Company

Introducing: Paddock To Paris a Manson Podcasting Podcast celebrating rural and regionlal athletes on their way to the Paris Olympics.

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Today we give you a taste of Skye Manson's conversation with Narrabri born and bred Laura Gourley who's going to Paris to row in the Womens Quad Scull.

Of the 37 athletes on Australia's Rowing team, at least 6 of them are from rural Australia.

This ratio of country to city people is high and so it's fitting that we kick off this podcast - which is all about elevating the stories of rural and regional Australian atheletes heading to Paris - with a sport that's seen a high representation from farm kids over the years.

And 24 year old Laura who'll be rowing in the Women's Quad Skull is no different. She grew up on a cropping farm at Edgeroi, 20 mins outside of Narrabri.

In fact she tributes some of her success: to the kindness of her fellow farming friends. One neighbour lent her a skull - as in a single rowing boat - to train in During Covid. And another neighbour lent her their 2km long irrigation channel - to train on.

Laura and her family have always been sports mad -

Her grandfather left farming to play Rugby League and went on to win two premierships with St George Dragon's in the mid-60's.

But Laura's journey as a rower didn't start until she went to boarding school. She was approached to give rowing a try because of her physique - and things went from there. She was the youngest person in her Rowing 8 and top of the charts on the Urg; The electronic rowing machine.

This is a Manson Podcasting production in partnership with Rabobank Australia.

Production support by Alice Moffitt.

Carmen Quade lives with her husband on a cropping farm at Tallimba near West Wyalong in central west New South Wales. They have five children and two businesses.

Carmen is a total office geek; she LOVES it, and she’s good at it.

And when she realised this was the case, after studying her Masters of Accounting she decided that she’d like to help others become a boss in the office too and started Agrifocused a business training men and women to get the most from all their 'inside' or office jobs.

This conversation moves all over the place, but is still delightful and I stepped up from the recording with a bag full of new things to try in family and business life…… such is the nuance wisdom of Carmen Quade.

More goodness from Carmen Quade can be found on our Daily Routines podcast.

This podcast is produced by Manson Podcasting in partnership with Rabobank Australia.

Have you noticed a boom in rural fashion designers? 

Last September, Holly Goodman and I sat down to record this interview. 

Holly lives in Tamworth with her husband and three young children and is a fashion designer with her own label, Peter Bill, which has morphed from young boys clothing into a really impressive womens range. 

In Spring last year, Holly put on The Rural Runway, a fashion runway and show of some of her favourite rural designers. 

I really loved this - as I suppose I just hope that someone picks up this idea and runs with it. I’d love nothing more than to attend a full blown fashion show made up of designers from all our local towns and communities.

So the interview may be dated but I'm still celebrating the premise of it; creating a platform in which to celebrate and showcase the work of fashion designers in rural Australia.

This podcast is produced in partnership with Rabobank Australia

Find more lifestyle podcasts from rural Australia at mansonpodcasting.com

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This is the story of a unique coming together of a molecular scientist, a farmer and a PR and marketing executive in the beauty industry (all within one family).

Annoyingly; the latter, the marketing and PR exec had experienced dry, cracked lips for the better part of 10 years. 

Fed up; and driven by memories of childhood holidays spent in the family shearing shed, turned to the most natural, (and foolproof product she could think of; Lanolin.

Kirsten Carriol is the founder, creator and CEO of Lanolips Australia a global company that's been running for 15 years now and has a product that's been voted the World's Best Lip Balm.

Kirsten is a city girl at heart, but this story I think shows the importance of gifting on-farm experiences to young minds - who can go on to do anything with their lives and you never know what brilliance, they might create from that.

You can find Kirsten's products at lanolips.com

If you'd like to hear more lifestyle stories from rural Australia we have more podcasts at mansonpodcasting.com

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I’ve never met a farmer like Carly Baker Burnham before.

She is SO in touch with herself. 

She listens to her intuition, works out what she wants and then gains confidence to push forward in that area - no matter how unconventional it may seem to the often traditional mindset of those in agriculture. 

So, how exactly does a large ecological organic beef farmer, who’s also a funeral celebrant, popular BNB owner and manager, with a masters degree in Leadership and Management, who’s deeply connected to the land she owns - oh and mother to four children - get the mix right? 

She listens to herself.

mansonpodcasting.com

With thanks to rabobankaustralia.com

And Carly can be found @bloodwoodcabin and @bonniedoonebeef

Claire Mactaggart amongst other things; has been a contributing writer for - one of Australia's most loved publications - Country Style magazine for 19 years.

She's been a lynchpin in opening the eyes of everyday Australians to the the way of life, homes, gardens and businesses of rural and regional people and families - through countless beautiful stories.

