Meet Katrina Head, a nurse, mum of three, and…a competitive woodchopper who lives life at full throttle! By day, she coordinates Queensland’s Intensive Care Clinical Network. By weekend, she’s swinging axes at shows across the country alongside her husband and kids. Katrina’s story starts on a farm near Dalby, where her deep bond with her dad shaped her work ethic and love for hands-on challenges. After the heartbreaking loss of her father to suicide in 2017, Katrina found solace and strength in...
Jun 15, 2025•46 min
Nearly two years ago, I stood on stage at Parliament House in Canberra, emceeing the National Rural Women’s Award. I wore a stunning hot pink gown, hand-dyed, made entirely from 100% Australian merino wool, and created just for me. That gown wasn’t just beautiful, it was meaningful. And it was made by today's guest, Nikki Atkinson. Nikki is the founder of Horrocks Vale Collections, a rural fashion brand crafting one-of-a-kind wedding and formal gowns from Australian merino wool. She’s a mum of t...
Jun 08, 2025•1 hr 2 min
At the start of this season we dropped a bonus episode about what it was like living through the devastating floods in outback Queensland. Two months on, that devastation is still being felt. But the aftermath isn’t getting a lot of media coverage. Shonelle Turner lives with her husband and five kids in the rural town of Eulo in outback Queensland, between Cunnamulla and Thargomindah - the floods absolutely ravaged properties and uprooted the lives of many families around her. Now, as floods con...
Jun 01, 2025•51 min
Steph Wanless is the founder of FOUND Regional, a magazine in the New England area of NSW, and digital platform REGGIE , that focuses on showcasing the best of regional NSW. While she’s committed to sharing stories from across her region, she has one of her own that deserves to be told. Steph’s birth experience and her motherhood journey didn't exactly go to plan. Both her children were born premature – they were rushed away in incubators before she got to hold them. The first time she saw her s...
May 25, 2025•1 hr 4 min
Debbie Dowden arrived in Australia by boat when she was just 3 years old. Her family were ‘10 pound poms’ in search of a sunnier life in Australia. Little did she know that life would see her raising 4 children 600kms from Perth in Outback Western Australia. Debbie was working as a theory instructor at a flight school when she decided that she actually wanted to fly the planes, not just teach people about them. It was here that she met her husband Ash- and she approached her relationship with As...
May 18, 2025•50 min
Ingrid Matthews and her husband manage 4 beef cattle stations in Northwestern Queensland. They also have 4 kids, aged 12, 10, 7 and 6. But Ingrid and her youngest daughter Olivia have spent 6 weeks maximum at home over the last 15 months. Olivia is living with a chronic condition she was born with that impacts her stomach and her blood sugars. When she was just 8 days old she was rushed into surgery. And there were many more after that. These surgeries take place some 700kms away from their home...
May 11, 2025•55 min
Dr Rebecca West grew up in England—far from red dirt, heatwaves, and the howls of wild animals echoing through desert nights. She never imagined that by 40, she’d be raising three young children on one of the most remote properties in New South Wales, 450 kilometres from the nearest supermarket and hospital. But since 2017, Rebecca and her husband Reece—both ecologists—have called the edge of the Strzelecki Desert home. Together, they manage an ambitious conservation project on 86,000 acres in S...
May 04, 2025•59 min
Nicky Prosser lives on a station in the middle of South Australia that spans 1.2 million acres. She’s spent a lot of her life travelling around the state working in remote areas as a teacher and a principal. When Nicky was living in Maree, she met her property manager husband Nathan. They underwent one round of IVF to have their now 18-year old son, Ned. But now, at 50, Nicky is looking down the barrel of a possible heart and lung transplant due to a condition she was born with. But when you hav...
Apr 27, 2025•54 min
Steph is a farmer, psychologist, and mum of three little boys who lives on a property in Worlds End, in South Australia. And right now, it kind of looks like the Worlds End is near because the state is in the midst of a horrific drought. Two weeks ago we released a bonus episode about the floods in central Queensland - today, I’m sharing a story from the other end of the spectrum. Steph and her husband and their three little boys are feeding their sheep daily. They are in desperate need for rain...
Apr 20, 2025•55 min
When I say the name Liz Ellis, you probably think one of three things: One of the greatest Netballers our country has ever seen A very funny media commentator The winner of I’m A Celebrity Get Me out of here a few years ago. What you probably don’t think of is Liz Ellis the farmer. Liz, her husband of 25 years, Matthew, and their two children live on a farm in between Lismore, Ballina and Byron Bay growing beef cattle. Liz and Matthew bought the land 14 years ago when their professional sporting...
