if that's so they can call it Australian beef or something like that, just mix it up.

6:38

Tommy: Yeah, yeah, I don't know, but it's, um, yeah, they're definitely— they're sending the bulls, which is— but do you eat bulls?

6:45

Josh: Are you meant to eat bulls?

6:47

Tommy: Well, then the meat's quite serving them up as a steak. Yeah, that's why they ground.

6:53

Mason: With the amount of meat I've eaten in the US over my trips with going to barbecue, I'm sure I've eaten probably the equivalent of an entire Australian bull, even if it's just a small amount of in there. So you arrived, so what, so you went from Melbourne to Brisbane, Brisbane to Longreach?

7:13

Tommy: No, no, we did a stop, went to Brisbane to Blackall, and then another 20-minute plane ride to Longreach.

7:22

Mason: Okay.

7:22

Tommy: And hang on, get this. Longreach is where Qantas was founded. Did you know, and I'd never even thought about this, did you know Qantas is an acronym? Do you know what it stands for?

7:33

Mason: No.

7:34

Tommy: See, I didn't even know it was an acronym.

7:36

Mason: No, I mean, it makes sense because it's sort of like a weird word.

7:41

Tommy: It is. No, actually.

7:42

Mason: And it's all capitals. It's starting to make more sense.

7:46

Tommy: Queensland and Northern Territory Air Service. So started by these 4 blokes. Yeah, that, um, bought like a plane. They were running, I think, you know, supplies around Queensland, Northern Territory, and then it just— they got another plane, another plane, and now they've got fucking A380s to Dallas.

8:06

Josh: Isn't it fucking insane how that happens?

8:09

Tommy: How like, Outback Australia.

8:11

Josh: Yeah. And so, how many properties did you pass or what was the trip like from the airport to the farm that you're staying on? Is it a farm that you're staying on? Is that what you call it?

8:25

Tommy: Yeah, it's a working cattle station. Yeah. I forgot to mention that there was an hour and 50-minute drive from Longreach to this property. And, dude, you go So you're on like a main road and the town of Longreach, you know, it's like you're feeling kind of like you're in a rural town, small shops and, um, you know, it's, it's really interesting, but they've got everything, the IGA and news agency and stuff.

8:52

Josh: IGA wouldn't have to hunt, that's handy.

8:57

Tommy: Then you go, um, so we sort of head out 20 minutes and then you're on a dirt road for 40 minutes.

9:05

Josh: And that's their house? That's where their house is at the end of?

9:09

Tommy: Well, you go past a bunch of properties every 30 minutes. So, there's like very few properties that you're going past because they're so big.

9:18

Mason: Yeah.

9:18

Tommy: And so, it's a one-lane road that is two directions. And so, there's like big cattle, you know, they call them road trains. Which, like, you know, they blow your mind. They're like 50 metres long. It's like a— not 50 meters, maybe truck, 25, 30. Oh yeah, so it's like 2 trucks together. But they go down this same road that we're on. We didn't see any, but you have to veer off and let the truck go past. And so you just go down this dirt road and, like, your little fucking I-30 would flip. You'd be upside down trying to get out and there'd be a fucking eagle on you.

10:05

Josh: So, and what they're doing is they're taking the cattle from the farms, are they? Or what, like, what's their actual job, those trucks?

10:14

Tommy: Yeah, yeah, those big trucks are transporting the cattle to somewhere, probably that people would rather not think about, and then they'd like to go to a restaurant and eat the steak.

10:24

Josh: Do you feel like your perceptions change, even though you've just been there for a couple of days? Yeah. Perceptions of anything changed since you've been there?

10:33

Tommy: The, and I say this because I'm talking about myself, the ignorance we have around meat and where it comes from. You know, I've just been asking questions that Rupert's mum has been farming this land for 30 years. And you know, it just even questions like how long between the time an animal's killed and it's being sold in coals. How long is that? How long would you think?

10:58

Josh: Uh, 2 weeks.

11:00

Tommy: It could be days, like it's very quick.

11:03

Josh: Yeah, interesting. And so did you think it was longer too?

11:07

Tommy: Yeah, I thought it could have been, yeah, 2 weeks. I reckon I thought a similar time frame.

11:11

Josh: I don't know, you've got a fucking train to put it there and yeah, they're moving fast up here. Yeah.

