Bronte Appleton is a country GP who lives in Gunnedah in rural NSW. She's a mum of two, and a breast cancer survivor. She was diagnosed when her second baby was just 6 months old, and heartbreakingly she was still breastfeeding when she made the decision to have a double mastectomy in a bid to save her life. Bronte also suffered from intense antenatal depression and experienced extreme loneliness after moving to Gunnedah. She joined a mothers' group, but found the balance between being people's ...
Feb 25, 2024•57 min
Kate Pearce lives on a sheep farm in the Southern Flinders Ranges of South Australia with her husband and 5 year old twins. Her motherhood journey takes the saying 'it takes a village' to a whole new level. It took Kate three years and 9 embryo transfers to have her twins, who were born at 28 weeks, weighing just 1 kilo each. What followed was a three month stay in hospital before she finally brought her babies home to the farm. Then, just as she was adjusting to life with newborns, Kate's cousi...
Feb 18, 2024•53 min
Erin Mackley left the city for an adventure on a remote cattle station where she met her future husband. They eventually moved to rural Victoria and were excited to start a family. But at just 31 years of age, Erin was diagnosed with breast cancer, and just when she thought she beat it, two years later it has spread to her spine. Not only was Erin in the fight of her life, but she was also desperately trying to preserve her fertility. Until now, Erin has never shared her story publicly, and what...
Feb 11, 2024•1 hr 4 min
There aren't many of us who haven't heard the name Fiona Simson. Fiona Simson became the first female President of the National Farmer's Federation, and recently stepped down after an incredible 7 years at the helm. She's had an amazing career to date; I've read the articles, I've met her, and I've watched her passionately advocate for the industry. But on a personal level, it's rare we hear more about her life. Fiona is also a mum, and a grandma, a journey that began when she was living in the ...
Feb 04, 2024•44 min
Emma Groat is a mum of three and lives on a beef property north of Roma in Queensland. After a reasonably straight forward IVF journey with her first child, it took an unbelievable 10 rounds to conceive their second, before something very unexpected happened with their third. In 2019, Emma's youngest Max had a horrifying accident, walking into a fire pit that from the night before, suffering extensive fourth degree burns on his feet that required multiple surgeries and a 6 week stint in hospital...
Jan 28, 2024•45 min
Shanna Whan is the rural woman, 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 ...
Jan 21, 2024•1 hr 32 min
In 1989, Anna Brown visited a remote property in the Northern Territory which led her on an adventure that changed her life. She went on to nanny at Newcastle Waters Station, owned by the Packer family at the time...It's there she met her future husband Geoff. Years later, their fairytale turned into heartbreak. Anna was seven months’ pregnant with their third child when Geoff died suddenly at age 32. Unbelievably, just a couple of years later, Anna also lost her brother in an accident. Anna and...
Jan 14, 2024•49 min
Toni Tapp Coutts grew up on a cattle station in the Northern Territory as the eldest of 10 children. She's an author who wrote a bestselling memoir about her childhood on the legendary Killarney cattle station. Her stepfather was cattle king Bill Tapp, and for the first few years of family life on the property there was no electricity and Toni and her siblings slept under the stars in swags. She was just five. Toni went on to raise her own kids in the gulf country, 600km from town. She's had a v...
Jan 07, 2024•38 min
This is the chat that got Olympia Yarger all fired up! Olympia is the CEO of Goterra, a waste management company that manages food waste with robotic maggot farms. She's a farmer who calls herself the 'maggot lady', and boy is she kicking goals after being named the ACT's Australian of the Year 2023. Olympia's backstory is fascinating. After losing her first child in a tragic accident on her farm, she moved to the US to escape, but ended up staying there for 14 years after she married a marine. ...
Dec 31, 2023•51 min
Edwina Bartholemew has been a journalist for more than 20 years and I'm sure you're all familiar with her from Sunrise. What you might not know though is Edwina's growing connection to the country. Her and her husband Neil bought a small farm in the Capertee valley of NSW which they set up as a boutique accommodation business. Neil, who has a background in tech, became an accidental farming after moving there for a whole year to set it all up. When covid hit, Edwina, Neil, and their little girl ...
