Motherland Australia

This week, we're throwing back to one of our most popular episodes of 2022. Olympic gold medalist Giaan Rooney shocked the swimming world when she retired at just 23, and she hasn't swum a lap since. Her professional career both in and out of the pool has been widely publicised, but her personal life including her motherhood journey and her recent move to the land is something I'm v...

This week, we're throwing back to one of our most popular episodes, episode 120 with Maggie Dent! Maggie is a parenting author, educator and host of the ABC Parental As Anything podcast. But, she's also a born and bred bushy. Maggie grew up in rural WA and her journey on and off the land has been full of extraordinary highs and heartbreaking lows. From a suicide attempt which then pushed...

Marion Saunders, who goes by Maz, is a mum to four adult children and a grandmother to six. Seven years ago, she'd never even heard of Instagram. Today, she's clocked up over 100,000 followers who are hooked on her down to earth, over 50 fashion and lifestyle content- sprinkled with her humorous reels she films. I've been following Maz for a while, but there's a lot I didn&apos...

Grace Larson is a children’s intensive care nurse who has dedicated her life to helping other people's kids. But she experienced a difficult role reversal when she became a mother herself. Grace battled with postnatal anxiety, something we rarely speak about, and she would vividly picture awful things happening to her children. Almost every time, her kids were completely fine, but when she ha...

Fleur Anderson is a cotton farmer and a serial entrepreneur. She's held several senior roles in ag, and now leads the Statewide team in the Office for Rural and Regional Queensland in the Department of Premier and Cabinet. Fleur has carved out a career for herself from a town of just 500 people. She's highly respected in our industry professionally, personally though, she told me she&apo...

Louise Martin lives on a station 900 kilometres west of Brisbane. She's a mum of two, and the President of the ICPA Queensland- the Isolated Children's Parents' Association. Louise lived many lives before she became a mum. She spent five years working in England as James Packer's polo groom- there's a fun fact! She was 39 when she met her future husband, a divorcee, who&ap...

This week, I'm taking you back to New Zealand to catch up Kate Ivey. Kate is the powerhouse behind an online health and fitness community supporting rural mums. Kate moved to a high country sheep station with her husband after they'd been living it up in London on a bit of an adventure. At 25, she fell pregnant, and was overjoyed, but when her beautiful little girl was two years old, she...

Mel McGorman was born into a horse racing family, and even represented Australia in equestrian at the world championships. She's now a sheep farmer, a mum of three, and a reality TV star after appearing on Big Brother last year. After battling fires and drought after drought, Mel decided to have a crack at the quarter of a million dollar pay cheque that was up for grabs. She'd caught the...

Annabelle Coppin is the Owner & manager of Yarrie Station in the East Pilbara of Western Australia. She's fifth generation, but she's part of a new generation of women on the land who are breaking stereotypes and glass ceilings to follow their dreams in the bush. Annabelle has two  girls and she didn't take maternity leave, she was still busy in the chopper mustering cattle and...

Ange Millard has endured unimaginable heartache and trauma. Her story shows how things can change so quickly, from the arrival of healthy twins to the painful loss of her twin daughter Lucy at 3 years of age. It had an enormous effect on her, her family, her divorce, and  the end of her life on the land. Ange had four children, and her journey into motherhood began with twins, a baby boy William,...

Today's show is a very special one. For the first time, I'm bringing you an episode from New Zealand with the talented Pip Cameron. Pip lives on a large sheep station in the high country on the south island. She's a mum of two, an author, and the station cook. I recently met her at Rural Women's Day in Victoria where she was a guest speaker. A lot of you know Pip as the woman b...

Just over a week ago, I finally got to meet the delightful Emily Herbert. I've long been intrigued by her story. She's a gifted writer, podcaster, and yoga teacher who travelled all the way to India to become a Yogi. Emily now calls Tamworth home, but she's lived all over the world including Botswana. It's been one hell of an adventure.  Almost two years ago she became a mum, a...