In this sense I think she's a trail blazer. She also a great example of quiet leadership.

Claire is the most lovely person to meet. she's gently spoken, warm and polite - and these trails have not held her back - she's been able to achieve most of the things she has desired all while living 170-odd kms from the supermarket.

She is mother to four girls, a beef producer with her husband Andrew, a board director for Beef Australia, the organisation behind, Beef Week, she's transported a disused church to her farm for renovation and her latest project was the six week transformation of a block of units and an old Queenslander at Cooee Bay near Yeppoon, QLD.

This is a Manson Podcasting production brought to you with thanks to Rabobank Australia.

If I was going to be in QLD there was one woman I just had to interview. Georgie Somerset

But it wasn't the titles to her name that pushed me to tie her down at one of the busiest weeks of her life, Beef Week in Rockhampton, QLD, it was her endless championing of young people in agriculture that most had me intriguied.

Why is she so tireless? How does she manage the time to champion so many from the sidelines? And what's in it for her?

This podcast is brought to you by Rabobank Australia and was recorded in the committee room at Beef Week in Rockhampton in May 2025.

In a bit over a week, in May 2024, Sarah Wheeler and her horses - Shifty and Sally - will set out on The Outback Long Ride, a 5,500km journey through Outback NSW and QLD honouring the lives of her late parents and raising funds and awareness for upper GI cancers through the Pancare Foundation and for her own charity, A Daughter's Way which will support families and individuals suffering tragic loss and grief.

Sarah is one of four girls in the Wheeler family who've suffered through incredible heartache and grief after losing both their parents. Their mother Terri died from biliary cancer and their father Gavin died in 2010 suddenly and unexpectedly from an enlarged heart.

Sarah says feeling broken and lost in the wake of losing two parents in such a short time and so young that, she just knew she wanted to do 'something meaningful and something that would help her to find focus and healing' while helping and inspiring others to do the same.

For her, The Outback Long Ride is the answer to that soul searching and will spread awareness far and wide for her future endeavours of her own charity 'A Daughter's Way'; where she aims to create all expenses paid weekend to 7 day retreats, group camps or group expeditions run by trained mental health professionals, and developed by clinical psychologists and so much more for rural and regional families experiencing grief and loss in Australia.

Sarah's looking forward to hopefully meeting lots of people along the way over the next 9-12 months as well as documenting her travels through photography that she's aiming to turn into a coffee table book, an exhibition and maybe even a documentary.

You can Donate to The Long Outback Ride's page at the Pancare Foundation here.

You can follow The Outback Long Ride at @_beneaththebrim on Instagram

Or here on Facebook

The Outback Long Ride; YouTube

To support low survival Upper GI Cancers go to pancare.org.au  

I first met Cara Spreadborough when we started talking about a sponsorship for our newsletter Company on Sunday’s. (So full disclosure, Cara’s label Sorority Clothing has been paying for a sponsorship of our newsletter for the last six weeks. )

I knew not much about Cara’s high end fashion boutique Inky and Moss in Roma QLD and nothing about her second online label Sorority Clothing. So we got chatting and I learned that most of the shirts in Sorority Clothing are made from Liberty Prints - big tick, huge tick for me. 

We started exchanging Liberty stories …… and then she told me the story of how the business came to be. She’s lost her identical twin sister years ago - and this was Cara’s Ode to her sister - and is a venture in which she feels a strong sense of spiritual guidance and good luck

And then she started telling me about all the one-on-one attention and conversations she has with the people of Liberty in London. 

This is what this podcast is all about. A new clothing label born in Roma Queensland with a direct line to the people in charge of Liberty in London and with shirts manufactured at Lake Como in Italy. 

It happens, but not just in the cities. And we’re here to celebrate it.

Thankyou to Rabobank Australia for its support of this series of Company.

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Jodie Goldsworthy is a co-founder and director of Beechworth Honey based in Beechworth, Vic. When Jodie and her husband Steven decided - out of the blue* - to take on a beekeeping venture of their own they had not a bee hive to thier name. It was starting from scratch. What they did have was four generations of heritage of family knowledge on how to manage bees and produce honey.

Beechworth Honey is a first generation business with a fourth generation heritage. 

30 years on their business is the second largest brand in the Australian Honey market - and the biggest family owned Honey company in Australia. 

Their ascent to this lofty high is built on hard work and a determined integrity to treat all aspects and people within the business how they would like to be treated themselves. Simple mantra. Big results.

*There was never any encouragement nor plan for Jodie to follow in her family's beekeeping footsteps. For all she knew she was set to be a teacher.

Thank you to Rabobank Australia for its support of this Series of the Company podcast.