Life on the Land

Do you sometimes think how good it would be to chuck it all in and head off on an adventure? It can be nice to daydream about how things could be different –even for just a moment. For Lyndee Severin, those feelings weren’t a pipe dream… Speaking to Lyndee, I get the feeling she’s someone who isn’t afraid to get stuck in and give things a go. She was the first one in her family to go to university...

It’s A LOT. All that is going on around us; in our backyard and afar. A lot to take in and contextualise within our own lives. In the last few years there has been so many unprecedented's, worst ever’s and an evolution of world events that were acknowledged as absurdity only a few years ago. I’ve found that gaining a deeper understanding helps. Our guest today is ABC Journalist and Macadamia farme...

To describe Nicola Forrest AO in a few words is incredibly difficult. She is a mother, philanthropist, change-maker and country girl born and bred. Alongside her husband Andrew Forrest of Fortescue Metals Group, Nicola is the co-chair and co-founder of Minderoo Foundation and a director of the Tattarang Group. She campaigns to better the lives of children and the vulnerable, but also drives advanc...

This conversation talks about child sexual abuse, mental illness and other subjects which may be triggering. Please, if it brings anything up, call Lifeline on 13 14 14, or 1800 RESPECT. Our guest today is journalist Virginia Tapscott, whose words have graced many a Graziher page. Ginny lives on a property near Albury with her husband, Rhys and their four young children, Oscar, 6, four year old Ev...

Victoria Carey is the editorial director of Graziher and she admits that choosing a favourite episode of our podcast Life on the Land was difficult. Her decision was Maggie MacKellar which she says will come as no surprise to many of you. "I love Maggie's writing. She is a wonderful wordsmith and I always look forward to our chats about her next column. We love to talk about things that are happen...

Claire really needs no introduction but for those of you who don’t know Claire is our mighty leader, the founder of Graziher. Claire’s pick is our special episode with Emily Herbert. Claire found this to be a beautiful yet poignant episode as Emily chose to be really vulnerable about what she says was her toughest year, and about suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and then working on her way...

Shannon Dunne is in charge of subscriptions with the Graziher team. Shannon's favourite Life on the Land episode so far was with Grace Quast. Her story really resonated with Shannon and the familiar emotions that come with making a living off the land, contingency plans, harvest time and the many obstacles that come with it. Grace is also so successful with her outside interests that Shannon could...

Today’s pick is from Sally Jackson who’s our sales and marketing guru, she also helps to run social media and for someone who’s not a journalist she has a great nose for a story too! Sally says there are so many amazing podcasts that have been aired by Graziher this year and so to help her narrow the choice down, she went with a fellow South Australian. Doing this did not make the choice any easie...

G’day, I’m Em Herbert and I’m the co-host of this podcast Life on the Land, alongside Skye. I’m also lucky enough to write for the Graziher magazine. Each week I speak to women across this big brown land of ours, who eke out an existence on the land, or whose lives and life’s work are directly entwined with the bush. It’s excruciating to pick a favourite Life on the Land episode as there have been...

As we all wind down towards the end of 2021, and prepare ourselves to indulge in Christmas after a year that has been testing and challenging in so many ways – The Graziher and Life on the Land team would like to send you off on your Summer Break with a rolling re-cap of our favourite podcast interviews. So Each Monday morning for the next six weeks – one team member will pick an episode that has...

This episode of Life on the Land speaks openly about suicide and mental ill-health. If you or anyone you know is unwell or in need of assistance you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636. Farmer, mother to four and business and mindset coach Katrina Myers, from farm business Barham Avocados near the NSW, Victorian border oozes energy, enthusiasm and spark. So much so, that w...

The last 18-months has really thrown a spanner in the works of, well, work. For a lot of people, it has been an unprecedented time – learning to work from the kitchen table, often amid the chaos and debris of homeschooling. However, this is the normal reality for a lot of women in the bush, who wear many hats for many things. While the rest of the world caught up to this thing called remote work,...

Hooray! The Graziher summer issue is on sale! It’s such a stunning issue, with many of the stories featured meandering around the theme of friendship. I think that is probably what makes the Graziher community stand out for us – that rich sense of connection and friendship which binds us all. We can’t wait for you all to see it. And featured in the issue is today’s wonderful guest, Cressida Cains....

