G’Day Mob,
Last month I was honoured to speak
to a group of ladies in Injune on International Women’s Day. They wanted to
know a little of how I came to be in front of them so they heard stories from
the deserts of Western Australia to the Tasman Sea off Eden in southern New
South Wales.; and heard of our gypsy lifestyle that has seen me work as a
geologist, a deckhand, a bookkeeper, a grazier, an opal miner and a
writer/photographer. It’s been a bit of
a ride.
But I want to talk about the women
who inspire me. I culled a long list down to six, which was no easy task, and
all of these women are from the bush. Let’s meet them:
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| Two female geologists (Steph and Mandy) living the dream in the Western Australian deserts in the mid 1990s |
1.
Sue Skinner
No-one
I have ever met (men included) works harder than Sue Skinner from Tenterfield.
I
first met Sue on the Mole River where she was having a very rare day off doing
what she loves – fishing. She bounded up from the river bank with a smile as
wide as a split watermelon and we were instantly friends.
Sue
runs a successful fruit and vegetable wholesale business in Tenterfield –
sourcing the freshest of produce from regional farms. She used to grow much of
it herself. I know this because she has conned me into picking squash and zucchini
and has used my head for target practice when tossing pumpkins. I know how hard
she works, and she makes me feel like a slacko.
Sue
usually runs her vege business seven days a week but also manages to shear
alpacas and organise bow-hunting safaris. Last year she ran the shearing
section of the Tenterfield Show. She had roped in family and friends and would
have given me a job as well if I didn’t have a good excuse – which I did. I was
writing about agricultural shows for R. M. Williams Outback so with camera in
hand I escaped hard labour. You can read about Sue and the shows here.
2. Kelly Foran
If
you’ve never heard of Kelly Foran I suggest you google Friendly Faces Helping
Hands and be amazed.
Back
in 2002 Kel was pregnant with her first child when, on Boxing Day, she was beset
with severe headaches and extreme vomiting and her nightmare began. Three days
later she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and was given one hour’s notice to
be in Sydney, 600km away, for surgery.
Kel tells the story: “I was given
steroids to shrink the brain tumour and then, via caesarian section, I gave
birth to Jake who weighed 12.5 pounds at 36 weeks gestation. He was born with a
hole in his lung, hyper insulin anemia and jaundice. In the next four months I
developed diabetes, had 16 hours of surgery on my head, suffered a slight
stroke on my right-hand side, spent three weeks in intensive care, a week in
neurosurgery, developed meningitis (which required another six hour operation),
and was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. I had pain in every joint, struggled
to walk, talk and eat but finally I was allowed home to my son – and I couldn’t
do anything for him.”
But
the amazing thing about Kel is this nightmare has created her legacy. Concerned
about the lack of practical support for people of the bush who had to travel to
the city for medical reasons she set about creating “Friendly Faces Helping
Hands”. If you’re in the bush, even if you’re visiting, and things go pear
shaped get onto this website and phone Kel. When it feels as though your world
is sinking Kel is the person who will throw the life-buoy.
Read
more about Kel here in Outback .
3.
Lynne Strong
If
you’ve ever seen a fibreglass cow looking like a motorbike or a flying pig then
you’ve entered the whirlwind world of Lynne Strong.
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| Lynne Strong (left) with Young Farming Champions Dione Howard and Peta Bradley (and an Archie) |
Lynne
has a knack for finding young people with a passion for agriculture and giving
them the support and training to take their story to the world. She calls them
the Young Farming Champions and they come from all aspects of this great
industry. There are wool brokers, agronomists, financial advisors, researchers,
shearers and government advisors. They work with cotton and wool, with beef and
pork, with chickens and with grains. Some grew up on vast sheep stations in
South Australia. Some are from inner Sydney. All are brilliant.