Ketut Bassett is originally from Bali and grew up in a tiny village. But after falling in love with an Aussie bloke she faced enormous cultural challenges and judgement when she started dating a westerner. Decades later, her and her husband Wes proved everyone wrong and are going stronger than ever.  After moving to Australia and setting down roots in WA, Ketut now proudly calls herself a fruit fa...

Laura Simpson had just brought new life into the world, before her own life was hanging in the balance. Moments after delivering her baby girl, her fourth child, she suffered a catastrophic haemorrhage that saw her lose over eight litres of blood. She needed around 40 blood products to save her life. After emergency surgery, Laura woke up hours later to discover that her uterus had been surgically...

Katherine Reed was 19 years old when she fell from a racehorse, broke her back, and became a paraplegic. In an instant, her world changed forever and navigating life on the land with a disability has been extremely challenging . Everything from farming, to birthing and raising two young boys has been complex. But rediscovering and rebuilding her identity has been her toughest challenge yet, and to...

Kate Stapleton is a country girl who married her country sweetheart, Nathan. Nathan is a retired Cronulla Sharks player who earlier this year became a quadriplegic after a friendly came of rugby went horribly wrong.  Kate was 6 months pregnant with their second child at the time of Nathan's accident. He was wheeled in to be by her side in hospital as she laboured and gave birth to their littl...

Jo Palmer is no  stranger to the limelight. In 2019 she won the AgriFutures National Rural Women's Award for her business Pointer Remote. But there's a lot you don't know about Jo. After meeting her in Canberra recently and totally fan-girling, I roped her in to chat to me about mum life, farm life and work life, including her family's recent lifechanging decision to move overs...

Keelen Mailman is a proud Bidjara woman who 25 years ago became the first Aboriginal woman to manage a commercial cattle station, and she still lives on that property today. Keleen grew up in an Aboriginal camp on the edge of the town of Augathella, and her story is about overcoming all the odds. She's survived poverty, racism and abuse, including horrific domestic violence. As a single mum,...

Are you okay? It's the question that changed everything for Jess Bargenquast. Because as a mum, a wife, and an employee, Jess was far from okay.  The pressures of life, the motherload, and the constant people pleasing led her to breaking point Then, just as she'd started to put the pieces back together, Jess's dad took his own life, and she hit rock bottom. Jess is ready to share he...

Robyn Verrall unexpectedly fell pregnant when she was 19, and six months into her pregnancy, her relationship ended.  As a nurse and a young single mum, she battled at times just to buy food and support her little girl- and it's these struggles with food security that has ignited her passion to support others through her busines Bully's Meats. Robyn is the AgriFutures Rural Women's...

Louise O'Neill knows what it's like to hit burn out as a rural family. She was pregnant with her first child when her husband hit breaking point physically and mentally. After that, they revaluated everything and made some big decisions, one of them was to sell their 5th generation family farm and start fresh elsewhere. Amongst it all, Louise started her business Farm Life Fitness to sup...

Linda Goldspink-Lord has endured unimaginable pain. She suffered a health crisis after burning the candle at both ends at home and at work, and then soon after she lost her mum to cancer. But 10 years ago Linda was dealt the cruelest blow of all when her 13 year old daughter Molly died in a quad bike accident on their NSW property. Linda's story is one of grief and trauma, but it's also...

Station mum Hayley Price was 32 weeks pregnant with her first baby when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. She was then faced with an unimaginable decision when she was told she needed to give birth prematurely so she could commence chemotherapy that would hopefully save her life. Hayley and her husband had to suddenly leave their life on the land and move into temporary accommodation...

Libby Finlayson grew up on a station in WA. She fell in love in a farmer and moved to a property where they went on to have three children. But one day, out of the blue, everything changed with five heartbreaking words from her husband. Libby was blindsided by a breakup she didn't see coming, and soon after, she had to leave the farm with her three young children, and start all over again. Li...

From rural Tasmania to remote Tanzania, Diana Butler has dedicated her life to helping others. She's the founder of the Care For Africa Foundation by day, and the after hours nurse manager at a hospital by night. She's raised three boys on the land, and she's had to overcome unimaginable heartbreak as a mother. In our very candid chat, she shares the pain of losing her first born ch...