Company

From Ayr to Mt Isa to Melbourne to New York; entreprenuer Kim McDonnell's social enterprise, Thankful is an example of how to successfully outgrow your boots, and roots, in regional Australia. Years ago Kim and her partner sold *everything* chasing a feeling of fulfilment in the creation of her social enterprise Thankful. When no-one in Australia would invest nor take her seriously, she uprooted h...

Sleep, Eat, Work, Rest, Play, Mess about, Sing, Read, Eat, Bath, Read, Sleep - Rinse and Repeat. This is the life of Channel 7’s Sunrise presenter Edwina Bartholomew and also of you, and me and anyone with children.  When it comes to Edwina, sure there are a few extra’s thrown in there like a nanny and invitations to fancy shows and opening nights - but ultimately she’s a mother, who’s very succes...

Bec Bignell is a West Australian film maker on the road to big things, her biggest project to-date, her film HOMESPUN was picked up by streaming giant STAN last year after being acquired by ABC Commercial.  Bec’s main mission in her film making is to challenge stereotypes everywhere. She’s pushing boundaries in her narratives, her characters and in the way she produces film. In many ways this film...

Annabelle Hickson talks about the idea of feeling ideas running through her blood like some ind of addict. But when it comes to her print magazine and modern media business Galah  Press - she IS an addict, a women possessed, to flip the narrative on life in rural Australia. As an original outsider to rural Australia (she grew up in Sydney’s north shore) the mirror that she holds up to people and p...

Growing up as one of four children on a sheep farm in southern New South Wales, I think I always knew that it would not be me that was coming home to work as the 'farmer'. This was never implicity suggested, it was just a feeling. For females who've grown up on a farm, I'll bet many of you had the same feeling. Today's guest Jess Howard certainly did. She grew up on a farm in western Queensland an...

There's no deny-ing it today's guest is infatuated with routines, systems and being organised. Bridget Johns lives on a broad-acre cropping, sheep and goat farm on the Yorke Peninsula of South Australia with her husband and two children She's a mother, organisational expert and a grants writer and founder of Be Simply Free. Bridget teaches women to go from being time poor to time rich by declutter...

Today’s guest Sophie Weeding is rural girl born and bred making her make as a mark as super talent bed and breakfast creator in Tasmania. Born of late nights scrolling on Pinterest while breastfeeding her babies – Soph realised she could channel her skills in design and branding in a venture recreating old homes near her farm in Tasmania. To-date she has three super gorgeous accommodation options...

Today we head to north, and then West, to the main street of Tambo in Queensland. To meet the current co-owner of Tambo Teddies – a beautiful bush business born of adversity – as in when the price for wool was taking a pounding in 1992, over 40 years ago now. “A brain storming session during a workshop developed the idea that Tambo could assist the wool industry, encourage tourists and create empl...

The first is The Suite Set, a business making and manufacturing hospital packing bags, and the second is Sally Branson Consulting, a crisis management advisory business. She is a mum to two young kiddos aged four and five. I feel a tad embarrassed to say I’ve never come across Sally before, but I should have as she’s a bit of a big deal, having previously been the State Director of the National Pa...

Rosie is a photographer, videographer, and creative director based in Esperance on the south coast of Western Australia. Having spent her childhood in the bush and the beach, Rosie works as a freelancer specialising in these areas - shooting everything from farmers and machinery, to ocean-side fashion and lifestyle campaigns. With a background in journalism and a passion for creativity and storyte...

The older I get, the more I fall in love with England and its gardens and landscapes. And today’s guest speaks to that and another of my loves, magazines and publishing. Skye O’Neill is an Aussie now living in the UK. Last year she and a friend started Fieldfare Press a print journal about landscape, gardens and most of all place. I forever interested in how these project blossom from an idea to t...

My guest today really is living the life I would love to live as a rural content maker. Kimberley Furness is the editor and founder of Oak Magazine in Victoria and the A Friend of Mine Podcast. This year she was the Victorian winner of the Agrifutures Rural Women’s Award, which will see her creating an audio version of her popular magazine and I learnt she’s just bought a van that she’s fitting ou...

