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Senior Constable Jim Fowler parked the police four-wheel-drive Landcruiser sideways across the rough, dirt entrance road to Aningie Station so the front of the vehicle faced the rapidly darkening horizon to the west. Positioning the vehicle this way had less to do with obstructing the path of any approaching vehicle and more to do with offering himself and his partner some form of protection should they be fired upon. There were no fences at Aningie Station; where do you start to fence almost a million acres, let alone pay for it? This was open-range, beef cattle country on the fringes of the Tanami Desert and the stock had to roam freely in their search for feed. Annual rainfall was minimal at best and natural feed for stock was scarce. And, while the land around them was rough, corru