Dec 24, 2023•43 min
Emma Hawkins is a mum of three, a business owner, and a digital influencer who lives on a farm just outside of Geelong. As a born and bred country girl, the land has become her quiet sanctuary away from the thundering roar of footy crowds and the prying eyes of the media. She had to get used to all that quickly after marrying her high school sweetheart, AFL star Tom Hawkins. I felt like Emma and I could have talked forever, so strap yourselves in because we cover a lot and we laugh a lot too! Yo...
Dec 17, 2023•55 min
Sophie Hansen is a mum of two teens, and she's a food writer living on a farm near Orange in New South Wales. She met her husband through an R.M.Williams magazine (that's a story!) and life on the land is not what she had planned. Sophie grew up in the city and after working in food magazines, had her own Eat Pray Love experience when she packed up and moved to a rural community in Italy for a few years which inspired her love of slow and seasonal food. Fast forward to today, and she's created a...
Dec 10, 2023•46 min
When Leila McDougall finished school, she left the land and headed to the big smoke to study fashion design. But it wasn't long before the country came calling again, and she settled down in rural Victoria with her husband. Since then, Leila has had two children; she's navigated mental health challenges most of her life- her parents have also struggled. Leila had just had her first child, when her mum attempted to take her own life. Leila is a fierce mental health advocate for rural Australia, s...
Dec 03, 2023•47 min
Emma Jackson has lived in the Cape York Peninsula for more than 20 years. She's originally from North Manchester, and the transition to life in rural Australia was a bit of a shock, not to mention the fact that yes, a snake tried to eat her son one night... but there is much more to her story! Emma has four kids, and is in the thick of navigating the teen years. Mental health has been a huge focus for her family, especially after her nephew took his own life shortly after finishing year 12. That...
Nov 26, 2023•41 min
Maggie Mackellar is a writer, living on a fine wool merino farm on the east coast of Tasmania. Maggie didn't grow up on the land, but her family's strong ties to farming were her saviour during the hardest years of her life. Maggie's husband suicided more than 20 years ago. At the time, she had a five year old and was pregnant with their second child. In the same year, Maggie lost her mum. She escaped the city and sought refuge at her aunt and uncle's property to figure out her next steps. What ...
Nov 19, 2023•45 min
Fiona is a dairy farmer based in Deniliquin, NSW. She's one of seven children and grew up in a very loving catholic family. Fiona went on to have four children of her own, all boys, but it wasn't long before she realised her third son, was a bit different. At first, it was easy to brush off his desire to dress and act like a girl as a bit of fun, but as the years went on, Fiona and her husband realised this was very real- and it was life threatening. At 13, Fiona's son told her he was transgende...
Nov 12, 2023•1 hr 12 min
Anthea Fellows is a mum and a grandmother and over the past few decades she's worked tirelessly doing community work across various organisations and charities. Anthea has been married for 35 years and her life has been anything but dull. At 22, she left the Adelaide Hills and moved to a cattle station just outside Alice Springs where she met a jackaroo, and, well, you know what happened next! Anthea had two children and struggled with her mental health at times. Her husband was also battling hi...
Nov 05, 2023•55 min
Karla Williams lives on a dairy farm in Tassie, she's a nurse and a mum of two little boys, and over the past two years I've grown to know her and love her through our Motherland Village group. To understand Karla's motherhood journey, you have to understand her childhood. Her parents are deaf, and Karla was just 10 months old when she first learned to sign which is how she communicated with them. In many ways, Karla was a mother and a carer, before having children of her own. And when she did s...
Oct 29, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Kate Pianto is one of my dearest friends. She's in my Motherland Village group, and over the past two years I've had the pleasure of getting to know this amazing woman. But I'll be honest, sitting down with her for this podcast was a bit shocking at times, because she said things I've never heard her say before. Kate has ADHD and was only diagnosed when she was 26. She was seeing a psychologist at the time for postnatal depression and was in a really really dark place. Interestingly, ADHD actual...
Oct 22, 2023•54 min
Yesterday was International Pregnancy and Infant Loss Day, and to honour all those parents who have lost a baby, I wanted to bring you a very special, but difficult episode today. It's personal, because Caitlyn Power is my friend. She's in my Motherland Village group which has been going strong for two years now. Caitlyn has four children- her third, Maggie, was delivered stillborn at full term just a couple of months after Caitlyn connected with our rural mothers' group. It shattered us all. It...
