Dream comes true for helicopter pilot

Born and raised in Northam, Mr U'Ren, now aged 30, wasn't exposed to agriculture until he went to study a trade at the Western Australian College of Agriculture - Cunderdin.

"It was the best two years of my life, I got a lot out of it," Mr U'Ren said.

"I went there to either become a boilermaker or a mechanic, I never really thought about cattle or agriculture."

Based in Broome, Mr U'Ren's daily commute is a stunning flight over the Kimberley regions, on the way to muster cattle for stations around WA's Top End.

It's his fourth year in the air at a job that's been years in the making, starting out as a ringer at Warrawagine station, near Marble Bar.

After he finished school in 2013, Mr U'Ren's sister, Caitlin and her partner Ben, were also working for Warrawagine at the time, and encouraged him to visit the station at Christmas.

Mr U'ren took a ride in one of the mustering helicopters with Warrawagine manager Scott Mills, at the time, to check on a nearby fire.

At the time, he was an apprentice mechanic.

"I was a bit over living in Northam at the time" Mr U'Ren said.

"I was talking to my sister one day and she said "you can ride a motorbike well, we can teach you to muster cattle, do you want to come up and work on the station?"

"I went to Warrawagine to just get out and do something different," he said.

Two years later, Mr U'Ren started at Warrawagine station at age 21, and over a period of seven years worked his way up to become a manager at Warrawagine's other property near Eighty Mile Beach.

He met a lot of people along the journey who were passionate about the industry, who made the hard days seem easy, and his own passion for station life grew from there.

As he gained more responsibility, Mr U'Ren came to love all aspects of station life, including business management and leadership.

Watching his mates work the cattle from above was an appealing career move.

"Watching them work, and getting to ride in the helicopters occasionally made me realise that was what I wanted to do," Mr U'Ren said.

"Becoming mates with a few pilots, seeing the life they live, moving around and seeing some pretty cool countryside just concreted it."

Living remotely has shown Mr U'Ren what it means to be self-reliant.

"People who have been on the land their whole life are some of the most resilient people I've ever met," he said.

"You just learn to manage situations differently.

"It seems like a lot, but quickly it becomes a part of life.

"A few years into it you look back and think I was pretty green back then."

Mr U'ren recalled feeling that way about himself in those early years.

Having worked on the ground on cattle stations has made him a better mustering pilot, able to get results without putting too much pressure on the animals he is working.

"It's beneficial to have a lot of experience on the ground, then you have a really good understanding of how mobs of cattle work, and how ground crews work around the mobs," he said.

"You get a really good understanding of the boundaries of the animal also."

Another manager at Warrawagine, Lux Lethbridge taught Mr U'Ren all about animal welfare while using helicopters for mustering.

It's a job that, when not done properly, has the potential to make them difficult to muster in the future.

"It's our job to do a professional job for the clients, and the animals come first," Mr U'Ren said.

"If we don't have these animals, we don't get to live out here and do this job.

"But when done right, the cattle do the work for you, you're really just flying around making a bit of noise."

Mr U'Ren became a pilot after an intensive 11-week theory course at Queensland's Sunshine Coast and then completed his flight training over three months at Ballina, New South Wales.

All up, it included seven exams and 105 hours of flight training, of which he was mentored by Tim and Georgie Latimer, in Ballina.

"They've got a really good reputation for turning out responsible and safe mustering pilots," Mr U'Ren said.

"The chief pilot (Mr Latimer) there has a lot of knowledge to pass on, so it was sort of a no-brainer to go to a school like that.

"I wanted to make sure that I was learning well from the start."

With a licence in hand and a hundred hours on the clock, Mr U'Ren headed straight back to Warrawagine station to fly where he stayed for another year and started his flying career under the watchful eye of Mr Lethbridge.

A few years ago, Mr U'Ren moved on from Warrawagine to pursue a full time commercial flying position.

He loves being based out of Broome, for a sense of normality and the luxury of town conveniences when he's back at home.

Other times, he camps out in the bush on stations.

"You might not be back in town for a week or three, or even more than a month, and you might be back randomly for a night," Mr U'Ren said.

"While I'm young, I want to go out and see a bit of country and eventually settle down somewhere for the long-term."

Mr U'Ren works largely in the West Kimberley region, between Broome and the Gibb River Road, as well as the Eighty Mile Beach area.

It can take between an hour and a half to three hours to go from base to a station.

In the future, Mr U'Ren wants to take on bigger turbine machines, and get into firefighting.

"It seems like it is a really rewarding flying career, saving properties and infrastructure," he said.

"I'd like to help out other people.

"It'd be quite technical and hard to fly, a challenge I'd like to get into.

"I can see myself being around helicopters until I retire."

Outside of work, if he has some time off work when his mates do, Mr U'Ren plays a bit of golf and enjoys Broome's coastal offerings.

Having a regular birds'-eye view of the Kimberley lends itself to a photography hobby, even a casual one.

"I've thought about getting a proper camera," Mr U'Ren said.

"Most of the photos I take are just on my iPhone flying past in the moment.

"If I see somewhere nice, I like to be able to share it with friends and family, so they can see some of the places that I see."