Right back in the early days of 2020 I remember reaching out to Hugh, time of year: summer. Day – not sure. Location: Barwon Heads on the side of the road.

At the time: Hugh was the Head Stockman on Beetaloo Station and I was just blown away by how mature he was. Hugh came on for a chat for episode 25 of the podcast. I feel pretty fortunate to nowadays call Hugh a mate and someone I’ve had plenty of conversations with.

In that episode, we talked about what Hugh was up to and his passion for advocating for the northern beef industry. He was fairly settled in his role, and had big aspirations for where his career would take him. Switching the chopper cab for a classroom and the stock camp for a shoebox of a bedroom didn’t seem to be on the list.

Fast forward to 2021 and Hugh was a finalist in the Zanda McDonald Award, he recognised he wanted to learn more and even came up with his own succession plan at the age of 23 to make himself redundant & pursue further education.

I have wanted to sit down with Hughie for a while and chat about his first year of at Marcus Oldham. What lead to the decision to study, what the year has been like, with Movember underway how he’s kept himself mentally healthy and how getting familiar with himself has enabled him to push the boundaries of what he’s capable of.

At 23 Hugh Dawson made himself redundant so he could go to university