Hay comes north for bayside stock

This story has appeared in The Redland Times, Cleveland, Redland Shire, Queensland, Australia. Picture (RJ Burling 1999), courtesy of nnsw.com.au, shows the Carroll village.

A SMALL advertisement under the heading, Livestock, reflects the rich rural heritage of the Redlands where the focus is now mainly on providing housing and business opportunities for the population boom.
The ad offers "hay for sale … Capalaba area".
Alan Myers admits he hasn’t been besieged with buyers for the truckload of prime lucerne hay he is offering at $30 a bale.
"It comes from New South Wales," he says. "There’s a surplus down there and a shortage up here so I thought I’d see if I could sell some for my cousin.
"Well, he’s my cousin by marriage; he’s a good bloke.
"This is the first load."

ALAN says the grower is Noel Swain, running the family cattle property at Carroll, between Tamworth and Gunnedah.
After a lifetime of working on farms, Alan, 58, heads down to the property at every opportunity to help Noel with the hard tasks of cattle and crop production.
Alan spent his first 12 years in the Tamworth district before his parents, Ray and Gladys Myers, bought five acres (two hectares) in Russell Street, Cleveland, "right next to where the high school is now".
The couple had nine children, five of whom came north to the bayside in 1961, Alan says.
He went to work on small crop farms after his education at Cleveland – "the primary and high schools used to be in one back then".
The farms included the Long Street property of Doug and Eddie Burns.
Alan says his dad, who was a foreman on the council for many years, died last year at 80 years old and his mum now lives at Yarraman in the South Burnett.
All these years down the track, Alan works as a firefighter at Cleveland station but obviously is still a country boy at heart.

THE Redlands was "all farmland" when he came here almost a half century ago, and the load of hay would have been gobbled up in a hurry.
Nowadays, it may be slower to move but Alan’s confident the wait will be worth it.
"It’s prime lucerne hay – it’s good feed for any stock," he says.

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