'Nothing like McLeod’s Daughters': Farmer of Australia’s hardest working dog tells all

Australian Community Media

Duke was crowned Australia’s hardest-working dog in the 2025 Cobber Challenge, covering 556km across the three-week competition. Queensland farmer Beck Smith is only the third woman to win this competition. Footage supplied by the Cobber Challenge

Transcript

00:00it's not a job we do it because we love it and it's not nine to five there's no

00:03clock on no clock off really so if something needs to be done at one o'clock

00:07in the morning guess what you're out there doing it and there's been times

00:10when stuff's gone wrong cattle have got out of paddocks and Duke's been out

00:13there with me and you just got to do what you got to do like it's a it's not

00:18a very forgiving lifestyle and you know it's definitely not a McLeod's daughter

00:22so if you ever see McLeod's Daughters it's a complete opposite to that and

00:25that's probably the best way to sum it up I'm Bec Smith and this is Evangy

00:28station near Stonehenge to be honest I am still trying to sink in and let it

00:34like be real I'm blown away because from the get-go I thought Duke and I were just

00:40the ring-ins and obviously the other dogs they're very well you know trained and

00:46stuff like that and they have the finer qualities where Duke and I are very much

00:49just mog people and rough around the edges you need a dog that's tough they

00:53can go the distance and we've got hard cattle so you've got to have a dog that

00:56is pretty big and bold and brave to put the cattle back in their place and make

00:59them respect him and go where he wants them to go because there's really no

01:04room for error in the muggle blocks really women we've had to work twice as

01:08hard because this is very much male-dominated industry so no it's so

01:12bloody good I reckon when I'm out mastering I often can't see very far out

01:16into the scrub so I've just got to send Duke in and rely on him to do all the

01:21thinking and to bring the stock out to me living on my own I definitely wouldn't be

01:25able to do half things that I do do like for example with Duke the end of last

01:31year when it was drought and I had a unwell bull and I had to bring him into

01:36home which it was only about 20 kilometres and it should have only taken a

01:40few hours in a straight line but because of the thick scrub for eight

01:44hours Duke was with me and I had to obviously I couldn't just go on a straight

01:48line I'd have to detail around pick a path through all the thick scrub and Duke

01:53stuck with a bull and then if I couldn't find them Duke would come back to me and

01:56then lead me back to the bull so I mean you can't complain about that so with

02:01the winnings I'm planning hopefully to import either a pup or potentially seaman

02:07from border collie lines in the States because I really like those dogs over

02:11there they're a little bit harder and I think they'd be great for the country

02:16that I'm in out here Evanji is southwest of Longreach in Western Queensland so I'm

02:21about two hours away so it's 130,000 acres we are on the cusp of the the

02:26famous Channel Country in Western Queensland so we do have a little bit of

02:29the Thompson River flows through Evanji but yeah predominantly it's rocks and

02:34mulch trees so with the floods we had 20 inches of rain in seven days so that's two

02:39years worth of rain in a week and seventy percent of my place was inundated with

02:44water at the peak of the floods so with the wind that was my little light at the

02:50end of the tunnel it was a nice distraction it was a positive you know

02:53it was something that I was chipping away at each day while I was doing the flood

02:56recovery which you know is a pretty downer type of situation to be in but

03:02yeah the Cobbway Challenge was a nice little positive to be concentrating on

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