Unfinished Business #author Bob Yabsley

Legacy, Country and the Unyielding Battle for Australia's Heartland

From the moment Bob's great-great-grandfather William Yabsley leapt from the HMS Beagle in 1838 to carve out a future on Australia's northern rivers, resilience has run through the Yabsley family story. William built ships, founded the town of Coraki, and left behind a legacy of hard work and community spirit that carried through generations.

Born into this heritage, Bob grew up riding horses to school, battling floods and fires, and learning early the value of cooperation in a tight-knit rural community. His journey took him from the hardships of Depression-era farming to adventurous years managing wild cattle in the Solomon Islands, before returning to Australia to build vast agricultural enterprises.

Always looking for better ways to work the land, Bob helped pioneered the use of helicopters in property management - transforming mustering and pest control, and reshaping how large-scale farms could operate.

But behind the successes lay battles just as fierce as those with nature: crippling droughts, collapsing cattle markets, and the unyielding grip of the banks. Years of dedication were undone by receivership, mismanagement, and financial institutions more interested in profit than people. The toll was heavy - on the land, the livelihood, and the family itself.

This sweeping memoir is more than one man's story. It is a candid reflection on Australia's farming heartland, the bonds of family and community, and the ongoing struggle of ordinary people against forces far larger than themselves. It is a testament to courage, persistence, and the enduring fight to preserve both legacy and dignity in the face of adversity.

To connect with Bon and the book ...
https://www.amazon.com.au/Unfinished-Business-Unyielding-Australias-Heartland/dp/1764381300

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

It's good morning, Bob. You absolutely welcome to Yellow Shelf.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Good morning.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Excited to have you here. I I feel incredibly privileged. You are an author. Your book is called Unfinished Business. Bob, do you want to tell us all about the book you've written?

SPEAKER_00 0:25

It's really just about my life and the problems I've gone through in the agricultural industry and how things have changed so much over my lifetime. And also the uh issues of the control now of the private banks over most of us.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

So that's basically what the book's about.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

And uh yeah, so and Bob, I've I've got a copy of the book and I read it, and you know, I'm gonna tell you what I thought. It's it's a book about your family's history that goes way back to the 1830s, your the generations in your family who've been on the land, who've worked incredibly hard, who've had lots of challenges. Um yeah, do you want to tell us a bit about that piece in the book? You know, this is this is your family history and their journey.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Well, it is and my my family started in this country when my great-great-grandfather came about 200 years ago. Yeah. And uh I uh he jumped ship in Sydney, yeah, uh left the navy and went bush, so they couldn't find him. And uh uh and tried to set up a a life for himself and his family. What interests me greatly as well is that uh two years about two years after he came to Australia, his wife came out with two children from England. And you think about it, those days it took six months to get here.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Uh she came to a country that was basically a penal settlement. Yeah, didn't know where her husband was in the whole of Australia. No communication, but the courage of those people enormous. Yes. And after a while, she did find him after a lot of mucking about and finding, and went when they got together, then they set out again and went into the bush and settled where no white man had been before.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

It's it's quite quite an incredible history.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

But anyway, about a hundred years later I came along.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

There you go, and here we are talking about it. I mean, it's it's it's an incredible story. And I think you know, when people learn about their family history, and now you've had the privilege to write about it. This is this is a story about your family. This is how they innovated over the decades, well, not even decades, centennial, you know, years of being on the land, lots of hardships, financial hardships, drought, you know, um, and the changing landscape. So what do you want to share about anything that I just touched on? Like the fact that you've had to innovate in the farming landscape, the tough times.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Yeah, well, the uh when I went in and started business of my own, I guess, uh, and started buying land and make a living as a cattle producer. And within the first 12 months we ran into the biggest cattle depression the country has ever seen, where cattle were virtually worth nothing.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

And uh we had to obviously not make any money out of cattle, so we had to try to do something else. And we uh started farming, and that was a new learning experience included sheer farming to expand our area. Yes. And uh as we started to get back on our feed again for the farming issue, one of the biggest issues was uh the decimation of our crops by wild pigs.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

And uh part of that process I learned that people had were using uh that helicopters were being used for sport for wild pigs. So I ended up hiring one from SeaWorld in Tulagata and uh that was a process that carried on and on until the point where I I bought my own and learned to fly it, and from then on for the next 30, 40 odd years I operated in my own helicopters, and that helped enormously because I had a number of properties. Yeah. By the time I landed the helicopter, I could uh I had already flown over the property and seen that the stock and the water was all okay, so you didn't have to do that. Um it created other work for me because other people wanted me to help and used the helicopter to help them. And so I did a lot of mustering and a lot of pest control and what have you. Lost two of them. First one fell over on the ground, and the next one ran out of engine or in the mud. But anyway, my poor wife. I remember the second one. Uh after she'd gone through with me the first one. I picked up the phone when I couldn't. I rang her up. She said, What's wrong with it? I've done it again.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Oh no. You must have so many stories to tell, hence, why you've written this book.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