Apr 13, 2025•58 min
Outback Queensland is in crisis. An area more than double the size of Victoria has been hit by devastating floods not seen in 50 years. Properties have been inundated, More than 150,000 livestock have perished, with the death toll rising. Farmers are scrambling to save cattle, feed cattle, and salvage what they can. Behind the headlines, are the true stories of this unfolding crisis- the rural families at breaking point because of the emotional toll - the financial one is not something they’re e...
Apr 05, 2025•1 hr 1 min
Em Armstrong is a glass half full kind of person. She’s one of those people who oozes positivity, you can see it on her socials, and hear it in her voice. Growing up in New South Wales’ Riverina district on a sheep grazing property, Em has always loved the bush. And she’s always been connected to it. Em has worked on stations in the Northern Territory, and lived in Sydney for five years. But it’s when she returned to the Riverina to move in with her now husband Hamish that she really found her c...
Mar 23, 2025•1 hr 4 min
After Rosie Clements spent her gap year as a Jillaroo in the Northern Territory she knew she wanted a career that would enable her to help people in the bush. After starting degrees in law and teaching, Rosie finally landed on the right one for her... medicine. Now, she’s the only permanent GP in the Cunnamulla region in remote Queensland. She’s 500km from a CT scanner and 200 km from an ultrasound machine. So when she sees a patient, she needs to have a few backup plans! Rosie is also the mum o...
Mar 16, 2025•59 min
Phoebe White has had a lot of titles and lived in a lot of places in her 35 years. She’s been a PE Teacher in Sydney. A Fashion stylist in London. A High-profile real estate agent in Miami. But it’s the two she’s been given in the past eight years that light up her life, and have brought her home. The first is being a mum to her two daughters Camilla and Olympia, and the second, is being the custodian of a Mountain near her family’s property outside of Scone, NSW. Phoebe’s family have been farme...
Mar 09, 2025•45 min
Weeks before Sonja Chrystal was born, her father was in a farming accident and became a paraplegic. Months after she was born, her mother packed her bags and left her paralysed husband and two little girls, and never returned. Her dad and her grandparents raised Sonja and her sister on a cropping and grazing property in the central west of NSW before Sonja found herself living and working in Sydney as a graphic designer. It was there that she met her fiance Jeremy, and the father of her son, Her...
Mar 02, 2025•1 hr 12 min
From very early on in her career, Elise Petty was a go getter who wanted to make life better for rural people, no matter what role she was in. From working as Telstra Country Life’s General Manager in Armidale NSW, to being a Senior Advisor in Kununurra for Argyle Diamonds, whatever Elise has had a crack at,she’s excelled. Which is why she thought she’d excel when she had a baby. But as we know, things don’t always go to plan. And very soon Elise found herself living on a property in the New Eng...
Feb 26, 2025•46 min
When you google Cathie Schnitzerling, you’ll be met with some remarkable career statistics. Not only was she Landline’s first-ever presenter in 1991 and the current Executive Producer of the show, but she is also an award-winning writer, producer, and media executive. Her career has taken her to Sydney, to Melbourne and to Brisbane. She’s worked across radio, TV and documentaries. But at the heart of everything she does is her love of the land and the love of her two kids who she raised as a sin...
Feb 23, 2025•58 min
Connie Wood, her husband Matt and their 3 kids manage Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory. A property that spans 3 million acres and is a 5 hour drive away from the closest big town, Katherine. And the realities of living on a remote station? We’ll, they’re a lot. When Connie had her first child, she used to drive a 300 kilometre round trip just to get to a mother’s group for some support and connection. The groceries are delivered by a truck once a week, and if anyone forgets to order b...
Feb 16, 2025•1 hr 4 min
Cindy Banks always thought she’d have two kids. She grew up in a two-child household. Her husband grew up in a two-kid household. Two kids was just the norm. Plus, when you live on a remote station in Queensland, 135km northwest of Cunnamulla, two kids is a whole lot easier to teach distance education to, instead of say…four. But for Cindy, four is now her reality. Because she gave birth to 2 sets of twins in just under 2 years! I met Cindy at Channel Country Ladies Day in 2024, and knew instant...
Feb 09, 2025•50 min
Hannah Speers was standing on a stage speaking when I first heard her story, and I knew instantly that I wanted to invite her onto the show. When Hannah met her husband Joe in Tumut near the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales, she didn’t think she wanted to have kids. But she realised that she loved Joe enough to have his kids. And very quickly Liam came along in 2008, followed by Lulu, 12 months later. Hannah and Joe set up their family not far outside of Tumut in a small town called Adelong. H...