11:17

Tommy: And but, but here's the thing, we, um, you know, Rupert, who grew up on this farm, doesn't, um, you know, he's been a cattle farm, a cattle musterer, I think they're called. But we stopped in at his friend's place who is currently still working the land, and God, it's unbelievable. I'd love to have him on our podcast. His name was Hugh, and he's literally just a walking encyclopaedia around, you know, a certain topic of farming. Or, you know, yeah, I've got to work that out, what the right term is. No, no, it's the right term because I don't think they I don't know, they're probably having the same conversations, right?

11:58

Josh: They're probably on some sort of farming podcast right now saying, mate, I don't know if he's a videographer or a filmmaker.

12:05

Tommy: It's all the same. Yeah, we're all having the same conversations. But just hearing the complexities of actually, you know, their side and before it gets to the plate. But the way he was talking about the animals, yeah, it's like, because what I was trying to work out is how long from the time they get the beast until the time that they send it off to the abattoir. It can be like, I think, up to 2 years.

12:33

Josh: So there— and so how many cattle do— does the, um, cattle farm that you're on have?

12:40

Tommy: Oh, not many at the moment, but it can have up to 1,000.

12:44

Josh: Okay, and so because 120 kilometres or whatever is a huge amount of land for even that amount of cattle, right? So what else do they do? Do they just like build fucking big BMX tracks? Do they do anything cool with their properties?

13:01

Tommy: Oh, there's like— I'm sure other people there— this one doesn't have it, but they've got, you know, quad bikes, motorbikes, um, awesome, like, you know, little, uh, dam, and it's just— it's picturesque.

13:14

Josh: Yeah. Do they have the NBN, the National Broadband Network, there?

13:18

Tommy: Satellite internet. Okay, so I think it's like there's satellite transmission of NBN, but it's so weak.

13:28

Josh: Yeah, because their latency would be huge because it's going up to a satellite and back down.

13:34

Tommy: Yeah, it's fucked. So Hugh was telling us about— and this is seriously, dude, there is a documentary in this Something called doggers. Have you heard of people who—

13:48

Josh: Can I guess?

13:49

Tommy: Doggers.

13:50

Josh: Is it doggers? The people in car parks, you turn your lights on, it's like— Is it? No. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, doggers. No, I think it's like a thing in the gay community. You turn your lights on, you go into a car park, and you fuck.

14:11

Tommy: Well, I could safely say it's not that.

14:14

Mason: Okay, you'd be waiting a while out here for someone to come to the car park.

14:19

Josh: What is— what's a dogger?

14:21

Tommy: A dogger is someone who hunts, captures, and kills dingoes, or dogs, wild dogs.

14:29

Josh: Close.

14:29

Tommy: There's a big— there's a massive problem out here. Fucking sneaky little pricks, the dingoes. They nip the back of sheep's legs, so they cut their Achilles so they can't move, and then they wait until they are basically getting eaten alive by maggots, and then they come back and kill the animal. They're a real pest, and they're really territorial, right?

14:57

Josh: So, hunting them would actually be pretty fun then because you feel like you're doing something good. You're protecting the tree.

15:02

Tommy: Well, it's really hard though. It's really hard because they're switched on. They're a dog, you know, they're always fucking— they'll be like you, very fucking onto everything. Yeah, just sniffing around.

15:13

Josh: Yeah, I feel like I would come back like if we were hunting fox. Is it fox? Is that what you said? Or dingoes?

15:19

Tommy: No, they're dogs. Dingo.

15:20

Josh: What's the difference between a dingo and a fox?

15:23

Tommy: Um, complete different species.

15:26

Josh: Okay. Um, is it— okay, so a fox is a— is a fox a dog? Look, you've been up in the country for 2 days, I'm expecting you to know everything.

15:35

Tommy: I know, I'd safely say that fox isn't a dog.

15:39

Josh: Okay.

15:39

Tommy: I don't know, is it?

15:41

Mason: It's probably easier for me to Google right now, but let's close the loop tomorrow with that one.

15:46

Josh: So, no, so that's interesting. So, does—

15:50

Tommy: Yeah, it gets better. So, there's this one well-known dogger up here that works the land. Have a guess how much money he earned last year. And this takes into account he gets paid like $1,000 a week from Farmers to Hunt, plus he gets like $600 per dog that he kills. Have a guess.

16:14

Josh: He's probably on $150,000.

16:17

Tommy: He made over $300,000.

16:19

Josh: Amazing. That's a lot of dogs.

16:22

Tommy: Well, he's like— they call him— they reckon he's part dog. Really?

16:27

Josh: So, was it that hard that that's like— It must be pretty hard if that's like, if they're paying $600 per dog.