I mean, I wrote the book, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Yeah. Do you want to tell us about writing the book? What was that like? This is your first book.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

It's my first, and definitely my only book. I'm nearly 90 years old, so I'm not gonna write another book.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

Uh what was it like being an author? Tell me about that, having to write it all down and remember and share.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

It took me two years to write it. Yeah, at least two years. Um, and I suppose going through the process brought back a lot of memories.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

Um when back when I was young on a property on the north coast of New South Ohio, we had no electricity.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

And I I my wife just being in hospital and seeing all the electrical gadgets that are used today to support life without electricity, it was impossible. Yeah. So it just that's just a little inkling of where we've gone. And uh but uh and in regard to communication, again when I was young, our phone number was 3-2.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

That was it. Still remember it.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

I still remember it, absolutely. Absolutely. And yeah, the first school I went to had one room for every class.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Yeah, wow.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

You know, it's just a one-room school. And I uh different to nowadays where people have driven, I rode a horse to school ten kilometers each way.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

So uh and that took the best part of an hour by the time you caught your horse and settled it up and rode home. And then when you got home, you had to muster the cows to milk in the morning.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

But uh it taught, I guess it taught independence. Sure. This is the thing that I say I don't like today is where our lives are controlled so much by government, we don't have the ability to make our own decisions anymore.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

Uh we have to ask somebody whether we can do this, do that, or do something else. And uh to be frank, it's something that's bugged me for a long time. Yeah. Bureaucracy and the and the way it's run. Like to light a fire today in the country, you have to get permission. Yeah. And they don't know the circumstances, they don't know where the fire breaks are or where you burnt last year, where there's little, you know, just but they make their decision.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

And uh I I recounted in the book way back in the early 40s, a friend of ours got a job on the electric electricity commission that was bringing power to us in the late 40s. And we'd ride home from school, and this chap would be out in the middle of the paddock, and all you'd see was dirt flying up in the air, and you'd ride over to see him, and he'd be six foot underground with a shovel, digging a hole, no workplace health and safety, just himself. You know, that's how now you can't do anything without somebody watching you.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Yeah, so true. And Bob, what um first-time author in your, I guess, senior years, if I would be so polite, um, was that is that an accomplishment for you? I mean, you've done so much throughout your career. There's and people need to read the book. This is this is not just your family farming. There's lots of challenges along the way. You touched on them, the bureaucracy around the government and the frustrations that you had. But tell us about writing. Did you enjoy that? Was that um obviously tapping into the history, but yeah, did you enjoy it?

SPEAKER_00 9:24

I did get a certain amount of enjoyment from from writing it and putting it all down and writing, and uh because if nobody reads the book, at least the family has got it.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

I'm determined to get people to read it.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

So and you know, talk in the book about the way we did things in the country back then with bulletins and horses.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Uh I can remember the first tractor had steel wheels and it was flat out at three miles an hour. Yeah. Um, that we bought, but how that sort of thing has obviously helped the farmer community because we now have four-wheel drive tractors and all sorts of things. We don't have to harness the horses. I remember the chap I worked for for a little while in Victoria when I was young complained that he worked all summer to grow feed to feed the bloody horses through the winter. You know. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

And Robert, do you want to like tell me what life is like these days? Do you you you I believe you're in Queensland these days, and you're are you on the land or not on the land anymore?

SPEAKER_00 10:31

No, I'm not on the land now. Then back in 212, after a 11-year fight, the bank pop finally took our property. Yeah. Or our properties. Yes. And uh we were forced to retire, so I'm retired now, living just on the on the outskirts of Toowoomba.

unknown 10:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

In Queensland. And uh unfortunately my wife's not well, she's away at present. And uh, but yeah, but it's it's it's different. At least I was fortunate to be able to find a home on the outskirts of Toowoomba with with trees and company around me rather than hours next door.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

It would have been different for me, but anyway.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Um But look, Robin, I'm glad you were able to share. I I'd love people who are listening and watching to go and to to get your book, to read it, because it's yeah, it's it's it's a story of yeah, like innovation on the land, not only your family's journey, but yeah, there's so many challenges along the way that you know continue to this day, even with your your family's health. So I I really appreciate you sharing your book with me. It was wonderful to meet you.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

You too, dear. You too. But uh yeah, I I think many people, some wouldn't, but many people would would uh enjoy reading it, I think. About and uh I hope they start to understand because my degeneration has created the country that now supports 28 million people.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

Yeah, so true. Really, a really important industry. And yeah, that was my reflective piece when reading the book. You know, this is a huge part of our history, Bob. So well done for writing the book and thank you for joining me today.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

Thank you so much for having me. Cheers. And uh I I hope when we've got 50 million people in here, we're still going.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

So too.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Cheers, Bob. Bye.