Life on the Land

Tanya-Lee Holmes often quips that her life really only got started in her 40s. That’s quite a big call when you consider she acquired a life changing disability at 39 and has spent over 20 years as a carer for two children with Cerebral Palsy. Living on a small property outside Bathurst in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, the mother of three has navigated a series of defining events that...

Sophie Elliott’s story is a testament to the tenacity of the human spirit and stands as a poignant reminder that even in the face of formidable challenges, happiness can be found again. A born and bred western Queensland girl, Sophie was working at The Blue Heeler Pub in Kynuna in her early twenties. It was here, that her life would change forever. This is a love story, entwined with tragedy, and...

From a youth campdrafting and mustering on the family’s 19,000 acre station outside Queensland’s Glenmorgan, to a life under lights co-captaining Australia’s Women’s Rugby 7s team, The Pearls; Demi Hayes is living proof that geographical isolation doesn’t beat talent and hard work. While she now lives a long way from the beef property she grew up on, the 25 year old has taken many lessons with her...

How Wendy Henning fits all of her commitments into one day is a mystery to most! Wendy and her husband Andrew own and manage a cattle and mixed cropping business at Merchison Park, near Glenmorgan, Queensland. In Wendy’s own words, they are ‘in the middle of everywhere, but not quite anywhere. Two hours to Gundy, two hours to Roma, two hours to Dalby and an hour and ¾ to St George’. With four daug...

Jillian Kilby is not afraid of the big decisions. As an engineer and farmer’s daughter from Coonamble, in the central west of New South Wales, Jillian has leant on her rural values right through her career. This courage has seen her go against the grain most of her life and bounce from Coonamble to Sydney to Walgett to Silicon Valley and back to the Central West. Now she’s breathing new life into...

Eliza Lockyer takes putting nutritious food on the table very seriously. Obsessed with gardening since her late teens, Eliza also developed a fascination with rare breed stock and has dedicated a large portion of her life promoting the benefits of their continued breeding. If you’ve ever been interested in gardening, or you live in a place where it might be difficult to grow because of clay or roc...

Can you imagine taking eight horses, 14 working dogs, three goats and two toddlers on a six-month long road trip? It’s certainly not for the faint hearted, but for the Northern Territory’s Curtain family, it’s Situation Normal. In this episode, our host Emily Herbert is in conversation with Annabelle Curtain, a wife, mother and urban designer, who has built an incredibly diverse business alongside...

As a mother, wife and business owner, Jade Lord is deeply invested in bringing health and wellbeing to rural and remote communities. Originally from Moreton Bay, Jade spent most of her early childhood on Stradbroke Island. A blissful beachside oasis, surrounded by crystal clear water, white sand and rocky outcrops. It’s a stark contrast from where Jade now calls home, a remote cattle station, 150k...

Melinda O’Donoghue is often compared to ‘Cinderella’s fairy godmother’. Known as The Outback Wedding Dressmaker, she’s made close to 300 wedding dresses for country and city brides around the nation- and some even overseas! Melinda is a classically trained seamstress, working alongside the likes of well-known designer Alex Perry in Sydney. Melinda and her husband, Des, now live on a property in Gu...

Baker, green thumb and former country journalist Maya Linnell is about to release her fifth book. The bestselling Rural Romance, or RuRo author has an amazing story to tell. From a startling introduction into journalism following America’s September 11 attack, to realising her aspirations as a novelist at nearly 40 years old, Maya demonstrates there’s no time limit on achieving your dreams. In thi...

Camille McClymont’s life in Western Australia’s Kimberly region is well reflected in her Instagram posts, (@thecattlemandaughter); the red dust, the blazing sunsets and the days of mustering, the 31-year-old gives a little snapshot into her days spent managing her family’s property, Kalyeeda Station.  In this episode Camille gives an insight into life managing 10,000 head of cattle spread across 1...

Rural photographer and farmer Kim Storey was preparing for a flood in November 2022, but what she, and her neighbours didn’t know, was that it was a one in 5000-year event. In a matter of hours, Kim went from calmly preparing her property by taking her motorbike and dog next door, to a frantic helicopter evacuation while raging waters lapped at her door. This is the story of how Kim, and her nearb...

