Bullo River Station is a large cattle station (8,000 head of cattle) in the Northern Territory and was made famous by the books of Sara Henderson as she told about life at Bullo with her American husband, Charlie and her three daughters.  One of the daughters, Marlee Ranacher and her husband Franz and their two sons, Ben and Franzie, now own Bullo and Marlee has written about Bullo in her first book called "Bullo:  The Next Generation".   We had the pleasure of visiting there in September of 2006 with Down Under Answers, a tour company in Bellevue, WA and below are the photos of our time at Bullo.   If you ever wanted to learn about life in the Outback and want a very unique Australian experience, then let us send you to Bullo!

 Bullo is located in the northwestern corner of the Northern Territory near the Western Australian border.   The homestead is located on a half million acres of wilderness.  The front gate is 40 miles from the homestead and the nearest neighbor is 2 hours away.  Much of their land is remote and untouched for hundreds of years.   Map courtesy of Bullo River Station.  

Our adventure to Bullo began when we checked into Direct Air in Darwin.  They weighed each of us individually with our bags!  No TSA here!

Fiona was our Direct Air pilot.  She had been flying since she was 17 and did a wonderful job getting us to Bullo.  Flying is a way of life in the outback and to survive in the outback, you must have a plane to get in or out of the region.

   You fly  1 1/2 hours over the Victoria River,  rugged mountains and cliffs and there is not a town in site and you are struck by the vastness of the Australian outback and the uniqueness of the people who call the outback their home.

This is the runway at Bullo!   Before anyone can land, someone has to take the ATV out and drive the cattle off!    Touchdown and we have arrived!

There was a lot of excitement in our little plane when we first got our first glimpse of Bullo!  On the left is an airplane hanger, middle - Bullo homestead and on the right our accomdations for the next two nights.  On the far left in the background are the stockyards.
  Photo courtesy of Bullo River Station.

View of Bullo River Station as we taxied in!   If you read Sara and Marlee's books about Bullo, you are amazed that this wonderful homestead had its beginnings as a three-sided tin shack.  

Our hosts for the next two nights were Marlee and Franz Ranacher, the owners of Bullo and their sons, Ben and Franzie (right).  They taught us so much about their lives in the outback.

Although they have horses, the ATV seems to be the main ride at Bullo and is what they use to muster their cattle.

      Ben greeted us with his pet python.  

Evan is one of the ranch hands and was our tour guide for the next couple of days.  He is a real "Aussie" character.

Franz and Marlee on their ATV.

Marlee and Ben.

We had so much fun watching Ben and Franzie enjoy their lives at Bullo.    Besides the family python, the family birds there is also the family dog.

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