My name's Squatter Coffey. And we're at my place here at
Beulah. Fifty years ago I came into Beulah from Burchett.
My motto is, 'I live to give and I care to share'. Every day, I can
do it. I live the dream. I wouldn't know anybody who's
going better than me. I own this. I don't owe a dollar.
I'm broke, but I'm a millionaire for friends.
Wouldn't be too many going as good as I'm going.
Anybody who's going bad, or hurting. A few days here (will)
blow your tyres up.
That's what I'm about.
There is something really deeply healing about horses and their
relationship . . .
There is, yep.
And the bush and the quiet.
We light that fire up and I don't drink, but a few do.
And they get a bit bit reckless - the truth gets stretched
around a bit, but
geez, they remember their night here. You know,
if you don't have a good time here, you're in trouble. You're
not gonna have a good time at too many other places.
What role do horses play in your life?
Yeah, a major part. I've had a few,
setbacks or knockbacks.
Marriage breakup. Heart attack. Geez, if you didn't have horses,
I don't know what people do that don't have a horse or even a dog.
What do people do, if you're traveling rough? You don't have
to even ride a horse go and get him - take him and give him a
pick on the lawn.
You feel better around a horse.
You're a bit of a legend around the Mallee, Squatter. You even
have your own grain silo mural. So, how did that come about?
Well, the girls from the tourism rang up and they booked a horse
ride for two ladies and a teenage girl.
And we were riding along and she said, 'How would you feel about
being painted on the silo?'
I said, 'You better have a meeting about that. I don't want
to be up here and annoying people'.
It'll be there for a while.
How does it feel to be immortalised on a silo?
Yeah, nah. It's all right. It's just nice that kids that come
here and they want to go and have a look at it.
You've hung up your hard hat, you've got your Akubra firmly
planted on your head. How many tonnes of grain do you think
you've handled over 50 years?
You couldn't physically work it out.
One day, the three silos bogged down at Rainbow and I shovelled
the three of them and unbogged them.
That's probably 15 tonne of grain that day, shovelled.
Yeah, a lot of shovelling.
Trillions of tonnes?
Yeah, yep.
A dollar a tonne would be alright.
Where to from here? You've retired,
are you going to invest in some more equine friends?
Yeah, we've got a couple more horses we've gotta look at and
bring in.
This kid's gone from me to racing stables up on the
stations.
This young bloke from Monto came here last week, never been on a
horse. He started at Brunette Downs in the Northern Territory.
They assigned him his horse, he sent me a photo. He's riding
alright. I like kids that have got a bit of a problem. There's
a lot of kids (diganosed with) this attention deficit (disorder)
and I'm good with those kids.
Send them home tired from doing something they like.
Their mums get a week of a good normal kid.
And then buggers of kids that have been in a bit of strife and
that,
once they go home and they can sit at the table and nobody else
can ride a horse, geeze their tyres are pumped up.
It's good to give a kid . . . just to see their face when
they're going around that yard and they're cantering along
That's a payment.
There's something about the magic of the Mallee isn't there?
Yeah, yeah.
What is it?
I reckon it's just the people. Just the people. Plus climate,
the best climate in Australia.
I reckon this is the pick of it. Takes a bit of beating here.
It's a pretty special place, Beulah.