From sparks to barks: why this former electrician returned to the family farm

"Dad's always had a fair pack of dogs but it was just something that I never really got into as a kid," Mr Mackaway said.

Now, he's set to take the national stage and finally learn those skills, appearing on the upcoming season of Muster Dogs.

While now living and working on the family farm at Walcha in NSW's Northern Tablelands, Mr Mackaway started his career as an electrician, completing his trade in Armidale.

With wife Laura a primary school teacher, the couple moved to Rockhampton, Qld, when she was offered a job there, while he continued to work in electrical and fire tech.

The birth of their daughter in 2022, spurred a move back to country life.

"We had her and wanted to give the kids the lifestyle I had growing up on the farm," he said.

The Mackaways run about 750 breeders and are building up their numbers after buying additional property in September 2024.

Mr Mackaway said they mainly cross Charolais and Shorthorns, along with putting Angus over their heifers to keep birthweights down.

The majority of cattle go to Coles at 530 kilograms to 600kg liveweight, while anything not finished at that point is taken up to 700kg and sold to JBS or Wingham.

After returning to the family farm, Mr Mackaway started using dogs more and will now learn the tricks of the trade on Muster Dogs.

"My wife actually saw the callout asking for people to apply," he said.

"At the time I had a Collie dog [seven-years-old this year] but she got injured and I decided to retire her back to being a pet."

Mr Mackaway said he had two other dogs, both around one-year-old.

"I have bugger all experience training dogs and I love the show," he said.

"I thought well, I had a lot on, but it was probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity so I figured why not apply and see if I got in and I'd learn a lot from the experience."

Mr Mackaway is one of six rookie trainers from across Australia taking part in the fourth season, a fresh twist on the experiment with a focus on the people just as much as the pups.

The participants, all with limited dog and stock handling experience, are tasked with raising and training a working dog, either a Border Collie or Kelpie, from puppy to paddock-ready in 12 months.

Before going on the show Mr Mackaway said it was difficult with the two pups he was starting from scratch.

"I got to the point where I was calling them point and shoot dogs because I would just point from the buggy and they'd go there and I'd call them back," he said.

"It worked most of the time but if it didn't work, things would get out of control and cattle were going every which way and dogs going every which way.

"I had little experience and I was making it up as I went and it wasn't working great for me."

Mr Mackaway said the dogs were a great tool for the farm to cut down on manpower.

"One dog can cover two people when you're working with the cattle - when they're trained well," he said.

"Watching the show from previous seasons, people using their dogs use them very differently to how my Dad works with his dogs.

"We've always worked with our dogs at the back of the mob, pushing cattle along with the dogs to keep the cattle from turning and wanting to chase the dogs.

"That works pretty well for Dad because he's got the infrastructure, the laneways, but our new block doesn't have any laneways."

Mr Mackaway said watching Muster Dogs and the way they worked with their animals had inspired him to learn more about how to train dogs.

He said the new property would be used for fattening and had JBS out doing sessions to keep their quality up.

"They spoke a lot about keeping cattle calm when you're moving them and if you're not out in front controlling them, they can just run along and get hot and stressed, so Muster Dogs was something I thought would be really beneficial to us on this property," he said.

Mr Mackaway said he was looking to get more working dogs, and would have all his friends and family over to watch the show when it aired.

Muster Dogs season four airs Sunday, February 1 at 7.30pm on ABC TV.