A Forefather's Legacy

People come out to work on stations for all sorts of reasons. But for some people it’s in the blood. It’s something their forefathers have done and now it’s their turn. This is the story for Shaunica Cheu. The heritage in her family of working on stations extends right back to her Great-Grandfather and it has not skipped a generation since. It’s only natural that her family have been fully supportive of her pursuits.

“When my Dad worked on stations they had to catch the brumbies and break them in and then that was their work horses”.

But despite the way her forefathers had entered the industry, Shaunica’s start was quite different. Bored with high school and the school yard politics she dropped out 6 months short of graduating. She went on to do a Geoff Toomby horsemanship school especially designed for indigenous students. After that she completed a Certificate II in Tourism but that wasn’t really what she was interested in. She wanted to work on a station so when the opportunity arose to apply to be part of the Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association Indigenous Pastoral Program she jumped at the chance. It meant leaving behind North Queensland and her family but it also meant new adventures.

Cave Creek Station opened up the path for Shaunica to enter the cattle industry but a week short of her 18^th birthday tragedy struck. Her Aunty had passed away and then a few days after her 18^th birthday her Grandmother also died. At a time when she should have been celebrating she instead was mourning.

“My Grandma took care of me. She took care of me when my mother couldn’t and my mother took care of me when my Grandma was in hospital a lot”.

Her family was always close and had always been very supportive of her and whatever she wanted to do. Even when it came down to bull riding. Coming from a rough riding family they could hardly say no. Most of her uncles and older cousins rode broncs in rodeos. It was another lot of cousins that got her in to bull riding. The only time her mother and grandmother objected to her participation in the sport was when she fractured her wrist trying to break her fall coming off a bull.

“I didn’t know why I couldn’t bend my wrist back so we drove to Cooktown at midnight. By the time we got there it was 1am and I had to sleep on the benches in the hospital until the morning when they could x-ray it”.

When you look at Shaunica it’s hard to believe she’s 18 let alone that she’s been bull riding for 3 years. And she’s not about to give it up either.
“I love it!” she says with a beaming smile.

Since beginning at Cave Creek she has thoroughly enjoyed herself. Between meeting new people and going to rodeos she enjoys her work and ticking off units for a Certificate II in Rural Operations. She loves to look after the poddies and feed the dogs.

“I like working with Rohan. He’s fun to work with and he teaches you a lot”.

There’s no sign of this pint size dynamo giving up being a jillaroo any time soon.

“I love the nature and being in the country”.

Shaunica aims to one day move up through the ranks and she hopes that more girls, especially indigenous girls, join the industry. And with someone like Shaunica to look up to there’s hope yet!