16:35

Tommy: Well, yeah, I mean, it shows you how much they need them gone because of, you know, them ruining, you know, nipping cattle and then the cattle just starts— Oh, yeah, this is what they do. When the cows are thirsty and their tongue's out and they're, you know, the the dingoes run in and bite off their tongue and then they get infected and they start dying of, you know, they're getting eaten alive and then the dingoes come back in and take them down because they're so exhausted and eat them. And so, you see, like this is, you know, it'd be like someone coming in trying to, you know, fuck up your camera. I mean, I'm trying to just get a bit of relatability for the city slickers.

17:22

Josh: Yeah, there's probably none. So, you— Yeah. So, like, do you feel scared at all? Like with these, with dingoes, you said that— I saw that you said on Instagram that two of the most venomous snakes in Australia is on that farm. Yeah, I remember one.

17:44

Tommy: A Taipan, maybe a Taipan. The other one's a King Brown. But no, I'm just, I'm just being cautious. Like, they, the, um, you know, dogs. This guy Hugh that was telling me about the dogger, he, um, had a sausage dog. He's like, yeah, that's our fifth. I said, what happened to the others? And he said, he went off, you know, got his fingers out. One got run over, the next one got run over, the next one got bitten by a snake. Yeah, I think the next one did too. So the you know, they are— animals do get bitten up here, but it— the family that live on this property have never, um, never been— no one's ever been bitten on this property, or no one in their family's been bitten.

18:32

Josh: You'd hope not, because they'd fucking die, wouldn't they?

18:34

Tommy: Well, yeah, there's flying doctor service that comes out if something happens.

18:39

Mason: Yeah.

18:40

Tommy: Um, but yeah, everyone's pretty Relaxed. There's a real— it's a real community.

18:48

Josh: Yeah, I just did a— I just did a search for dogger on Urban Dictionary because I was pretty certain about that whole car park thing. And Urban Dictionary's definition of a dogger is a person who jogs with their dog. So there you go.

19:06

Mason: That's what the, um, obviously The Urban Dictionary is probably not the go-to source, but yeah, that's what they're calling it.

19:15

Tommy: Just back to the dogger. He's, um, you can't actually call him. You have to leave a message somewhere and he shows up at your property.

19:25

Josh: What does that mean?

19:26

Tommy: You know, he's like, he's so— he doesn't have— I don't think he has a mobile phone, but so like you get a message to— I can't remember how. You either call somewhere and leave a message and he'll come to your property. When he wants. And, um, and that was like, they— he's so in tune with the land. Like, he'll spend 2 days walking around the property, just checking it out. You look like he— from the outside, it looks like he's doing nothing. And then he'll just walk along and go, yeah, this is the spot to put the trap. And then come back a day later and there's dogs caught in the trap.

20:00

Josh: Fuck. And then he kills them.

20:02

Tommy: Um, what do they— someone said, I think he beats them up.

20:07

Josh: Like just to fucking teach him a lesson. And no, why does he beat him?

20:12

Tommy: There was some reason why I beat him, but it just— I just got so thinking about him beating them.

20:18

Josh: It was so full-on.

20:20

Tommy: But then, um, this— I think it was this guy Hugh was saying that he, um, was on a property and he took somebody like just out driving. They were on motorbike for hours and hours, and there was a there was a big pack of dingoes on the farm and he literally just rode for hours and then he's like, yep, they're in this log.

20:42

Mason: Really?

20:42

Tommy: And they were. Yeah. So, he's like, you know, he's like an Indian, a native Indian that's tracking, you know, they're amazing at tracking things.

20:51

Josh: Yeah.

20:52

Tommy: And he must, but like, imagine doing a doco on that bloke.

20:56

Josh: That would be super fun. I mean, I would be pretty, I'd be a bit scared, but it would be fun. I mean, I guess, look, the dingoes— No, the dingoes, um, can they kill humans? They could fucking eat you up. They could fuck you up. Are they like— Was— Has there been any warning of around, like, don't— If you see a dingo, what to do?

21:22

Tommy: Yeah. No, not that I know of.

21:24

Josh: Okay. So, you should be fine. And what's the lifestyle like? What's like the lifestyle like?

21:34

Tommy: In what way? In terms of get up, what you do?

21:37

Mason: Yeah.

21:38

Josh: Yeah. As in like who's around? What's the— Could you live? I mean, it sounds like there's fuck all people, but I suppose—

21:47

Tommy: The closest neighbour here is 15 k's away, I think.

21:50

Josh: Yeah, sure.

