This week, we're throwing back to one of our most popular episodes of 2022. Olympic gold medalist Giaan Rooney shocked the swimming world when she retired at just 23, and she hasn't swum a lap since. Her professional career both in and out of the pool has been widely publicised, but her personal life including her motherhood journey and her recent move to the land is something I'm very excited to share with you. Giaan is married to a fifth generation cattle farmer, but the couple recently make a...
Jan 08, 2023•52 min
This week, we're throwing back to one of our most popular episodes, episode 120 with Maggie Dent! Maggie is a parenting author, educator and host of the ABC Parental As Anything podcast. But, she's also a born and bred bushy. Maggie grew up in rural WA and her journey on and off the land has been full of extraordinary highs and heartbreaking lows. From a suicide attempt which then pushed her to find her life's purpose, through to raising four boys, she is now internationally recognised as the qu...
Jan 01, 2023•1 hr 9 min
Marion Saunders, who goes by Maz, is a mum to four adult children and a grandmother to six. Seven years ago, she'd never even heard of Instagram. Today, she's clocked up over 100,000 followers who are hooked on her down to earth, over 50 fashion and lifestyle content- sprinkled with her humorous reels she films. I've been following Maz for a while, but there's a lot I didn't know about her back story. Like how she met her husband at a bank, and how he asked her to marry him while she was on the ...
Dec 25, 2022•49 min
Grace Larson is a children’s intensive care nurse who has dedicated her life to helping other people's kids. But she experienced a difficult role reversal when she became a mother herself. Grace battled with postnatal anxiety, something we rarely speak about, and she would vividly picture awful things happening to her children. Almost every time, her kids were completely fine, but when she had her third baby at the start of the pandemic, her gut told her this wasn't anxiety, but something was wr...
Dec 18, 2022•41 min
Fleur Anderson is a cotton farmer and a serial entrepreneur. She's held several senior roles in ag, and now leads the Statewide team in the Office for Rural and Regional Queensland in the Department of Premier and Cabinet. Fleur has carved out a career for herself from a town of just 500 people. She's highly respected in our industry professionally, personally though, she told me she's never shared her story openly like this. Fleur admits she was bit of a rebel at school, a rule breaker, and cou...
Dec 11, 2022•47 min
Louise Martin lives on a station 900 kilometres west of Brisbane. She's a mum of two, and the President of the ICPA Queensland- the Isolated Children's Parents' Association. Louise lived many lives before she became a mum. She spent five years working in England as James Packer's polo groom- there's a fun fact! She was 39 when she met her future husband, a divorcee, who'd already had kids... and a vasectomy. He's closed the door on that chapter of his life, or so he thought. After a whirlwind ro...
Dec 04, 2022•43 min
This week, I'm taking you back to New Zealand to catch up Kate Ivey. Kate is the powerhouse behind an online health and fitness community supporting rural mums. Kate moved to a high country sheep station with her husband after they'd been living it up in London on a bit of an adventure. At 25, she fell pregnant, and was overjoyed, but when her beautiful little girl was two years old, she had a huge language regression. Kate's daughter was eventually diagnosed with autism, and it's been a very di...
Nov 27, 2022•40 min
Mel McGorman was born into a horse racing family, and even represented Australia in equestrian at the world championships. She's now a sheep farmer, a mum of three, and a reality TV star after appearing on Big Brother last year. After battling fires and drought after drought, Mel decided to have a crack at the quarter of a million dollar pay cheque that was up for grabs. She'd caught the eye of producers for her growing Tik Tok account (now nudging 200,000 followers) where she passionately advoc...
Nov 20, 2022•50 min
Annabelle Coppin is the Owner & manager of Yarrie Station in the East Pilbara of Western Australia. She's fifth generation, but she's part of a new generation of women on the land who are breaking stereotypes and glass ceilings to follow their dreams in the bush. Annabelle has two girls and she didn't take maternity leave, she was still busy in the chopper mustering cattle and running the station while heavily pregnant. She's juggled the love for her children and the love for her station wit...
Nov 13, 2022•38 min
Ange Millard has endured unimaginable heartache and trauma. Her story shows how things can change so quickly, from the arrival of healthy twins to the painful loss of her twin daughter Lucy at 3 years of age. It had an enormous effect on her, her family, her divorce, and the end of her life on the land. Ange had four children, and her journey into motherhood began with twins, a baby boy William, and a baby girl Lucy. They were born at 35 weeks happy and healthy, but a few days later everything c...
