Pardoo station rebuilds in the wake of ex-Tropical Cyclone Ilsa

Mr Fraser took on the challenge of managing Pardoo station in March - just three weeks before the category five storm hit.

With wind gusts exceeding 300 kilometres per hour, almost no corner of the Pilbara cattle property was left untouched.

Buildings, shed, infrastructure, machinery, water points and silage pits were either majorly damaged and destroyed, and soft feed was ripped out of the spinifex country.

Although it was calving season, no cattle losses were reported in the aftermath.

Flying at low-level above the station in the wake of the cyclone, Mr Fraser was given a bird's eye view of its path of destruction.

It soon become very clear the station was shown no mercy.

"People say it looks like we had a scrub chain over the joint," Mr Fraser said.

"Everything is still somewhat busted and bent, and spinifex is leaning in the direction of the last wind, so you can still work out what direction the wind was blowing.

"If there is summer rain this season, you won't be able to tell vegetation wise the difference, except for the dead sticks lying around."

Despite the damages Mr Fraser, who finished his five-month contract at Pardoo earlier this month, was able to find a silver lining.

This was in the fact 180 millimetres rainfall - almost half of the station's average - fell in under 24 hours when the cyclone struck.

"Soft feed stayed green, but struggled to recuperate when conditions started cooling down," Mr Fraser said.

"The upshot was the amount of rain we had, which helped an enormous amount for the buffel (grass) to take off in the coastal country.

"(The buffel) was double the feed capacity and stayed green right up until mid-July.

"It hung on for us - in a normal year the Pilbara would be dried out by the end of April."

While dry season lick would still be needed as a protein supplement come August, Mr Fraser expected the bulk of the feed to carry on through and set the station up nicely for summer.

And he has seen the benefits of such good rain during mustering this season, with fat cattle and high calving and weaning rates.

With the positive has, as could be expected, come a fair share of challenges.

Straight after the cyclone, Mr Fraser and a team of workers had the massive job of cleaning up, seven days a week for six or seven straight weeks.

Time was spent on cleaning every building, short-term repairs, regathering and clearing the highway of cattle until they had somewhat settled down after the cyclone, fencing, finding extra staff and carting away rubbish.

There were also the everyday jobs which had to be done.

Mr Fraser said the cyclone had knocked down 180km of fencing and exposed 68km of Pardoo to the Great Northern Highway.

He said refencing the area had been relentless, but could be finished in about three months.

"Fencing damage was across three quarters of the station," Mr Fraser said.

"The area is now a 150,000ha paddock, with about 130,000ha that still needs to be broken up.

"We have two fencing crews on, a grader and a stick rake trying to get on top of that, but it is ongoing."

Also in the rebuild phase, five of the 19 irrigation pivots, which were either damaged or destroyed, have been fixed and a further six installed by August 3.

Tie down anchor points have been designed for the irrigation system and the long-term aim is to get numbers back to 20 pivots.

The majority of the work done to separate water points, particularly those on the southern side of the station, were completed in the first 10 days after the cyclone.

As for other damage, only two buildings were untouched at the main station.

All sheds were lost at the old station and worker accommodation was destroyed, with some dongas thrown 35m.

"No new sheds have been built and there are some precariously sitting there that need repairing," Mr Fraser said.

"We have repaired infrastructure as much as we can, but we are at the stage where everything is being assessed.

"We have quotes, which have gone back to the insurance company, and are waiting for those to be cleared.

"That has put a stop to work and pressure is on to get things repaired and rebuilt before the cyclone season starts again."

Mr Fraser added, "all the essentials are up and running, including power and water".

"I don't think the station's caravan park will open up to the general public until next year," he said,

"There's about 20 caravans there at the moment when there would normally be about 150.

"We also used to accommodate 80 mining staff, but we can only accommodate 35 of them at the moment."

One of the biggest challenges Pardoo faced in the clean-up was working with the now repealed new Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act.

The new act, which was overturned five weeks after being implemented on July 1, stopped work in its tracks.

Some of the existing fence lines had been moved and could not be changed without permits.

"We had a long interview with our solicitor about where we stood with it all," he said.

"It was a bloody nightmare - luckily it got lifted.

"For the record, we couldn't do anything, we just got grounded to a halt."

Mr Fraser added, "we wanted to put a shed in a common that we had been driving on for god knows how long, and also desilt a tank that had been on a station for 50 years.

"However, we still needed clearance," he said.

"And it wasn't just for a specific area, we needed approval for every single project.

"We even needed GPS co-ordinates for an area where we were digging a hole and couldn't shift four kilograms of dirt without a licence - that's a shovel full.

"If the act stayed in place it would have significantly dragged out the rebuild process by at least six months or even years."