PRECIOUS MOMENTS
THE LEAFY GARDEN AT South Callandoon homestead, high on the bank of Callandoon Creek, is a welcome respite from the dry paddocks of the 12,140-hectare property just west of Goondiwindi. Christina Duddy, 34, keeps an eye on Zander, six and Harry, four, and holds 18-month-old Lara as her sons play beneath a Tipuana tree trailed by Fletcher, the family’s six-year-old Groodle. This is where Christina’s husband James also grew up, before learning the intricacies of running the mixed farming and cattle property and embarking on his own tenureship here.
The Duddys grow cereals, pulses and cotton on dry and irrigated land at South Callandoon and when visits, they’ve just finished the wheat harvest. Given the extended dry, James is now concentrating on infrastructure development and maintaining their