Nov 06, 2022•1 hr 6 min
Today's show is a very special one. For the first time, I'm bringing you an episode from New Zealand with the talented Pip Cameron. Pip lives on a large sheep station in the high country on the south island. She's a mum of two, an author, and the station cook. I recently met her at Rural Women's Day in Victoria where she was a guest speaker. A lot of you know Pip as the woman behind What's For Smoko , an online community of more than 30,000 people. What some of you might not know is the heartbre...
Oct 30, 2022•53 min
Just over a week ago, I finally got to meet the delightful Emily Herbert. I've long been intrigued by her story. She's a gifted writer, podcaster, and yoga teacher who travelled all the way to India to become a Yogi. Emily now calls Tamworth home, but she's lived all over the world including Botswana. It's been one hell of an adventure. Almost two years ago she became a mum, and when I met her in real life we couldn't stop talking about the juggle, the motherload, the pressure to wear all the ha...
Oct 23, 2022•49 min
Ketut Bassett is originally from Bali and grew up in a tiny village. But after falling in love with an Aussie bloke she faced enormous cultural challenges and judgement when she started dating a westerner. Decades later, her and her husband Wes proved everyone wrong and are going stronger than ever. After moving to Australia and setting down roots in WA, Ketut now proudly calls herself a fruit farmer- an accidental fruit farmer. It's not the life she had planned, but she's grabbed it with both h...
Oct 16, 2022•44 min
Laura Simpson had just brought new life into the world, before her own life was hanging in the balance. Moments after delivering her baby girl, her fourth child, she suffered a catastrophic haemorrhage that saw her lose over eight litres of blood. She needed around 40 blood products to save her life. After emergency surgery, Laura woke up hours later to discover that her uterus had been surgically removed. Her unplanned hysterectomy has added an incredibly difficult layer of grief to the birth t...
Oct 09, 2022•44 min
Katherine Reed was 19 years old when she fell from a racehorse, broke her back, and became a paraplegic. In an instant, her world changed forever and navigating life on the land with a disability has been extremely challenging . Everything from farming, to birthing and raising two young boys has been complex. But rediscovering and rebuilding her identity has been her toughest challenge yet, and today she gives powerful insight into her personal battles including her recent ADHD diagnosis. She's ...
Oct 02, 2022•1 hr 1 min
Kate Stapleton is a country girl who married her country sweetheart, Nathan. Nathan is a retired Cronulla Sharks player who earlier this year became a quadriplegic after a friendly came of rugby went horribly wrong. Kate was 6 months pregnant with their second child at the time of Nathan's accident. He was wheeled in to be by her side in hospital as she laboured and gave birth to their little boy Angus. Kate has shared her family's story with media recently, but the focus has mostly been about t...
Sep 25, 2022•44 min
Jo Palmer is no stranger to the limelight. In 2019 she won the AgriFutures National Rural Women's Award for her business Pointer Remote. But there's a lot you don't know about Jo. After meeting her in Canberra recently and totally fan-girling, I roped her in to chat to me about mum life, farm life and work life, including her family's recent lifechanging decision to move overseas. You'll also hear about a very dark time in Jo's life- something she tried to run from and block out for so long. But...
Sep 18, 2022•58 min
Keelen Mailman is a proud Bidjara woman who 25 years ago became the first Aboriginal woman to manage a commercial cattle station, and she still lives on that property today. Keleen grew up in an Aboriginal camp on the edge of the town of Augathella, and her story is about overcoming all the odds. She's survived poverty, racism and abuse, including horrific domestic violence. As a single mum, she's raised three children of her own, but also took in five nieces of her nieces and nephews. What Keel...
Sep 11, 2022•57 min
Are you okay? It's the question that changed everything for Jess Bargenquast. Because as a mum, a wife, and an employee, Jess was far from okay. The pressures of life, the motherload, and the constant people pleasing led her to breaking point Then, just as she'd started to put the pieces back together, Jess's dad took his own life, and she hit rock bottom. Jess is ready to share her story, and and she wants to share it now. This Thursday is R U OK? Day, and I hope her story reminds every one to ...
Sep 04, 2022•44 min
Robyn Verrall unexpectedly fell pregnant when she was 19, and six months into her pregnancy, her relationship ended. As a nurse and a young single mum, she battled at times just to buy food and support her little girl- and it's these struggles with food security that has ignited her passion to support others through her busines Bully's Meats. Robyn is the AgriFutures Rural Women's Award South Australian Winner and she's been in the headlines- but her story and her motherhood journey has never be...