Most of you will know today’s guest Fiona Simson as the first female president of Australia peak body for agriculture, the National Farmers Federation. There’s not many days that go by that she’s not quoted in a newspaper or seen on the TV or interviewed for radio. But did you know that politics and advocacy were never really in Fiona’s sites. She’s ended up in this position because she didn’t hav...

When you’re a teenager – you’re on the cusp of life in the big wide world and that is exhilarating and debilitating in the same breath. It’s a time when a mish-mash of expectations from all corners of the universe collie – leaving you, the teenager, on any given day feeling, fabulous and confident, full of bravado and then tired, then anxious, then insecure, uncertain and full of tears and fears....

Resilience is a word that is bandied about and the experts are still unsure how it forms. After speaking to women on the land, week in, week out, Emily Herbert has the sense that robustness is forged from walking through the fire. Living through the mess. Picking yourself up, dusting yourself off and putting one foot in front of the other. Just like every other muscle, it seems emotional sturdines...

Welcome to a special episode of Life on the Land and a big congratulations to the National Winner of the AgriFutures Rural Women's Award, Yawuru/Bunuba woman Cara Peek from Broome in Western Australia. This AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award ceremony was beamed into the homes, tractors and even paddocks of 600 Australians virtually via video links that connected MCs and finalists in all states and te...

This week, Life on the Land sounds a little different and is a first for us. Last episode, we spoke to Ju Roche, an artist living on a farm outside Wagga Wagga. Ju and Emily Herbert chatted about her painting process and how the land plays an integral part in her conceptual practise, sometimes painting outside under the moonlight. They also spoke about her family and in particular, her relationshi...

The land has a deep and enduring effect on today’s guest. Julia Roche is an artist who lives on her family’s farm outside Wagga Wagga, in the heart of the Riverina in New South Wales. Ju is part of a new generation of artists coming from regional Australia To stand in front of Ju’s large, abstract landscapes is to bear witness to her inner world. Her paintings are evocative, visceral, layered and...

As a child, a teenager and even a student, today’s guest knew nothing about rural Australia, in fact, she had not a care for life on the land. She went on to become a political journalist in Canberra. And then – our guest today – author, writer and rural editor for Guardian Australia Gabrielle Chan met ‘The Farmer’. Her eyes were opened to the daily routine of farming. She observed an intimacy bet...

Today I’m joined by one of the Graziher Celebrities, Jane Smith – also known as The Shady Baker from a sheep station east of Broken Hill in New South Wales. Jane’s writing and recipes have been a feature in all but one issue of Graziher Magazine – and people, like you, have grown to love her work, her food and her gentle description of her life on the land. To me Jane Smith is a true home-bod – wh...

Our guests today are photographers. Georgie Mann from a sheep and cattle farm near Caramut, three hours west of Melbourne and Jess Howard who lives on the Sunshine Coast and originally hails from near Biloela in south east QLD. These women make up two of the eleven photographers of the Beauty in the Bush Collective on Instagram. Last week they boldly launched a newsprint publication. The Bush Jour...

Welcome to a little bonus episode of Life on the Land. If you listened to our podcast earlier this week with Olympia Yarger, you would have heard that we were going to share this bonus episode detailing Olympia and her husband, Eric’s experience with the current situation in Afghanistan. Eric is a former US Marine and special forces operative, who was involved in six combat tours in Iraq and Afgha...

This episode deals with the experience of losing a child, which may be triggering. If you need to speak to someone, please call Lifeline, on 13 11 14 There aren’t many interviews in which our host Emily Herbert has both cried and laughed until a little bit of wee came out. But there isn't many people like Olympia Yarger, today’s podcast guest. Olympia is a maggot farmer. Yes, you heard that right....

Karen, her husband Dan and their four daughters Bonnie, Molly, Jemima and Matilda, produce Angus beef from their properties and feedlots across western Queensland. All four girls are determined to continue working on the land, and by the end of the year they will all be back living and working at home. On any given day, the girls might be online in university lectures, studying for exams, fencing,...