21:50

Tommy: Which is, you know. It's double the distance that we live apart from each other, and it's just a road. But did you see on Instagram storeys the pub that I went to?

22:02

Josh: Yeah, so you went to a pub which had like a self-service beer pourer.

22:08

Tommy: Yeah. No, that wasn't self-service. That was the guy behind.

22:11

Josh: That was a guy working there. Geez, it was cash.

22:13

Tommy: Mate, they're very cash up here. But yeah, that was such an amazing like outback pub experience. It's, um, what was the sign out the front? Cold beer, drink now, or something like, just very basic marketing, but to the point and all you need to know. We serve cold beer here. Um, and so yeah, we went in there and it's just like, it's like you're stepping back in time. It's, they're just so basic, stickers all over the walls and, you know, the, um, the beer tap, just so old school, but fucking Amazing. And so, that's the closest town. And I butchered the name on earlier episode, on Monday's episode. I said, I think I said it was Mutumbra.

22:59

Josh: Yeah. What is it?

23:00

Tommy: It's Mutabarra.

23:01

Josh: Okay. You really fucked it.

23:02

Tommy: I really fucked it. So sorry to all our listeners in Mutabarra.

23:08

Josh: Yeah, probably going viral now. Like, what are people asking you? Do they have any interest in Or do they get city slicker life already? Or have they asked you any questions, anyone?

23:20

Tommy: Yeah, nah, no one's— everyone's like pretty laid back. They'd think you're fucking coming on a bit strong. What was the best part of your day?

23:29

Josh: They'd be like, Jesus, bro, settle down.

23:35

Tommy: But one of them, the guy from the pub, his daughter works at Mona in Tasmania.

23:41

Josh: Oh yeah. Cool.

23:42

Tommy: So, you know, as much as we are very far out, there's, you know, a lot of people doing, you know, travelling to find the opportunities.

23:50

Josh: I just always think when I hear, you know, these types of storeys like you're talking about now, think like how little I've seen of Australia in the sense of I've seen the capital cities and I've actually seen more of the US and weird and wacky areas of the US than I have of Australia.

24:08

Tommy: Same here. I, uh, this is the furthest inland point I've ever been to in Australia. And we're talking about tourism out here and, and how, you know, we could get people out to experience this, you know, experience what, what I have. When it— when I arrived on Monday night, because we didn't get here until like, you know, it was dark, 5 o'clock, but we drove in and Rupert's mum and you know, had a fire going and they'd sit out at a table and there was dinner. We cooked some beautiful steaks and it was just like this. I mean, if you— you'd pay to come and have that experience on this property where, you know, you look in every direction, you just see they're just— it's open. You just— you can't really fathom how large the property is.

24:58

Josh: Do you reckon there could be an industry? Like, I wonder whether Like, say what we do, do you think we could live somewhere like that and just sort of have your internet, be making films around that area?

25:11

Mason: Or—

25:11

Tommy: Yeah, you could. It's, um, I mean, everyone's working pretty hard here. And, um, and, and the thought around why it hasn't really happened, like a tourism opportunity, someone building— you know, you'd have to build like a, a resort style thing.

25:27

Josh: Yeah.

25:28

Tommy: Because everyone's busy here, you know, everyone like owning a farm is like a working constantly, you know. Yeah, it's a, it's a really, it's a lifestyle job.

25:42

Josh: Do you get a sense of like real estate prices and stuff? Have you spoken to them about that?

25:48

Tommy: And you know, I think, um, yeah, I don't know the cost. Yeah, it's, I mean, I'm sure you could Google it. I mean, you're buying up to fucking 30,000 acres. So it's not just a little, "Oh, I'll just buy a property." You've got to do something with it.

26:08

Josh: So the guy that you're filming, tell us what have you learned about him?

26:14

Tommy: He just came and took a photo of me up on this. We should post that. I'm in the most awkward position. I'm straddling the— Fucking, um, the ladder and the metal silo.

26:29

Josh: And to be clear, and to be clear, I told you like when we were planning this, uh, yesterday to make sure it was all good. I was— I tend to go on the complicated route which involves laptop with external microphone, but you were being a bit of a pussy, so we had to just use your phone.

26:48

Tommy: Yeah, I'm very glad that I—

26:51

Mason: yeah.

26:51

Josh: So tell me, what's been the, uh, what was the guy's name again that you Rupert. Rupert.

26:57

Mason: So what's—

26:57

Tommy: He's just walking behind the tank as we speak.

26:59

Josh: So what's Rupert's career? So how long was he on the farm? What was the lifestyle? What was the, you know, growing up around there like?

