1. Guy Creighton
Bob’s predicament
THE day starts for the patriarch of
the Steer family, Robert, with one of
his sons waking him from his medi-
cation-induced sleep in his hospital
Robert, or Bob, is in his home on a
remote property called ‘Wyuna’ south-
east of Trangie, a small town in central
Due to his condition, Bob will need
to be assisted in moving from his bed
rarely heard of, but common disease
called Post Polio Syndrome, a con-
survivors of the deadly poliomyelitis
Symptoms of the condition include
acute or increased muscular weak-
Bob is almost completely devoid of
mobility from his chest down, with
restricted movement in his arms and
The sons, the two that have
remained home, use a special lifter
Bob to remain relatively mobile in
The machine works by locking the
patient’s shoulders, fastening their
arms into plates to ensure the fore-
Once the patient is secure, the lifter
then elevates these plates so that the
patient’s arms are held in, lifting the
Because there are steps on the
machine for the person being lifted to
place their feet on, they’re completely
been erected, and can be wheeled and
placed into areas a wheelchair simply
-
let, sink, bath and shower, it is not an
Bob needs to be mechanically lifted
every time he wakes, needs to shower
or go to the toilet, and when he wants
However, for the two sons who have
remained at home to work on the
property, Bob’s predicament is not
seen as a burden, and neither is that so
Looking after Bob in his later life is
them: working on the property, mostly
by himself, to support six children in
his earlier life, according to Austin,
one of the sons who work on the prop-
Indeed, choosing to spend what
would most certainly be the rest of
his life on Wyuna was a choice easily
After three ‘recorded’ heart attacks
full-time care was a forgone conclu-
So, for the eldest son who chose not
to be named, and Austin who were
already home working on the prop-
erty, along with Barbara, the respon-
would die on the land he lived and
Growing up
10 - NEWS & FEATURES arbitermagazine.com
Bob needs to be
mechanically lifted
every time he wakes,
needs to shower or
go to the toilet
living with a disability
in rural Australia

2. March 9, 1933, in his parent’s home
on Ballendella St in Balranald, a town
in New South Wales near the Victo-
An only child, Bob’s parents had
This is where Bob said he learnt
most about the trials of life; working
hard on the farm, with very little in
your pocket and always more work to
However, life became much harder
for Bob, who, much like his current
predicament, found himself coming
to terms with mortality at a very early
One day in particular, Bob’s neck
and back muscles began to uncontrol-
lably contract and whilst on his way to
the outhouse, his legs gave way and he
A week before, Bob had visited the
doctor with similar complaints but
After his collapse, Bob’s mother sent
him to another hospital in Swan Hill,
where he still remembers the name of
the doctor who diagnosed him: Doctor
The memory would serve him well,
as after four years of ridding himself
of the disease, he was called up for
national service only to be deemed
Following the potentially terminal
diagnosis, Bob spent the next two
years at the Bendigo Hospital, lying
next to many children who would soon
Despite this, after two years of salt
baths and physiotherapy, the young
But it had taken a toll on his body;
Swan Hill High School and his father
at Ellengerah - a property outside of
And so the family moved to Elleng-
erah and Bob was taken on as a
Bob would spend the next 23 years
Bob’s father retired as station man-
ager in 1971, and after working his way
up from jackeroo to overseer, Bob took
Trangie
ONE hour west of Dubbo, Trangie
is small town nestled among the euca-
For a population of approximately
1000, the land that isn’t agricultural is
-
way, a house block in Trangie can be
The Trangie Township comes under
the Narromine shire, a population of
approximately 6,700 people, for which
an application for rezoning costs only
The shire itself is about 5,300
Family life
IT is not hard to see that Bob
employed the same hard-working and
determined ethos into his parenting
as he did on the property, as the same
After returning from 12 months of
midwifery training in Perth, turning
down the chance of entering a convent,
Bob’s persistent pleading convinced
Barbara to agree to take Bob as her life
Last year was their 50th wedding
NEWS & FEATURES - 11arbitermagazine.com
The Steer family currently receives no more than $25 a fortnight in assisting Bob.
Photo: Guy Creighton
he would never be
able to run again

3. 12 - NEWS & FEATURES arbitermagazine.com
While still on Ellengerah, Bob and
Barbara beared six children; three
The family moved to Wyuna in 1975
after Bob left his position at Elleng-
erah to work where his parents had
education in Trangie, the six Steer
children were sent to boarding schools
While the three daughters of the
family, Anne, Judith, Catherine, and
the youngest son, Matthew chose
alternative lives to that of their
mother and father’s, the eldest and
Austin returned to work on the family
property after their stints at boarding
While all of the Steer children had
Wyuna with their own families for the
When the mercury sits at its high-
est - even though there are two houses
-
tives return, the space becomes even
where Bob spends the majority of his
time, or in the lounge room – the only
is located not too far from the area
where the CSIRO had to create a new
heat wave category to cater for searing
‘If it’s going to be hot, it may
as well be really hot’
FOR a Brisbane local who is accus-
tomed to life within a mountain land-
scape, the wide open and seemingly
Those who once considered the
In the summer, the weather stays
consistently dry, and one is lucky if a
It is a place where the heat is perpet-
ually evident, with the mercury regu-
It is a place where reptiles sun them-
While the Steer family wouldn’t
consider their 5,000 acre property to
be remote, the nearest place to buy
milk and bread is 40 kilometres away
The inconvenience is of course triv-
ial to them, as the Wyuna property has
Wyuna is predominantly farmed for
Barring the few essentials like air
conditioning and television, seem-
ing luxurious nonetheless, the house
functions as if it may have half a cen-
And although the property has
acquired modern technologies such
as wireless Internet, there are still ele-
Emus walk among the sheep in the
paddocks; snakes are an ever-present
morsel that could quench their vora-
cious appetites – the wildlife is every-
Couple this with the heat, limited
galvanised burr that scatters itself
Austin explained that operations
on the property are predominantly
“We are ruled by the weather; when
it does not rain, everything slows
Given that there has not been sig-
the days have become longer and the
Home-­based full time carer
BOB and his family’s story are
undoubtedly unique, yet their situa-
tion has striking comparisons to many
According to the University of Can-
berra, in 2006 there was an estimated
632, 694 primary carers in Australia
-
one who is solely responsible for the
home based care of an elderly person,
or a person with a long-term health
A study conducted by the same
university found that – assuming
of replacing the care provided by all
informal carers for the year 2005 was
conservatively estimated at approxi-
Total Government funding in this
area amounts to less than $250 mil-
Before the National Disability Insur-
ance Scheme, the former framework
in Australia for supporting people
with serious disabilities and their car-
ers was arbitrary; basing the support
given on a strict criterium of where
they live, what disability they have,
Under the new funding scheme,
every disabled person over the age of
The Steer family currently receives
no more than $25 a fortnight in assist-
Although Bob’s family will continue
to care for him without government
assistance, thousands of other fami-
lies looking after the disabled elderly
are forced to live on with no help from
These are the same disabled whose
care becomes more intensive and
The scheme will support more than
400,000 Australians with a disability,
their families and carers, but will miss
thousands of other
families looking after
the disabled elderly
are forced to live on
with no help from the
government