Hyde time for the Open Road
A
lmost every Friday night a roar and a rattle comes barre-
lingdown the main street of Landsborough, a sleepy little
town at the foothills of the Pyrenees Ranges in Victoria.Any unsuspecting drinkers at the local watering hole are blast-
ed with a welcome home honking of the horn from the West-
ern Star B Double and the pungent smell of the crates tells a
story of a long trip.he sound of excited barking echoes from the boxes under-
neath, where Tess and new recruit Jack are held safe, warm
and happy to watch the world go by. And piloting the big rig
is Jason Hyde who has just let everyone know he is home for
the weekend.he stocky has been driving trucks for 5 years and had never
carted livestock prior to taking on the job in 2013. But Jason
credits Graeme “Chooka” Howell of Howells Transport at Av-
oca who gave Jason his irst Livestock carting job and Jason
reckons he taught him a heap. Even though Jason had driven
trucks for years prior, and had turned his hand to grader driv-
ing as well as shearing for 10 years, he wanted to get out on
the open road. Plus travelling and working with his dogs Jase
admits “we are a bloody good team, I talk to them like humans
and they are great company”.When Jason irst started carting livestock he didn’t have a
dog, “its bloody tough work by yourself, especially if the stock
won’t run!” he admits. Luckily a mate of Jason’s, Rod Dowdy
had a young Koolie that he was selling. “His name was Tiny,
he was 9 months old when I got him, he was so smart! He just
picked things up quick!” Jason recalls. Tiny and Jason went
everywhere together, even when Jason didn’t need him, he
still took him. “We were inseparable, he knew and understood
what I needed from him and he was a great work mate and
companion for me, the only thing that dog couldn’t do was
talk”. Tragically Tiny was killed in an accident as a 2 year old,“I was lost for quite a while, we had a bit of a reputation and
even some farmers were saying how much I would miss him,
as we had gone everywhere together, I cried when he died, I
was just bloody devastated!”.In a run of bad luck, Jason managed to roll his truck on theHay Plains and was then of the road for a few months before
he could ind another truck to drive. Eventually aer loating
around with a few general carters he got a job with Conroys
out of Ballan. “Danny Conroy told me that if I ever needed a
job, then to give him a call, I was sitting in Brisbane, broke and
looking for a back load home and I rang him, I started with
him the following Monday and haven’t looked back” admits
Jason.And back to carting livestock without a dog once again, un-
til.......... Tess arrived. “She’s a great little dog, a mate of mine
who used to cart stock Beau Beames sold her to me, she’s well
trained and easy to work, she’s actually a really good paddock
dog, but at the time, she was a something was better than
nothing situation”. Recently Jason has taken on little Jack, pur-
chased from Karl & Liz Morley, a smart little black and tan
pup. “He’s my irst real baby pup, so I am learning with him,
how to train him in the truck, he’s only young so we are just
taking it easy, but he’s keen as, and I like him” admits Jason.Even though Conroys is Victorian based Jason drives inter-
state mostly. “We have the contract for Midields in Warrnam-
bool so I spend a lot of time travelling between Dubbo and
down south but we go all over, from Dirranbandi and into
South Australia and everywhere else”. Carting both sheep
and cattle Jason reckons the biggest problem that stocky’s face is
poor facilities. “Most places are still in the 1900’s, with yards and
ramps that are useless. One place I turned up to, we loaded out
of old pig yards that were falling down and then had to get some
gates and make a holding yard because the yards were so shit!!A lot of people don’t understand that we are governed by time,
if the yards are shit then it takes me an extra 3-4 hours to
load and then I am longer getting to where I am going, which
means their stock are standing for longer etc, it efects the
whole process, we might do 5 or 6 pick ups in a day, thats a lot
of shit set ups”.here is no doubt Jason loves his dogs, “you know when
everything is lowing and everything is looking good and
people are looking and everything is spot on you look like an
absolute hero, and then there are those days when the sheep
are frustrating and not running and your dog thinks he knows
best, they are the hard days, and it brings you back down to
reality, but nah I love em”.Story & Photo Zoe CrouchBehind the
Wheel:
Jason Hyde
http://www.stockdogs.com.au AWSDM 57