Grazier • Bush Poet • Heritage Custodian • Poultry Breeder
At 68, Vaughan Baker is supposed to be retired. Instead, he still runs about 230 Merinos near Thallon, breeds fancy poultry, helps preserve one of the district’s oldest homesteads and still finds time for a good bush yarn. It is the sort of retirement that only makes sense in the country.
A lifetime in sheep country
Vaughan’s family had held a sizeable property near Thallon since 1923. He became the hands-on partner in 1974 and spent the decades that followed running sheep through just about every turn the country could throw at him.
The weather became particularly unpredictable over the last 30 years. There were droughts, floods in country poorly suited to them and even good seasons undermined by low commodity prices. As Vaughan puts it, “The ducks never ever lined up.”
The family property finally sold at auction in May 2025, bringing that long chapter to a good close. Retirement, however, has proved to be a fairly loose description of what came next.
Retirement, of sorts
Vaughan and his partner, Joanne, now live on a small hobby-farm block and have the use of another nearby parcel of land. Between the two, Vaughan still runs about 230 Merinos, with recent dry conditions demanding months of drought feeding.
He has also expanded his poultry-breeding hobby through Foxtukka Freerange Fancy Fowls, sharing the birds and life around the property through its Facebook page.
Even after selling the family property, Vaughan says life remains nearly as busy as ever. The work, at least, has kept him fit.
Keeping Old Bullamon standing
Vaughan is also the owner and custodian of Old Bullamon Homestead, one of the earliest surviving buildings on the Moonie River. Constructed in the 1850s near Thallon, the homestead is included in the Queensland Heritage Register and preserves an important piece of the district’s early pastoral history.
Now open for tours by arrangement, Old Bullamon allows visitors to step inside a rare surviving example of early bush architecture rather than knowing it only through old photographs and written records.
Follow Vaughan and explore his work
The following poems by Vaughan Baker have been featured on Country Campfire:
Old Bluey’s Yarn
A weathered old shearer spins a group of Queensland-bound travellers a gloriously unlikely account of his life across the sheds.
Rights And Permission
Poems and contributions are shared by Country Campfire with permission.
Poems, recitals, photographs, stories and original works remain the property of their original creator and are shared by Country Campfire with permission.
Country Campfire Legend #24