Alice was born in 1979 in the middle of a very cold winter. She nearly suffered an early setback when Marion slipped and fell carrying her down the snowy lane (our farm is a quarter mile down a track and we had to leave the car by the roadside) on the way home from hospital, but all was well. After local schooling she read history and sociology at Leeds University then had various jobs in London before coming back to Wales, marrying Alex Harrison in 2006 and settling in and doing up an old cottage in a hamlet only 5 miles from the farm.

Before that, she had a year out in Australia getting various jobs and generally bumming around and here is an email she wrote, telling us of her experiences: -

This has been my first opportunity to send any mail for a while, as I've just returned from a month working in the outback. I've been working on a cattle ranch in far North Queensland, on a huge property, approximately the size of Wales! It was huuuuge & I still can't comprehend quite how vast it is. The nearest neighbouring ranch was 100kms south, and the farm itself was about 80,000 acres, with 20,000 moo cows, lots of wild pigs, dingos, plenty of skippy kangaroos, lizards, green tree frogs (v. cute), snakes and crocodiles (salt water & fresh-water ones, the salties being the ones to watch out for apparently, but difficult to tell the difference.) There's 20 people who are based there - jackaroos, cooks & the helicopter pilots.

I've been a camp cook, so went around a few different camps on the farm (little huts, with nothing in) with a group of 8 jackaroos. I've been in charge of cooking 4 hot meals a day for all of us, and am now a very well worked cook.

It's been a proper Australian experience, and the hardest, and most rewarding month ever. It's been really hard, working 14hours a day, without a day off for the past 4 weeks, but have had the best time, & am quite sad to have to leave all my group, who I've grown really attached to.

Our daily routine would be to get up before dawn (4.30am), I'd make a cooked breakfast for the boys, who'd then go out at sunrise on their horses, mustering cattle. Then I'd make another breakfast for mid morning and lunch and dinner at 7. When I'd have a spare hour or two, I'd go and help the boys with the yard work - branding, weening, spaying & dehorning - really good fun doing the cattle herding, lots of jumping around & shouting at the cattle, waving big sticks. And generally getting more dusty and sweaty than I'd like anyone to see. Then we'd have a couple of hours sitting around the campfire in the evening before climbing into our camp beds, gazing up at the stars.

The ranch is flat (not a mound to be seen), dusty, dry and very very hot. About 35degrees in the heat of the day, thankfully lots cooler at night. It was quite nice to get up so early, as it was a reasonable temperature, and also got to see some of the best sunrises ever.

I returned to civilisation (& my first hot shower for 3 weeks) yesterday, a 3hour helicopter journey from the farm back to Cairns, over lots of desert & then the rainforest, just to the west of Cairns. Quite a scary journey, as the 'choppers used for mustering are tiny, with no doors. If you stick your arm out it really felt like it would be blown away. So I tried to resist the urge. We flew over lots of crocodile swamps & got quite close to some big ones, with huge gnashers.

One night in Cairns, staying with the chopper pilot's family, last night, and this morning I flew to Lizard Island. It's the most northern resort island on the Barrier reef. I'm doing 2weeks of voluntary work for the research unit on the island. I'm starting work tomorrow, so will tell you more about it in due course. The flight was on a 16 seater plane, not enough room to stand up - but of course I bonged my head when getting up to leave.

The island is small - 2 x 1.5km's wide, and building-wise, there's a 5* resort (costing $4000 for a 5 night stay), and the reseach centre & nothing else. It's a beautiful island with crystal clear green waters & white sand beaches. A 1 minute walk from my hut, and there's a deserted beach. The resort is on the other side of the island & I've only seen a few researchers yet. Time to go and lie on the beach now to watch the sun set .

Return to family page or home page or Family Tree.