Oct 15, 2023•1 hr 9 min
When deciding whether to pursue teaching or nursing, Annabel Tully flipped a coin, it landed on teaching, and that's what brought her to the bush where she found love. Annabel and her husband have five children, most of them are adults now, but at one point, years ago, Annabel was terrified they'd grow up without a mother. At just 29, what Annabel thought was just a blocked milk duct turned out to be breast cancer. She was pregnant at the time and had to go straight into two surgeries.... one to...
Oct 08, 2023•53 min
Brodie Game lives on the far south coast of NSW on dairy country, and she loves her cows, I mean loves them! She's up at 3am milking every morning, living her dream. It's been a tough road though. Over the past 10 years, Brodie and her husband have grown their own herd from 2 cows, to more than 300, but there have been times they've nearly lost it all, or wanted to walk away. Brodie's children were really little when they went through a horrific drought and had to sell half their herd. Then, one...
Oct 01, 2023•47 min
Emily Bryant lives on a cattle station south of Katherine in the Northern Territory. Career wise, she was on fire in her 20s, moving from station cook to head stockman, to station manager in just a few years. Emily lived and breathed work- she admits she was married to her job. In that time, she fell head over heels with a bloke who she went on to marry. But at just 26, a year after saying 'I do' - she was divorced. So what happened? This isn't a story about a dramatic break up or a scandalous a...
Sep 24, 2023•52 min
Stephanie Wurst was born and raised in the city, and unexpectedly met a farmer on the dancefloor, and soon found herself moving to Kangaroo Island! Steph and her husband Tom went on to have three kids where she had to adapt quickly to the realities of living remotely with limited services. She was flown off the island to have her first baby, and nearly lost her second child during labour. But after all that, as a mum of three, Steph thrived- she loved motherhood, and she grew to adore life on th...
Sep 17, 2023•57 min
This week, I'm very pleased to introduce you to Motherland's Queensland Ambassador Alice Woods. Alice is based on a farm near Goondiwindi, she's a trained vet, and spent more than 4 years in a long distance relationship with her now husband Dave, until they finally settled down on his family's farm. The journey to parenthood was not easy. After having her first little boy through IVF, Alice had three miscarriages in a row...and if living rurally wasn't isolating enough, it all happened during th...
Sep 10, 2023•54 min
Last week, we heard Steph Borowski's story, and today, you'll hear my very candid interview with her husband Josh. Josh is the first bloke I've had on this show, and this is one of the most important interviews I've ever done, because while my focus is on supporting rural mothers through Motherland, I felt it was time to hear a father's perspective to help close the loop. Josh is ready to talk. He's ready to share how initially becoming a father scared the hell of him, how he struggled with farm...
Sep 03, 2023•51 min
This is the two-part episode I'd argue every mum and dad needs to listen to. In Part 1 today, I speak to Steph Borowski, and next week, you'll hear my chat with her husband Josh- the first man to be on Motherland. Steph met her husband in L.A, fresh out of school, they were both young actors chasing a dream. Fast forward a few years, and they settled on Josh's family farm in North West NSW, where life got pretty tricky once they had children. Josh, like so many farmers, was working around the cl...
Aug 27, 2023•48 min
Sarra Riddick and her partner tried to have a baby for three and a half years, before she finally fell pregnant with their twin boys, Heath and Hunter, through IVF. But after a devastating 20-week scan, Sarra and Jarrad had to make the toughest decision of their lives, terminating one of the twins, to give the other the best possible chance of survival. Sarra had to go through an unimaginable emotional rollercoaster after birthing her boys, experiencing joy after welcoming Hunter, who was rushed...
Aug 20, 2023•59 min
Melissa Duniam lives on the far north west coast of Tasmania and has spent the past 20 years in the dairy industry. When she was 18, she fell pregnant with her first daughter and soon after, became a single mum after her relationship ended. Melissa once vowed she'd never marry a dairy farmer, but that's exactly what she went on to do a couple of years later after falling in love with her now husband. She had two more daughters, and navigated some intense highs and lows during early motherhood. H...
Aug 13, 2023•59 min
This week is Australia's first ever Loneliness Awareness Week. It's a national epidemic and through Motherland's work, we know there are so many rural mums out there who are struggling with feelings of loneliness and isolation. Simone Heng is a human connection expert. Her new book, Loneliness- Let's talk about it, details her personal struggles with loneliness, but it's also an incredible guide on how we can kick loneliness to the curb for the sake of our health and our families. Simone grew up...
Aug 08, 2023•44 min