27:09

Tommy: I'm an expert on Rupert now because we've been interviewing. Are you going in for a coffee? I'll be in soon. Yeah, so Rupert grew up out here and I've just lost Tommy.

27:26

Josh: My guess is that one extra phone near the water silo was enough to push Tommy out. Tommy, can you hear me? This is unfortunate. Look, we might—

27:43

Tommy: There's a bunch of other kids that were living here.

27:45

Josh: Can you hear me, Tommy?

27:46

Tommy: Yeah, I can.

27:47

Josh: Yeah, yeah, tell that storey again because I just— it completely fucking cut out as soon as you said bye to Rupert. I had a— my vibe was that his phone was taking every bit of 3G that you had. So, can you tell it?

28:03

Mason: So, yeah, what's Rupert saying?

28:04

Tommy: Yes, so where I'm sitting, I'm looking down at like a little cottage and it's where he spent his childhood doing primary school over the radio. So, because they're so far out here, every morning, 30 minutes a day, he'd speak to a teacher with a bunch of other kids. It's actually— there's a name for it. What is it? School of the Air. Yeah. And so, it's for remote living to get their education. Back in the day, you know, now it's a bit different. They've got Skype and smart devices, but this was legit hand holding a fucking two-way radio.

28:46

Mason: I remember like in the school library you would see books about this sort of stuff, you know, sort of the old school picture of like the big radio system and stuff like that.

28:57

Tommy: Yeah. And so he, um, spent his time here and, you know, now lives in Sydney but grew up here and he went to uni in Mel— uh, in Geelong. Yeah, there's a great— there's a really, um, great I think it's agriculture and farming degrees that you can get down there. It's like a university. It's a private university that's prestigious. And he did, he went there and lives in Sydney and founded a company now that draws on all of those elements of his upbringing, the remoteness and learning and connecting with people. And so he's got this app. I feel like I can just sell it for him now because I know so much about it. It's connects, you know, individuals with mentors and coaches, teachers through the app, which is called Wanda. And it's just about creating opportunity for people that might not have access to people like mentors. You know, if you don't live— I mean, for a lot of people, it's like, how do you get in touch with— how do you become mates with a bloke like Craig Harper if he's the guy that you want to learn from? I mean, you watch his stuff, but getting face-to-face time is, you know, tough.

30:11

Mason: And that's, I guess that's what I was even thinking about, move— if you were to move somewhere like that. Yeah, you can, you can film stuff, you can, you can have an internet connection, but actually connecting with people, especially for people who haven't done like a city sort of life and created that network that they can at least Skype into, you know, the existing network. Yeah, sounds like an awesome opportunity.

30:36

Tommy: Yeah, and so he's creating this, um, this app, and that's what we're doing. We're out here just sort of filming the, the storey of where he grew up. And, um, yeah, fuck, it's amazing. The sun's just risen and it's just, it's majestic out here, Joshua.

30:55

Mason: Well, it's very gloomy here in Abbotsford in Melbourne. It's, uh Very overcast. It's, yeah, pretty dark. But anyway, it sounds beautiful where you are.

31:08

Tommy: It's amazing.

31:09

Mason: And so, will you— Today is what, Wednesday? You fly back— You fly back Thursday?

31:17

Tommy: Thursday, I think.

31:18

Mason: Okay. So, we'll have 2 more episodes from middle of fucking nowhere or whatever the place is called, which is awesome. So, What we can do is if anyone does have any questions, thoughts, we should get them in on the email. And then if it's shit that you can't even answer, you can ask Rupert before the show. And on Friday, we also have a special guest, which we're going to record on Friday when you're back in Melbourne around your fucking schedule. And I'm excited about that, too, because it's a one of our friends who's doing something really cool, and I think it's getting announced on Friday, and we'll have him on. So it's something to look forward to. Oh, good hook, good hook, Josh. This is the first time I'm doing a hook. It's a bit exciting. Um, hi@thedailytalkshow is the email, and we're also, uh, on Twitter now, TJ. It's, um, @thedailyts because The Daily Talk Show was too long. It's the official, um, tagline. Anyway, uh, mate, enjoy, uh, wrangling cattle or whatever you're doing today.

32:26

Tommy: I'm gonna get down off this silo I'll go and have a—

32:30

Mason: Take a photo for us. Yeah, man. Alright, have a good one.

32:34

Tommy: See you guys.

32:34

Mason: Daily Talk Show, everyone. Remember, that email address is hi@thedailytalkshow.com. See you tomorrow.

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