Lone rider: From behind the wheel of her truck this unlikely young livestock carter is committed to keeping Australia s beef industry moving

摘要

The heat from a hundred head of cattle rises into the humid night air above Claire Strasburg's road train. It's 9.30pm on a Friday, and the young truck driver is pulling up her 37m-long livestock carrier beside a ramp at the Central Queensland Livestock Exchange in Gracemere, 10km south-west of Rockhampton. The shrill music of cicadas eclipses the engine's loud grumble and insects swarm in the yard's bright floodlights.Claire edges the truck forward so its middle trailer's gates line up with the cattle ramp. She climbs out of the cab and strolls down to the ramp. Kelvin Nessling, the saleyard's head stockman, opens a holding pen and signals Claire to unload. She swiftly unlatches the gates before hoisting herself onto the trailer's catwalk.