Muster Dogs

An outback story of red dirt, kelpies and the future of a family farm.

Life on the land is often boom or bust, forever at the mercy of Mother Nature.

Aticia 'Teesh' Grey took on the manager's role on her family's West Pilbara cattle station a few years after picking up her first team of kelpies. Almost immediately she was faced with a severe and devastating drought that forced her to question everything she thought she knew about the fragile country of her home.

Through the heartbreaking rollercoaster journey that followed, Teesh's loyal canine companions proved invaluable as she and her family worked towards securing the property's future. The versatility of these amazing dogs took the station in directions no one anticipated.

In 2020, Teesh got the chance to showcase the potential of working dogs more widely. Joining the ABC TV series Muster Dogs, Teesh and four other farming families took on the challenge of training new kelpie pups and testing their worth on the properties they run. Through this experience they showed the bonds that are formed between human and dog and vividly demonstrated a positive environmental future for farming in rural Australia.

This is a story of love, laughter, loss and hope, as Teesh finds her feet in an ever-changing world with the help of the dogs who have stood by her side through it all.

About the Author

Aticia grew up from the age of five on the family's cattle station in the far south-west Pilbara, and after attending boarding school for the required years, returned home to work on the land alongside her parents and brother. Twenty-seven years later, she is still there with her partner, Adam, and mother, Susan, managing the property with a tireless team of kelpies, and practising her rain dance.

Whenever she gets a chance outside station work, she is taking photos of her dogs, organising new homes nationally and internationally for her pups, reading anything in fiction she can get her hands on and cooking up something unhealthy in the kitchen.