North Bundy Station

Ready for a new station to try out? There's a fresh mob on the fly-in farm stay scene in regional NSW and so far they've got a lot of things very RIGHT! Located half-way between Hay and Deniliquin on that big old flat Hay Plain, North Bundy Station needs to definitely feature on your next itinerary.

I get a bit excited when a new outback destination comes on to my radar, so when we found an opportunity recently to fly down and check out what they were offering, we gathered together a bunch of pilot mates and headed on down.

You’d be hard pressed to find more congenial hosts than Peter and Lisa McCrabb at North Bundy. They've laid out the welcome mat on 30,000 acres of sheep country which the McCrabb family has farmed for three generations. Peter flies his Piper Archer regularly, keeps the airstrip well maintained, and is happy to chat to visiting pilots in the flight planning stages with any queries you may have about his strip.

Whether it's over a sumptuous plate of home-grown saltbush lamb or a glass of bubbles at sunset, both he and Lisa love nothing more than sharing their vault of fascinating stories about life on the land out here.

They've just renovated their shearers’ quarters, into rustic but comfortable accommodation and, over our two-night stay, we were routinely treated to Lisa’s fantastic cooking in their big country kitchen.

 

Maybe just to shut us up, Pete piled us into his minibus one morning and gave us a great tour around the property. It all apparently looks a lot busier, dustier and noisier a few times a year when their teams of big burly shearers turn up to do their thing. I've gotta say, I wouldn't mind being a shearer out here, with this sort of accommodation and delicious catering being put in front of me every day!

On our first night at Bundy, Peter & Lisa took us for a drive to check out the sunset. On the way home, we insisted on calling into their favourite local, the historic Royal Mail pub at Booroorban ... for re-hydration purposes. I'm not sure the gorgeous publican Roger was quite prepared for what walked in the door but by the time we left, we'd made a decent dent in his gin supplies and shared plenty of stories he didn't know he wanted to hear.

I might stop banging on about it now - I recommend you just give North Bundy a go. It's one of those places that keeps it real. Pete could talk under water, so there's no excuse for leaving without a heap more genuine knowledge about Australian farming in these parts, than when you arrived.

Nearby fuel is at Hay, Deniliquin or Swan Hill. Get on out here and say g'day. You'll be glad you did.