Barry Lemcke is Australia's foremost authority on water buffalo and has helped create a new dairy industry.

Story Kerry Sharp   Photos Shane Eecan

Keeping company with half-tonne-plus beasts who sometimes get cranky hasn’t deterred Northern Territory livestock researcher Barry Lemcke from spending 45 years studying, domesticating, cross-breeding and sometimes dodging the perilous horns of the iconic water buffalo. Near misses have been part and parcel of a career that’s made him Australia’s foremost authority on the Asian bubalines shipped in by the British 170 years ago.

This story excerpt is from Issue #116

Outback Magazine: December/January 2018