Each
year the Young Farming Champions go into schools as part of The Archibull
Prize, and that’s where the fibreglass cows come in. Every school is assigned
an agricultural industry to study, a Young Farming Champion to assist them and
a life-sized fibreglass cow, which becomes the canvas for their research and
findings. Last year a Brisbane school studying the wool industry took to their cow
with a chainsaw and created a baby’s nursery. Another year a Sydney school
transformed their cow (known as an Archie) into a grain-fuelled motorbike
called Cowasaki. You really have to see it to believe what these kids come up
with.
4. Judi Earl
There
are plenty of people around who will tell you what you should be doing in
agriculture. Not so many of them actually turn around and practice what they
preach. Dr Judi Earl is the exception.
I
first heard the name Judi Earl when my husband came home from a field day and
told me, in raptured tones, about this grasslands ecologist he had met. A bit
of research confirmed that, yes, she was quite an expert in her field. The
second time I heard the name was when she rang me to enquire about a
neighbouring property for sale. The voice was down-to-earth and inquisitive and
I remember thinking to myself, in raptured tones, that this couldn’t be THE
Judi Earl.
Well
it was and for a couple of years Jude was our neighbour and font of all
knowledge. For years she has studied holistic management and taught about
grasslands management and that on its own makes her one hell of a knowledgeable
woman. But Jude didn’t stop there. By purchasing our neighbouring property she
had bought a whole lot of Coolatai grass and a whole lot of learning. And that’s
what I admire most about her. She puts her theory into practice in the most
daunting of ways – by actually putting her money where her mouth is. She is
learning the challenges of running a property while wanting to do the best by
the land. It is what we all aspire to.
I’m
yet to write about Jude in Outback. Stay tuned.
5. Kath Walker
Kath
Walker was an absolute legend who I had the honour of knowing for a couple of
years before she passed away. Every Australian should know about Kath Walker.
Kath
was conceived in Cairo during World War One, her officer father Wally having
privileges not afforded to the common soldier, and she grew up in his military
world, drinking milk as generals sipped whiskey. Determined and dynamic, by
age 19 she was the Australian 12 foot Skipper Champion, and by age 21 had
graduated as one of the country’s first female veterinarians. She worked with
the Department of Agriculture during a major swine flu outbreak and in 1943
joined the war as a Captain in the Australian Women’s Army Service.
As
the only female veterinarian in the entire Allied Forces, Kath worked alongside
the Australian Army Veterinary Corp at the animal hospital in Enogerra,
Brisbane, overseeing a large contingent of men as she treated military dogs and
transport horses until she was discharged in 1946.
She
then returned to Coolootai Station in northern New South Wales where she
married her sweetheart Tom and tended to patients, both animal and human, on
properties across the north-west. She was intelligent, strong-willed and one of
the most admirable women I have ever met. At her funeral her son Gavin said of
Kath: “Mother’s aim in life was to equal or better anything with testicles –
and if that couldn’t be achieved the testicles were removed!”
Read
more about Kath and her military family in Outback here.
6. Charmaine Potter
Rural
Australia is all the stronger for the women mentioned above, yet to be truly
strong every community needs a Charmaine Potter.
Charm
is our heart. The tennis club committee, the CWA, the SES or the rural fire
brigade – Charm is there volunteering her time. At the local dog trials she is
in the judge’s box, giving scores without fear or favour. When blood is spilt
Charm will be rung before the ambulance. And to the aged of the community she
is a godsend.
Charm
grew up on a starvation block outside Roma before moving with her husband to
Bedwell Downs in northern New South Wales where for twenty years she “picked up
every fence on the place often with a kid on one hip and a crowbar and a roll
of wire slung over my shoulder”. She has been a wool-classer, a rabbit breeder,
a sewing teacher and so much more yet she describes herself as “just a farmer’s
wife”. And for that I could just smack
her.
Charm
is one of the heartbeats that make rural Australia live and breathe. She epitomises
all that the rural woman is – all her strengths, all her doubts, all her dreams
and all her actions.
Read
more about Charm here.
Rural
women. It makes me proud to know them. It makes me proud to be one.
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