This week, I catch up with rural mum Kate Boshammer. Kate's story is utterly heartbreaking, but our interview and the awareness she's trying raise is incredibly important. Kate's baby girl Zara passed away last year at just seven months old. She'd been fighting numerous medical complications since birth, and was eventually diagnosed with an extremely rare and severe chromosomal disease Despite their grief Kate and her husband Justin have ensured Zara's legacy lives on through “Zara’s Day”. They'...
Oct 03, 2021•52 min•Season 1Ep. 100
This week, I catch up with rural mum and first generation farmer Jacynta Coffey. Jacynta is originally from Tassie and not from an ag background, but has since worked on big stations all over the country. Her motherhood journey, much like her professional life, has been full of twists and turns. She suffered two miscarriages in a row, one of which was a twin. If that wasn't hard enough, one of her sons was born premature, with Jacynta in full blown labour during a scary Careflight dash to Darwin...
Sep 26, 2021•48 min•Season 1Ep. 99
This week, I catch up with rural mum of four and children's clothing designer Annabelle Kennedy from Kennedy the Label. From the coast to the country, Annabelle's life on the land is a long way from her home town where she grew up! Her passion for performing arts also saw her travel to LA and New York before she came home to be with her high school sweetheart. Annabelle opens up about her transition to rural motherhood including the loneliness and anxiety she felt, plus how their family coped wh...
Sep 19, 2021•41 min•Season 1Ep. 98
This week, I catch up with rural mum, regenerative farmer, and bestselling author, Rachael Treasure. Her first book, Jillaroo, became an iconic novel which changed the face of Australian publishing and kick-started a boom of rural women’s fiction. Rachael children are teenagers now, but her early motherhood journey is one hell of a story of resilience. Rachael's first marriage broke down, and she was suddenly a single mum, without a home, caring for her two children, including her daughter who h...
Sep 12, 2021•38 min•Season 1Ep. 97
This week, I catch up with rural mum Sabrina Davis who lives on Kangaroo Island. Sabrina's motherhood journey has been full of ups and downs, but by far her family's biggest challenge came last year during the devastating Black Summer fires. Overnight, Sabrina, her husband and their children became homeless. They lost everything. Fire ripped through their property, destroying their home, their farm, and their livelihood. They are still rebuilding. This is her story. SPONSOR: Little Ones is an on...
Sep 05, 2021•45 min•Season 1Ep. 96
This week, I catch up with rural mum Kerrie Scott who lives on a remote cattle and buffalo station in the Northern Territory. Kerrie is the Katherine branch President of the Isolated Children's Parents' Association (ICPA) who advocate for equity of access to education for all children who live in rural and remote Australia. Kerrie's three kids have all studied through School of the Air and it's been incredibly difficult at times. From the financial burden, through to the emotional challenges and...
Aug 29, 2021•52 min•Season 1Ep. 95
This week, I catch up with rural mum Leanne Dillon. This is a bit of a different episode. Leanne has three children, but we didn't focus on her journey with them. Instead, you'll hear how Leanne has selflessly given two other families the greatest gift of all. Leanne is a passionate egg donor, and she's travelled many hours and spent many nights away from the farm for medical appointments and egg retrievals to make two other couples dreams come true. This is her story. SPONSOR: George the Farmer...
Aug 22, 2021•38 min•Season 1Ep. 94
This week, I catch up with rural mum and grandma Prue Campbell. Prue is 76 years old and is a fourth generation farmer with an incredible motherhood journey. At five months pregnant with her fourth baby, Prue lost her husband to cancer, and was left to raise their children alone. At the same time, she suddenly had to step up and learn how to run the farm herself. This year, Prue was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her decades of charity work in her local community of Birregur...
Aug 15, 2021•44 min•Season 1Ep. 93
This week, I catch up with rural mum Mandy Heffernan. Mandy and her husband Toad were crowned the winners of the hit show House Rules in 2018, walking away with a newly renovated farmhouse! Mandy is a mum to almost five year old twins, and had to leave them for more than eight months while they were filming. Find out how it all worked! But behind her bubbly TV personality, Mandy has struggled with crippling prenatal and postnatal depression which she initially tried to hide. Now, she wants to sh...
Aug 08, 2021•46 min•Season 1Ep. 92
This week, I catch up with rural mum and Texan born Tori Kopke. When the GFC hit and she couldn't get a job, Tori packed up her life in the US and went backpacking across Australia. How she met her husband and ended up living on a farm in WA is something straight out of a Hollywood movie. She's now a rural business coach cheering other women on, and a mum of two little boys. But behind her bubbly personality is a mum who's toughed it out with no family or support. She suffered a heartbreaking mi...
