Motherland Australia

Kate Rose has lived a truly extraordinary life. She's been a pastry chef in London, owning her own business and working for some of the biggest hotels in the city. She’s also been a soldier in the Iraq war. She was deployed when her two sons were just 9 and 4. And when she came home, she had two little boys who were terrified she’d leave them again. Kate also suffered from post-traumatic stre...

When Kaia Wright fell in love with the croc-wrestling, helicopter-flying, outback wrangler Matt Wright at 24, she had no idea what the next stage of her life would entail. While all her friends were spending their weekends at cafes or the beach, Kaia and her top-end husband Matt were chasing pigs, wrangling crocs or spending time in remote bush camps. By all accounts, Matt and Kaia appeared to hav...

Today's episode is special for two reasons, firstly, it's our last episode of our Autumn season, proudly sponsored by Nutrien Ag Solutions. Secondly, you're about to hear Emily Mealey's story, and she's a Senior Account Manager in Insurance at Nutrien, and a mum of two. She's based in Dubbo,  and met her husband at the tender age of 18 after having a minor car prang!...

Chris Bath has been a much loved and respected journalist since the late 80's and many of us, including myself, grew up watching her on our TV screens. She's interviewed Presidents, Prime Ministers and popstars, and pushed herself way outside her comfort zone when she carved up the dance floor on Dancing with the Stars! Chris met her husband Jim Wilson at work. The news anchor fell in lo...

Tara Parchert lives in the Lockyer Valley in Queensland, and runs a vegetable operation with her husband. She's busy raising two little girls, but has given  birth to four. Tara fell pregnant with identical twin girls. After some pregnancy complications, she delivered them at just 26 weeks.  Everything seemed to be going okay until 5 weeks later, when one twin got an infection... she didn&apo...

Rebecca Gilchrist is a clinical psychologist who has a passion for supporting rural women; and she's pretty well placed to do that give she's also a rural mum and a farmer based on a 6th generation sheep and cattle station. Bec had her first baby on a plane; yep, on a plane, mid air when she was just 33 weeks pregnant. It was a very traumatic experience for her, although at the time, no...

Ella Palmer is a nurse, and a mum of three who lives on a cropping and sheep farm in South Australia. Her motherhood journey has been heavily impacted by what happened to her when she was just 10 years old. After weeks of ongoing sickness and a misdiagnosis, Ella was in the fight of her life after her dad checked on her in the middle of the night to find her nearly unconscious. Unbeknownst to ever...

Raechel Whitchurch writes songs about things that matter. Her childhood was spent performing in her family band and instilled a connection to rural Australia. She spent most of her early years living in a caravan while travelling and performing, before establishing herself as one of Australia's most promising new country artists. Her debut album ‘Finally Clear’ debuted at #1 on ARIA Australia...

*A quick heads up, this episode contains some coarse language, and also discusses mental health and suicidal thoughts. If you or anyone you know needs help, contact Lifeline immediately on 13 11 14. Sophie Love  runs a small farm near Port Macquarie in New South Wales. She bought it herself aged 40, while single, and childless. She never thought she wanted kids, until, well, she did... after meeti...

Kate Mitchell fell pregnant with her first child just six months after meeting her husband in a rather unique way, while playing lawn bowls! They now have three children, and their third, their little boy Darcy, changed everything. As far as they could tell, he was a happy and healthy toddler, when at 16 months old he suddenly had a seizure on their sheep farm on the south coast of WA and nearly d...

Some of us know Kaitie Nash from Instagram, she proudly calls herself 'the first time farmer', and is part of a growing number of farmfluencer mums online, sharing real, relatable and often hilarious content about life on the land. But farm life hasn't always been a laughing matter for Kaitie. She moved to her husband's family property in the middle of a drought, while still ad...

In 2016, Lisa Booth designed and built an eco-friendly home on a tight budget, on a small block of land. A couple of years ago, after her social media exploded, she quit her job to help other families build the same dream through her business - Booken Blend. Lisa's life looks picture perfect on Instagram, but she is an incredibly down to earth and authentic woman with rural roots that have bo...

Laura Robson is a mum of two and is originally from the UK, but found herself marrying a farmer and moving to a remote cattle station near Boulia, Queensland. Laura’s journey on the land has been full of twists and turns, and the RFDS (Queensland Section) have been a constant support to her and her family in times of need. Given how isolated they are, they've relied on access to an RFDS medic...

Kate McKittrick is based in Mudgee, NSW, and has three adult children (including twins). As her kids were growing up, her focus was on supporting them through boarding school, until one day it was Kate who needed all the support. After taking some very common over the counter medicine to help with the cold she thought she had, she had a severe allergic reaction. The outcome was catastrophic. A rar...

Jo Mahony who has worked for the RFDS over 20 years as a Nurse Manager at their Charleville Base, one of 23 national Flying Doctor bases around the country. Jo is also a rural mum, and her story provides a special insight into the work that RFDS nurses, doctors and clinicians do that directly impacts so many of rural families. Countless rural women and their families utilise their vital aeromedica...

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 loneli...

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 fi...

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 despera...

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 per...

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...

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 cove...

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 a...

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....

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 tra...

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 accidenta...