Aug 28, 2022•46 min
Louise O'Neill knows what it's like to hit burn out as a rural family. She was pregnant with her first child when her husband hit breaking point physically and mentally. After that, they revaluated everything and made some big decisions, one of them was to sell their 5th generation family farm and start fresh elsewhere. Amongst it all, Louise started her business Farm Life Fitness to support the health and wellbeing programs of farming families, and it's her work that saw her win the AgriFutures...
Aug 21, 2022•48 min
Linda Goldspink-Lord has endured unimaginable pain. She suffered a health crisis after burning the candle at both ends at home and at work, and then soon after she lost her mum to cancer. But 10 years ago Linda was dealt the cruelest blow of all when her 13 year old daughter Molly died in a quad bike accident on their NSW property. Linda's story is one of grief and trauma, but it's also about how she's managed to crawl through the darkness as she calls it, the inspiration for her incredible book...
Aug 14, 2022•57 min
Station mum Hayley Price was 32 weeks pregnant with her first baby when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. She was then faced with an unimaginable decision when she was told she needed to give birth prematurely so she could commence chemotherapy that would hopefully save her life. Hayley and her husband had to suddenly leave their life on the land and move into temporary accommodation in Townsville 600 kilometres from home. They stayed there for for six months, and thankfully had the sup...
Aug 07, 2022•40 min•Season 1Ep. 138
Libby Finlayson grew up on a station in WA. She fell in love in a farmer and moved to a property where they went on to have three children. But one day, out of the blue, everything changed with five heartbreaking words from her husband. Libby was blindsided by a breakup she didn't see coming, and soon after, she had to leave the farm with her three young children, and start all over again. Libby gives an incredibly honest insight into rural divorce, and shares the no BS advice every rural couple...
Jul 31, 2022•47 min•Season 1Ep. 137
From rural Tasmania to remote Tanzania, Diana Butler has dedicated her life to helping others. She's the founder of the Care For Africa Foundation by day, and the after hours nurse manager at a hospital by night. She's raised three boys on the land, and she's had to overcome unimaginable heartbreak as a mother. In our very candid chat, she shares the pain of losing her first born child and the breakdown of her marriage including what it was like trying to reinvent herself after leaving the farm ...
Jul 03, 2022•48 min•Season 1Ep. 136
In 2012, Kaz Bishton's farm went from being her family's sanctuary, a place of freedom and adventure, to a place of trauma and grief. Every year, lives are lost in tragic farming accidents; we read about them, but we rarely hear from the people affected. Kaz has bravely decided to share her story. 10 years ago, her 12 year old nephew died on her farm when a ute that was being driven by her teenage daughter rolled. That day changed everything, and Kaz is about to share her journey as a mum of fiv...
Jun 26, 2022•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 135
June Tarlinton was born to droving parents and spent her childhood in the bush, living in tents. She's now a mum of three and grandma who's had quite the adventure. She's a dairy farmer on the the far south coast of NSW and has been married for 40 years. She's weathered plenty of highs and lows, but the hardest came just three years ago during the Black Summer fires where she found herself in the fight of her life. Tragically, June lost her father during the disaster, and since then, has been fo...
Jun 19, 2022•47 min•Season 1Ep. 134
Kate Field and her husband love cheese so much that 10 years ago, they packed up life in Sydney and bought a farm in Tasmania to become cheesemakers. They started their own dairy goat herd and have grown their business to something very special. But there's a lot more to Kate's story than wrangling kids- both the goat kind and the human kind! Kate is also an emergency doctor at the Royal Hobart Hospital and her journey through pregnancy, motherhood and life on the land is quite the tale. Kate wa...
Jun 12, 2022•58 min•Season 1Ep. 133
Nikki Mahony has done what some rural families could only dream of, she managed to get her husband off the farm, and together with their three kids, they moved overseas, spending 18 months living in the middle of France, and you're about hear all about it. The trip was inspired by a 'life is too short' mentality...and unfortunately, after returning home to Australia, that saying took on a whole new meaning. At just 43, Nikki's husband was diagnosed with cancer. And it all started with a stomach ...
Jun 05, 2022•54 min•Season 1Ep. 132
Dimity Smith has decided to share a very private battle of hers, very publicly for the first time. At 35 she says she'd always imagined she'd be a mum by now, raising her children in a loving home with a husband by her side. She wants nothing more. But a couple of years ago, after waiting and waiting for a proposal that never came, the long term relationship she was in fell apart, and so did she. But with the support of her family, she decided to jump in the driver's seat and take control, and s...
May 29, 2022•41 min•Season 1Ep. 131