Feb 02, 2025•56 min
You’ve probably heard of my guest today. But chances are, what you haven’t heard is the story she’s about to tell you. Holly Goodman is a regional powerhouse. She’s a teacher turned small business owner turned fashion designer, and now runs her own label, Peter Bill. Holly met her husband Ben while they were both showing cattle at the Sydney Royal Easter show in High school. They both knew they wanted kids, but it didn’t happen instantly for them. As her friends were getting pregnant around her,...
Jan 26, 2025•47 min
At 56, Louise Taheny has lived a very big life. The twists and turns and setbacks have truly made her who she is today; a very remarkable woman, as you’re about to hear. Louise was born and raised in regional South Australia, and met her husband John, a farmer, in her early 20s. They knew they wanted a big family. First came Edwina, then Tom, Lucy, Will and then, their youngest, Hugo. After five children in six years, when Hugo was born, Louise knew instantly that things weren’t the same as her ...
Jan 19, 2025•1 hr
Raechel writes songs about things that matter. Her childhood was spent performing in her family band and instilled a connection to rural Australia. She spent most of her early years living in a caravan while travelling and performing, before establishing herself as one of Australia's most promising new country artists. Her debut album ‘Finally Clear’ debuted at #1 on ARIA Australian Country Charts, and her highly anticipated sophomore album, ‘what a time to be alive’ was released in 2024. I sat ...
Jan 12, 2025•53 min
Shanna is the founder, CEO, and face behind Sober in the Country, a nationally respected grassroots not-for-profit, shifting the entire conversation around booze in the bush. Shan almost lost her life to trauma-linked alcohol addiction a decade ago and then chose to use her second chance to advocate for other rural and remote people just like her. In our very candid chat, we cover everything from Shan's childhood in Zimbabwe, her struggle with addiction, Sober in the Country's impact, and the to...
Jan 05, 2025•1 hr 29 min
Kate McKittrick is based in Mudgee, NSW, and has three adult children (including twins). As her kids were growing up, her focus was on supporting them through boarding school, until one day it was Kate who needed all the support. After taking some very common over the counter medicine to help with the cold she thought she had, she had a severe allergic reaction. The outcome was catastrophic. A rare immune response caused her skin to blister and peel, and she spent 3 weeks in the burns ward, but ...
Dec 29, 2024•50 min
Chris Bath has been a much loved and respected journalist since the late 80's and many of us, including myself, grew up watching her on our TV screens. She's interviewed Presidents, Prime Ministers and popstars, and pushed herself way outside her comfort zone when she carved up the dance floor on Dancing with the Stars! Chris met her husband Jim Wilson at work. The news anchor fell in love with the sports anchor, it's like something out of a movie, and very funny! In 2015, Chris resigned from Ch...
Dec 22, 2024•1 hr
Some of us know Kaitie Nash from Instagram, she proudly calls herself 'the first time farmer', and is part of a growing number of farmfluencer mums online, sharing real, relatable and often hilarious content about life on the land. But farm life hasn't always been a laughing matter for Kaitie. She moved to her husband's family property in the middle of a drought, while still adjusting to motherhood with two very young kids. Her mental health plummeted and in our chat she opens up about her very ...
Dec 15, 2024•47 min
Sadie Chrestman was living a stones throw away from the famous Coca-Cola sign in Sydney’s Darlinghurst, living a very urban life, when she was set up on a blind date. Sadie, who had just turned 40, knew that she wanted to have kids and settle down, she also knew she wanted more space. And it turns out the man she was set up on a date with wanted the exact same thing. You might know Sadie’s name from the long-running SBS series Gourmet Farmer. The person she was set up with in 2007 was none other...
Dec 08, 2024•48 min
At 35, Kerry O’Sullivan was busy running her 90,000-acre cattle station near Clermont in QLD. On the surface life was great. Kerry had a successful business, lived next door to her 3 sisters and parents, all on neighbouring properties, and spent her weekends at campdrafts. But Kerry knew deep down that she really wanted to be a mum. The only problem was, she’d never met the right person. At 35, Kerry started the process of doing it on her own, but at a routine doctor's appointment, she was told ...
Dec 01, 2024•54 min
Since 2018, Michelle Moriarty’s life has been split into two halves. Before the love of her life, Nathan died, and after. Michelle and Nathan were raising their family in regional WA after a romance, Michelle says was for the ages. Michelle was working as a social worker, Nathan and her were a team, and life was pretty good. But on the 10th of June 2018, everything changed. Michelle’s grief was all-consuming and isolating despite the village she had around her. She knew then that she didn’t want...
Nov 24, 2024•44 min