Aug 01, 2021•40 min•Season 1Ep. 91
This week, I catch up with rural mum Clare Warby. With all the talk about the latest season of Farmer Wants a Wife, I thought, who better to chat to than a woman who's been there, done that! Clare found love in Season 4 of the show when she fell for farmer Scott. Over a decade later, they're still together, raising their two kids on his family's farm in NSW. Clare shares why she applied for the show, what filming was really like, the love story, the reality check, and the ups and downs of her mo...
Jul 25, 2021•48 min•Season 1Ep. 90
This week, I catch up with rural mum Georgina Simson. Georgina is originally from the UK, but moved out here permanently after falling in love with an Aussie farmer. Last year, she gave birth to her first child in the middle of a global pandemic, and was isolated from her family during her darkest times. Georgina fought crippling postnatal anxiety that was so severe, she couldn't even bring herself to say her daughter's name out loud. This is her story. SPONSOR: Rhythm First Aid has used their m...
Jul 18, 2021•49 min•Season 1Ep. 89
This week, I catch up with Jennie McClelland. Jennie is a farmer and an army wife who has lived in military housing for more than 20 years. In that time, she's raised four children, and for many of those years, she raised them alone. Her husband was deployed oversees to places like Iraq and Afghanistan, and at one point, went to war and didn't come home for nine months. Jennie and her family are now closing the chapter on military life, and making the change from army life, to rural life. And Je...
Jul 11, 2021•51 min•Season 1Ep. 88
This week, I catch up with Mea Campbell, mum, and founder of ConnectedAU, an organisation that's combating loneliness one letter at a time. Mea opens up about life on the land, motherhood, and how a crippling drought forced her family to pack up their lives, and move to town. You might have already heard of her business, but now it's also time to hear about Mea, the mother. And she knows the feeling of isolation all too well. This is her story. SPONSOR: Benita Bensch is a rural coach, farmer and...
Jul 04, 2021•1 sec•Season 1Ep. 87
This week, I catch up with rural mum Shelley Piper. Shelley opens up about life as a mum of twins, and the dramatic early months of motherhood she faced with her family. When raging bushfires tore through their region, Shelley had to grab her 10 week old twins, and evacuate their property. Her husband stayed behind to fight, and she spent several hours not knowing if he was okay. While their home was eventually saved, their farm was burnt out, with livestock dead and much of their stud business ...
Jun 27, 2021•37 min•Season 1Ep. 86
This week, I catch up with rural mum Jess. Jess is a former police officer, turned cattle farmer. She's lived on some of the most remote stations in the country, but now calls King Island home. Heartbreakingly, Jess lost her first child at almost full term to an extremely rare chromosomal disorder. Since then, she's welcomed her little boy Jim into the world, and her motherhood journey since has been full of ups and downs, anxieties, intense mum guilt and now a burning desire to make up for lost...
Jun 20, 2021•43 min•Season 1Ep. 85
This week, I catch up with rural mum Cilla Pershouse. Cilla left the family farm to pursue an acting career which saw her perform around the country in shows including Outback Spectacular. But a few years ago, she returned to the land and launched Blue Gum Farm TV, an online TV program for kids with a live show that tours across rural and remote Queensland. And the amazing thing is, Cilla does it all with her toddler and baby on stage by her side. This is her story. SPONSOR: BENITA BENSCH Being ...
Jun 13, 2021•38 min•Season 1Ep. 84
This week, I catch up with rural mum Jillina Whittaker. Jillina lives in a tiny rural town of 30 people, and calls the cop shop home! She's married to a police officer, and they live with their four kids in a house attached to the station. They have a very unique lifestyle that sees them move around every couple of years. Jillina opens up about what it's like homeschooling her children, and how she's navigated motherhood without being able to settle down and make a permanent home. This is her st...
Jun 06, 2021•42 min•Season 1Ep. 83
This week, I catch up with rural mum of three Emily Brett. In 2015, Emily's husband Dougal was killed in a helicopter crash on their property, and Emily suddenly had to face motherhood on the land alone. What she's endured is unimaginable.Dougal and Emily made an incredible team. They became the faces of the northern cattle industry in the aftermath of the 2011 live cattle export ban to Indonesia, and just last year, The Brett Cattle Company was finally successful in its class action against the...
May 30, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 82
This week, I catch up with rural mum Audrey Doyle. Audrey is 85 years old, but that hasn't stopped her from living an independent life on the land Audrey's husband passed away five years ago, but she's still on their farm, on the quad bike everyday, with her trusty sidekick Pedro by her side. It was great to have a quick cuppa with her and hear a bit about her motherhood journey back then. This is her story. SPONSOR 1: Boxed in the Bush provides a one-of-a-kind gifting service that removes the d...
