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It’s shearing time at Tuckokcowie station near
Warooka on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula,
so the little shed on Richard and Lee-Anne
Murdoch’s farm is buzzing with activity.
The Merino fl ock, which is spread across the
property’s home block and nearby holdings,
is mustered and the sheep have their annual
haircut before being returned to the paddocks.
And the Murdochs are working dawn to dusk
to see their sheep shorn and the wool classed,
baled and shipped to market in Adelaide on
the other side of Gulf St Vincent, some 250 road
kilometres to the north and east.For the Murdochs, shearing is a culmination of
the year’s work with their fl ock and this year is
particularly important as Richard and Lee-Anne
are in the process of handing over the running of
Tuckokcowie to son Will. (Their other son, Tom, is
an industrial designer in London and their daughter,
Meggie, is a teacher in Queensland.) They also run
Murray Grey cattle and grow various crops including
barley, wheat, lentils, faba beans, oats and hay.
The Murdoch name is synonymous with the
southern part of the Yorke Peninsula and sheep
have been run on their holdings for as long as the
peninsula has been farmed. Most MurdocksThese pages: An
avowed minimalist,
Lee-Anne likes to
keep the interiors
simple, with
furniture found at
farm auction sales
and family portraits
and memorabilia
filling in the gaps.