Felicity Weal has her eyes set on a spot in the 2024 Paralympics. And if qualification took into account her steely determination and incredible optimism, she would surely secure a place. In 2017, Felicity fell six-metres through the roof of her family’s farm shed on their 800-hectare sheep and beef farm near Cowra, New South Wales. This is the story of what happened after the fall- when Felicity...

Welcome to Graziher's 2nd podcast, The Farm Diaries based on our regular column written by Tasmanian based author Maggie MacKellar. In 2021, Graziher's editorial director Victoria Carey asked Maggie, an author and freelance writer she has always loved if she would pen a new column for the magazine and the The Farm Diaries was born. All about life on a fine wool Merino farm on Tasmania's east coast...

“What would Dad do?” These are the words Sallie Jones thought to herself in the midst of the dairy crisis sweeping the nation in 2016. Sallie was a daughter of dairy farmers, entrepreneurs, and a daughter left reeling, grieving the loss of her father, Michael Bowen, who had completed suicide just weeks prior. Sallie is force of nature. A changemaker. Someone who takes personal pain and channels it...

Welcome to Graziher's 2nd podcast, The Farm Diaries based on our regular column written by Tasmanian based author Maggie MacKellar. In 2021, Graziher's editorial director Victoria Carey asked Maggie, an author and freelance writer she has always loved if she would pen a new column for the magazine and the The Farm Diaries was born. All about life on a fine wool Merino farm on Tasmania's east coast...

Welcome to Graziher's 2nd podcast, The Farm Diaries based on our regular column written by Tasmanian based author Maggie MacKellar. In 2021, Graziher's editorial director Victoria Carey asked Maggie, an author and freelance writer she has always loved if she would pen a new column for the magazine and the The Farm Diaries was born. All about life on a fine wool Merino farm on Tasmania's east coast...

Welcome to Graziher's 2nd podcast, The Farm Diaries based on our regular column written by Tasmanian based author Maggie MacKellar. In 2021, Graziher's editorial director Victoria Carey asked Maggie, an author and freelance writer she has always loved if she would pen a new column for the magazine and the The Farm Diaries was born. All about life on a fine wool Merino farm on Tasmania's east coast...

Welcome to Graziher's 2nd podcast, The Farm Diaries based on our regular column written by Tasmanian based author Maggie MacKellar. In 2021, Graziher's editorial director Victoria Carey asked Maggie, an author and freelance writer she has always loved if she would pen a new column for the magazine and the The Farm Diaries was born. All about life on a fine wool Merino farm on Tasmania's east coast...

Welcome to Graziher's 2nd podcast, The Farm Diaries based on our regular column written by Tasmanian based author Maggie MacKellar. In 2021, Graziher's editorial director Victoria Carey asked Maggie, an author and freelance writer she has always loved if she would pen a new column for the magazine and the The Farm Diaries was born. All about life on a fine wool Merino farm on Tasmania's east coast...

Introducing a new Graziher podcast, The Farm Diaries. The Farm Diaries is regular column written by Maggie MacKellar in our Graziher magazine. In the beginning it was an extract from Maggie's farm journal kept of a lambing season in Tasmania during the 2018/2019 drought, now it's morphed to be an account of her daily observations of the coming together of human and animal life on the farm. We are...

Welcome to Life On The Land's Summer Series where the Graziher team choose their favourite story of the year and explain how the story touched or inspired them or made them think about something in a different way.  Today we’re hearing the story of Nicola Forrest, as chosen by Graziher team member, Skye Manson. 

Welcome to Life On The Land's Summer Series where the Graziher team choose their favourite story of the year and explain how the story touched or inspired them or made them think about something in a different way.  Today we’re hearing the story of Samantha Armytage, as chosen by Graziher team member, Em Herbert.

Welcome to Life On The Land's Summer Series where the Graziher team choose their favourite story of the year and explain how the story touched or inspired them or made them think about something in a different way.  Today we’re hearing the story of Virginia Tapscott, as chosen by Graziher’s editorial director, Victoria Carey. Virginia’s compelling story has resonated with so many Australians- list...

Welcome to Life On The Land's Summer Series where the Graziher team choose their favourite story of the year and explain how the story touched or inspired them or made them think about something in a different way.  Today we’re hearing the story of Meg Bignall, as chosen by Graziher team member, Shannon Dunne. Meg is the quintessential Tasmanian, who not only has forged her own path in a rural set...