May 23, 2021•32 min•Season 1Ep. 81
This week, I catch up with rural mum Airlie Landale. When Airlie finished school, her family's farm was deep in the millennium drought. After seeing the toll it took on her parents, Airlie left, and never considered a career in ag or a life on the land. But things changed! Airlie is the founder of Farm Table; an online ecosystem for the agriculture industry. It's a business she recently gave up to prioritise being a mum, amongst other projects. Airlie tells it like it is, and she's found early m...
May 16, 2021•45 min•Season 1Ep. 80
This week, I catch up with rural mum Vanessa Fisher from Victoria. Vanessa was just 19 when she became a mum, and had a toddler in tow when she met her husband. They've since gone on to have two more beautiful kids, but Vanessa's journey has been full of highs and lows. You'll hear about her devastating miscarriages, why she's savouring being a full-time mum, and how at a time when she felt alone on the land, she found her village through the CWA. This is her story. SPONSOR: Living rurally can m...
May 09, 2021•41 min•Season 1Ep. 79
This week, I'm thrilled to welcome back Raine Holcombe. Raine shared her incredible struggle with fertility back on Episode 28. It was a heartbreaking journey that took them across the country for treatments, thousands of kilometres away from their remote cattle station in the northern territory. Finally, there was a breakthrough, and an undiagnosed rare genetic condition was discovered. Both Raine and Potter carry the same DQ alpha gene, which causes an embryo to self-abort. They had one option...
May 02, 2021•46 min•Season 1Ep. 78
This week, I catch up with cattlewoman Julie Mayne. And what a wild ride she's had! Julie was married to a professional cowboy, and as a new mum, travelled on the rodeo circuit! Since then, her life has changed significantly. Her marriage ended, and years later, she packed up her two children and started her own farm. It was, and still is, an incredible one woman show she built herself from scratch. This is her story. SPONSOR: AgriFocused’s Farm Budgeting Masterclass is an online course that equ...
Apr 25, 2021•45 min•Season 1Ep. 77
This week I catch up Amy Ballinger, the founder of Wattle and Twine, which promotes and celebrates thriving bush businesses and the rural women behind them. Amy is a mum of two, with her third due later this year. The juggle has been real, so real, that a few months ago, she shocked her online community one night when she announced Wattle and Twine would close immediately. Amy's story is a reminder that in the chaos of motherhood, it's ok to put yourself first. It's ok to say no, to take a break...
Apr 18, 2021•49 min•Season 1Ep. 76
This week, I catch up with dairy farmer Rebekah Frankcombe from Tassie. She's a solo mum to three beautiful kids, a journey that has been full of heartache and hard decisions. While pregnant with her third child, which was unplanned, her partner was batting his own demons. His mental health spiraled rapidly, that eventually their relationship ended, leaving Bek to manage motherhood on the land alone. But she has flourished. We talk farming, rural mental health, and her mum hacks. This is her sto...
Apr 11, 2021•41 min•Season 1Ep. 75
This week I catch up with an incredible woman who has taken us around the world for 30 years. Catriona Rowntree, host of Getaway may be Australia's most travelled woman, but her proudest achievements and her biggest loves are her husband and their two boys. Catriona did what so many of us rural women do. She fell in love with a farmer, and eventually moved to rural Victoria. Behind the glitz and glamour of what her life might appear to be, is a beautiful, strong, and authentic woman who is one o...
Apr 04, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 74
Nappies by day, and shooting at night! This week, I catch up with rural mum and ABC journalist, Liz Rymill.She's raising three kids on the land, all while juggling her passion for skeet shooting on the side! She's gone as far as the national titles, and just a few weeks ago became the first woman in South Australia to make the Open State Skeet Team.It's not just a passion, it's a huge part of Liz's identity, and hear why it's made her a better mum too! This is her story. SPONSOR: The wonderful B...
Mar 28, 2021•39 min•Season 1Ep. 73
This week, I catch up with single mum Cindy Lee from WA. At 19, she was married and unexpectedly pregnant. At 22, she's single, and raising her little boy alone. Cindy has overcome many motherhood demons which made her believe that it was impossible to have a career as a woman in agriculture and raise a young child. She's proved herself wrong, and learned many lessons along the way. This is her story. https://www.instagram.com/motherlandaustralia...
Mar 21, 2021•27 min•Season 1Ep. 72
This week, I catch up with Kim Weir from Queensland. Kim's story is not about the ups and the down of rural motherhood, it's about her fight to become a mum. Kim and her fiancé Joel run a helicopter mustering business, and have recently begun a long and expensive IVF journey. It all comes after a farm accident left Joel in a very rare situation, with a sperm count of zero. Underneath Kim's beautiful, bubbly nature, is a young woman fighting to build the family she's always dreamed of. This is he...
Mar 14, 2021•36 min•Season 1Ep. 71
