Tully's Brahman paradise

Helping to manage a family partnership in one of the wettest parts of the country comes naturally to Mr Condon, who grew up near Mount Surprise, four hours west of Tully.

"Our farm receives an annual rainfall of around 2 metres with the township getting up to 6m," Mr Condon said.

The beauty and polarised weather patterns of the state have never been more noticeable as Mr Condon describes an average day out on the farm.

"You run what the country will allow you to and, at the moment, we have around 2000 head of Brahman cattle up here being fattened and they're perfectly suited to the flat, tropical country."

What was once part of a King Ranch Australia property, the Condons purchased the land formerly known as Tully River Station in 2002.

"The sugar industry was really battling and prices were right down at the time and we bought it off the receivers. I'm now, with the help of my wife Heather and children, in partnership with my brother and parents."

Breeding about 8000 head of pure Brahman cattle on a second property, Conjuboy, Mr Condon's brother Lincoln recently began crossing with Charolais and Angus after weight restrictions were placed on export cattle.

"We crossed with a couple of hundred head to see what the outcome would be in case the live trade didn't return.

"Prior to the collapse of the boat trade, all our cows were going to Irian Jaya and Papua New Guinea.

"The restrictions came in and we were forced to chase our own market and put them through the meatworks and sell to wherever we could get good money."

Mr Condon said the cattle operation is set up to supply live trade and the restrictions 'threw a spanner in the works'.

"Boat trade works very well with the way we run things here, but we can't continue to export if the 350kg restriction remains, there just isn't enough money in it."

"We usually send our entire turn-off on the boats."

Mr Condon, along with his son Chris, also farm 1400 hectares of sugarcane, with the cattle operation benefiting from the harvest.

"Our operation is able to use the profit from the cane to pay off assets and maintain the cattle," Mr Condon said.

"I love the freedom of farming but there's never any spare money, you pay an asset off and improve it along the way.

"The only time there's ever any money in rural gains is when you sell the real estate, but we live a good life at the moment - I don't know any different and I've got no problem with debt as long as you're meeting your commitments."

Although he lives in one of the wettest areas of the state, Mr Condon said his family is looking forward to "good seasons and good money".

"We've just got to make do with what we get each year and set ourselves up to drought-proof our property and deal with seasonal fluctuations.

"Sometimes we deal with extreme weather situations - we're still cleaning up from Cyclone Yasi and that was two years ago, but it caused a great amount of damage to our property.

"It's true that we're privileged to live in this type of country where it's wet for a lot of the year, and I'm very conscious of talking about it with other farmers who are in a contrasting position.

"My daughters live in very dry conditions and I'm always aware of their struggle with feeding out and dealing with their stock.

"I've lived out in the dryer western parts of Queensland and I know what it's like trying to deal with the drought. This rain can be hard at times, but it's a lot easier to make money out of mud than dust."

Rain, hail or shine - Mr Condon said the work never ended.

"Tully is a very unique part of the state. We had 6 inches of rain last weekend but we've still got to be out spraying the turns on Monday.

"We manage it very well - we keep the drainage up and we've spent some time enhancing the natural run-off on the property with silt traps.

"Every drain here runs into a catchment, and we clean those periodically and we keep them grassed to minimise erosion - we want the best for the country and we want to remain viable."

Mr Condon said his heart was in producing quality cattle but would continue to expand on the sugarcane operation and diversify the property.

"It's our little piece of paradise and I find, sometimes, my mind wanders to another place, but my heart always leads me back home."