Women of the land

Darrylin Gordon

“No one can stop me doing what I love.”

Darrylin Gordon was born to work in this rugged Kimberley landscape. Even as a nipper, she remembers watching her grandfather mustering cattle, and longing to join in. Both Darrylin’s grandfathers worked on Lamboo Station for white, male owners. Today, this 30-year-old cattlewoman manages all 361,000 hectares of the property, plus its 2500 head of cattle and 10 staff, for the Ngunjiwirri community of the Jaru nation, who secured native title here back in 1997.

“For generations,” she says, “it’s been a man’s job to run a farm, but I chose to put myself out there because it was something I loved doing and I wasn’t going to let anyone stop me from doing what I loved. Women have to push the boundaries. There’s not a job that a woman can’t do on a station.”

Her greatest inspiration has been her grandfather: “My mum’s dad – we call him Japi,”