JENNY Nesbit and husband Jim have been back at Dalmuir Station - halfway between Tibooburra and Broken Hill - for the past seven years, the same station where they first began their married lives 45 years ago.
After 15 years of writing, Jenny has finished her book about the tragedy and joys of life on the land and becoming a 'bushie'. She has called the book From Lead Dust to Red Dust and hopes it will be published in the new year.
Jim and Jenny married in the crippling drought of the 1960s.
Born and raised in Broken Hill, Jenny first laid eyes on Jim walking down the main street with her brother-in-law Jack Roberts from Pulgamurtie Station.
"I was just on the way to the post office and I caught sight of this guy walking with Jack and I just had to meet him - so I turned around and went back to go talk to my brother-in-law!"
To this day, she recalls what Jim was wearing and that he looked very old fashioned, as if he had "stepped out of time".
She was instantly taken by Jim. "I couldn't believe someone could be so mature at such a young age," she said.
And when no-one was interested in teaching her to drive - she says, "my father always used to shudder every time I said I wanted to learn to drive," - Jim stepped up to the task.
They were married 15 months later in 1965 and made their home at Jim's family property Dalmuir.
Jenny said the drought did not break till 1971 so there were quite a few years of chewing dust, sleeping in dust, walking in dust and breathing in dust.
"I came from lead dust in Broken Hill to this amazing red dust and I just couldn't believe it. It was just unreal. I married a bushie so I had no other choice. Once you love someone you marry them, and you move in with them," she said.
To come from flushing toilets, soft toilet paper and modern appliances to long drops with newspaper, no power and basic equipment, was a shock to the system for the 18-year-old city girl.
"I thought wow, Jim wasn't the only one who looked as if he stepped back in time, the whole of the outback did as well."
The Nesbits had four children in four years - sons Jim and Marty, then twin daughters Shelley and Melissa.
After nine years, they bought their own property, Glendara, 100 kilometres north west of White Cliffs. All the children were taught via the South Australian Correspondence School. Melissa went on to be a nurse and the first classroom she saw was at Flinders University.
"I tell the kids they went to a very private school," Jenny jokes.
Teaching was just part and parcel of life in the bush for Jenny. Jim had been sent away to boarding school in Adelaide at a very young age and felt he missed out on too much family life, so they educated their children for their entire schooling via correspondence.
The Nesbits lived at Glendara for 29 years. In 1994, with the death of Jim's mother, they bought the family property Dalmuir. Marty moved to Dalmuir to manage it, and a few years later married and started a life there with his new wife, then a year later with their baby daughter, Kate.
Even when Marty moved over to Dalmuir, Jenny had a feeling she would end up back at Dalmuir one day, and that would be where her book would be finished.
"I would say to Jim that I would probably finish my book at Dalmuir. He would say 'I don't think so', but I always had a feeling that we would end up back here."
This prediction was to come true under sad circumstances upon Marty's tragic death in 2003, in a station accident. He was killed when his wife Rikke backed into him in the truck while unloading bulls at the cattle yards - pinning him between the truck and the loading race.
Rikke, and then later the neighbours from the adjoining properties, frantically worked to save Marty's life.
Sadly, because of his severe internal injuries, he died before the Flying Doctor arrived. He was 34.
In another cruel twist, Rikke found out several days later she was pregnant again. Their little boy Martin Junior was born eight months later.
After staying for another three years on the station, Rikke moved back to her home country of Denmark, where she now lives with Kate and Martin Jnr.
Jim and Jenny took on both properties before selling Glendara to their daughter Shelley and husband Phil Holmden, and they moved back to Dalmuir for good.
* Full Our People report in Stock Journal, January 13 issue.
