It's fair to say that 2020 has been a tough year for most, certainly an extraordinary year like we’ve never seen before. But for today’s guest, young dairy farmer Tahlia McSwain from Busselton in south west Western Australia it’s been a shocker. Earlier this year she took a job as a stockwoman, escorting sheep and cattle on a live export vessel. She’d done it before and she should have been home the family dairy farm within a matter of weeks. But things went wrong. Complications with COVID 19 which are still unclear to Tahlia saw herself and the crew onboard stranded on the vessel unexpected for 170 days. This took Tahlia to the depths of her mental strength to get through the days.

But it doesn't end there, shortly after she finally arrived back home in Western Australia, one of the crew members tested positive to COVID 19 whipping up a West Australian media frenzy. Also while on board she lost some of her colleagues in a nightmarish tragedy when the live export vessel they were working on capsized in the south china sea.

The good news is that she’s at home now - and in a weird way - almost back to normal life. This is her story.

Life on the Land is an independently produced podcast for the Graziher magazine. If you want to read more about the wonderful women of the land in Australia, you can subscribe to Graziher yourself or buy a subscription for a friend at graziher.com.au

Thank you to the Sponsor for this episode PharmOnline a new start up business based in Walcha new South Wales.

We’ll back next week with another episode of Life on The Land.