Today’s guest is Dimity Brassil from A Lasting Tale a professional interview service for people with a lifetime of stories to share. Family History especially in the spoken word has the ability to deeply touch those who consume it – can you imagine listening to your loved ones speak, years after they have left this earth? What a treasured gift, heirloom and a legacy that could be. Well, this is th...

I think today guest has one of the coolest jobs. Melinda O’Donohue makes wedding dresses, not from a swanky studio in city but from her farm near Gurley in north west NSW. Isn’t that just so fabulous?! Melinda’s Instagram profile reads, 'Soon to be retired bespoke wedding dress maker doing up an 1860/1900 Australian homestead in North West NSW with her clever husband, Des.' I think she’s trying to...

Today’s guest Louise FitzRoy is a good friend, and a total wonder woman – she lives her life between her family farm at Guyra in the NSW New England and the Cayman Islands. She’s successfully infiltrating schools all over Australia with her paddock to plate curriculum, she’s a published author, owns and runs an online yoga platform and to boot, she’s won a Walkley. Total overachiever – but sweet a...

Bec Fing from House Paddock Consulting, is a master of routines. She is a professional get things done person, get systems in place, your shop in order, life organised – the whole bit. Bec lives on the outskirts of Goondowindi with her husband, and three children and has built her business from nothing to something that consults all over Australia, almost daily. To add she has a side business Bec...

Hay, Hell and Booligal are words made famous by much loved Australian poet Banjo Patterson and today I’ll take you to the so-called 'Hell' (which isn't really hell at all, in fact it's buzzing with movie stars at the moment) It’s the One Tree Plain, on the Cobb Highway between Hay and Booligal and it's home now to the also in-famous One Tree Hotel – which might be familiar to you without you even...

In the Association's one hundred year long history, its women have become known as the reliable, just-get-stuff-done kinda people and it rings true to this day. In part two of my conversation with Liz Harfull, the author commissioned to write 'Women who Changed Country Australia’ for the CWA of NSW's 100th birthday. Liz introduces us to some of the trailblazers of the NSW CWA – the women who she w...

The legend of the iconic Country Women Association makes up the threads of the cloth that is worn (and honoured and respected) by many, if not all the women in rural Australia. As a rural journalist, some of the stories told to me by women of the CWA reflect what I consider to be ‘real acts of kindness and camaraderie’ in some of the most isolated communities in Australia. They are my favourites....

Today’s guest has rural roots that keep her sane, especially at the moment. Stephanie is the Senior Editor for the Asia Pacific at a group called Storyful: A News and Intelligence Agency. Each day from her home in Sydney, she verifies content on social media before distributing it to news organisations all over the world. It’s a media role that would not have existed 10 years ago, and as you will...

I'm really chuffed to be bringing you this very special live recording of the Company podcast from regional co-working space, The Collective, Grenfell run by Belinda Mahwinney and Ant Dixon. Jane Cay grew up in Cooma, she went away to boarding school in Mittagong, her first ‘big girl’ job was at IBM in Sydney, then she fell in love, with Oli, quit her job and moved her life to Cooma. In a way it w...

My guest today interior designer Sheila Smith is a glowing example that a childhood in rural Australia is no hinderance to development of a world-class business in the bush in later life. Sheila's career path is fascinating and completely left-field. She worked alongside designers in Melbourne, in the underground mines of the Pilbara, WA, she found herself cooking on super yachts and drinking Impe...

Apparently Beef Snacking is a thing - and bringing it to the fore is the mission of Emma Williams who, alongside her mother, is the brains behind Impact Meat – an ag start-up selling good looking beef jerky and biltong using Australian beef. Emma grew up in Sydney’s north shore, but the biggest influence on her life, her stock and station agent grandfather, lived thousands of kilometres away in Ta...

Today's guest is the epitome of no-fuss go-getterism! Kate Hufton is the former co-owner of The Sir George pub and restaurant (and now accomodation) in Jugiong, NSW. A Sunday walk with her mother, landscape designer, Liz Prater, Six years ago, after Kate's engagement party, she and her mother took a walk around the ground of the derelict pub at Jugiong, flippantly throwing around the dreamy idea o...

Breaking into normal transmission today to bring you my Pitch for the Buy From The Bush x PayPalAu Big Break Competition. Thank you for listening! Skye xx