There’s an odd sound in the mountains – something between a neigh and a hee-haw – emanating from a small set of yards just south of Merrijig, Vic.
Story + Photos Stuart Walmsley
Here you’ll find a gathering of High Country legends, but it’s not the colt from old Regret they’re reining in this time. Instead, Steve Arbuthnot, Noel Wiltshire and Freddie Forrest harness what they believe to be Australia’s only remaining working mule team.
Watched by 88-year-old Basil Egan, a crack rider in the first The Man From Snowy River movie (his nephew Gerald doubled for Tom Burlinson), the trio lock into a familiar routine. They buckle, strap and double-check gear – mostly made by Noel in his workshop at Kotupna – and set off up Chapel Hill Road toward Mt Timbertop.
“A drover mate of mine bred these mules up at Tumbarumba, and I wasn’t that keen on the idea initially, but I arranged to swap him one for a [cattle dog] pup,” says Steve, who is a stockman, shearer and current “gate opener” for the Marriott family at Tatong. “Then, when we got there, we finished up coming home with 4 of them.”
The 70-year-old has worked with animals his whole life but he says he’s never come across anything quite like mules. “They’re more agile than a donkey, extremely intelligent and their working life is twice that of a horse. They’ll work until they’re 40, and in tough conditions,” Steve says. “For the size of them, their strength is just amazing.”
The mules made their public debut in 2023 at Barellan’s Good Old Days Festival in NSW, where various animals of draught work together in teams.
“The guys at Barellan have asked me for years if I could get some mules there, and that’s why we’re up here in the hills, to integrate some new animals into the team [for the 2024 event],” Noel says.
This story excerpt is from Issue #158
Outback Magazine: December/January 2025
