West Australian Bec Bignell is a passionate film-maker and producer who’s determined to get the ‘real’ regional, rural and remote Australia on screens everywhere.

She wants more films shot in rural Australia.

She wants crews to spend more time learning about rural Australia, by living there.

She wants more rural Australians employed in the film industry, especially if they are filming in town.

And she wants film crews to remain invested in these communities long after filming is done.

Given the conviction of this conversation, we have a feeling Bec will succeed.

Her film, Homespun (filmed on her family's sheep and grain farm at Kojonup) is a prime example of what can be achieved and the kind of nuanced stories we need to be telling. Keep an eye out for its release later in 2022.

Plants, place, space, escape; everything about gardens and gardening, it’s all a balm for our guest today Cassandra Hooke who lives, and gardens, on the Hay Plains in the New South Wales Western Riverina.

You might know Cass as @outbackgardens on Instagram where she documents the growth of her newly established garden on the Plains in nothing more than a friendly and helpful nature.

If you’ve read the Autumn issue of Graziher you’ll also know Cass, from her beautiful article written by Victoria Carey and photographed by Emma Cross.

How this all came to be, is not what you think. As with any person’s story there are roots and twists and turns that have led Cass to value the effects of gardening and nurturing plants and growing a place way more than this nature lover ever expected.

Torie Finnane was a midwife, one of the best they say.

As a person she was infectious, drawing people into her metaphorical embrace.

Through her work delivering babies she touched the lives of so many mother’s in huge ways.

This story is heart breaking because Torie died.

She tragically lost her life just days after giving birth to her third child when she contracted bacterial meningitis.

And even though she’s not physically here - this embrace, this touch that I mentioned lives on.

It’s something her friends and family, especially her husband Liam Finnane actively keep alive though the Torie Finnane Foundation for women and babies, which was set up in her memory one year ago.

And so today, for the first time on Life on the Land we’re speaking with a male – Liam Finnane – Torie’s husband.

Sandra Scott isn’t your average retiree. The 81-year-old co-owns Australia’s most isolated pub - the Mt Dare Hotel - alongside her husband, Graham.

The pair threw in the farming game seven years ago, after 45-years on the land in Victoria. Instead of putting their feet up, the dynamic duo decided on a desert change – and have never looked back. Sandy says moving to the hotel – which is on the Western edge of the Simpson Desert in South Australia, just 10km south of the Northern Territory border – is the best thing they’ve ever done.

When they’re not serving ice cold beers to or what Sandy calls “the best coffee in hundreds of kilometres” to travellers, Sandy and Graham are the first responders to those who’ve come a cropper in the desert – rescuing intrepid adventurers who find their vehicles are no match for the Aussie outback.

Our host Emily Herbert doesn't usually think about what she will eat during the day, because she don’t have to. She knows there will be food in her fridge, her freezer or her pantry.

Because of this, she says she's one of the richest people in the world. And realising recently just how many Australians are going hungry, or with little access to fresh, quality food, was a big reality and privilege check for Emily.

This episode is a little different as we have two stories for you in one podcast. One is with South Australian lamb producer Robyn Verrall and the other is with country music singer and proud Bidjari woman, Jessica Wishart who is based in Alice Springs.

These women come from different backgrounds but they have a common goal — to tackle food and in particular meat insecurity — in remote Aboriginal communities. Together, they founded Kere to Country, one of Australia’s only Aboriginal led and run meat distribution companies — delivering bulk meat packages on country, with affordable, interest-free payment plans.

First we spoke to Jessica, who is an award-winning country music artist. Her love of singing, and song writing, was ingrained in Jessica when she was a little girl growing up in Alice Springs.

If you are interested in helping donate meat or money to Kere to Country you can contact Jessica or Robyn via the Kere to Country website.

We’re breaking from normal transmission this week – to bring you a special episode for Mothers Day in Australia – to mark the wonderful women who made us who we are, who held our hands while young and old and even in spirit, who let things slip, pass a knowing wink over the dinner table, fold our clothes, make our meals, exercise in the early hours so they can give more of themselves to us. Mothers are all the things – tough and gentle all at once – leading a role that way more powerful and far reaching than any single woman we’ve celebrated on this podcast before.

Mrs Abbey, Pauline, is also our guest today, mother to 12 children and is pure dedication personified.

And as a parting note we'd like to say, Happy Mothers Day today – to those who are trying so hard to become mums, to those who have lost their mums, who don’t speak with their mum’s, who miss their mums and to the mum’s who’re blazing the trial for a new kind of motherhood and those who are in the thick of being mum’s day in day out - and if you find it hard to thank you Mum – maybe you could share this episode her – and let the words speak for themselves.

Wendy McCarthy AO's list of achievements, influences and involvements is too long to mention them all. She was a founding member of Women’s Electoral Lobby and continues to be an advocate for women.

She has held many significant leadership roles in key national and international bodies including Deputy Chair of the ABC, Chancellor of the University of Canberra, Chair of Headspace, Chair of Australia’s leading Circus, Circus Oz and much much more.

But her life as a child was difficult – and she learned to be tough and bold – against the domestic situations that threatened to arise as a result of her fathers alcoholism.

Wendy offers some sage advice on leadership and how to change the rules – do persist with your listening - and to end there is a word on respect.

Many of us spend our days hooning from one task to the next whilst frantically keeping all the balls in the air, career, family, animals, properties and ageing parents. We tend to take our health for granted until one day, for some, there comes a diagnosis which leaves us little room for complacency.

May is the month for The May 50K raising vital funds for vital research for Multiple Sclerosis. There are more than 25,000 Australians living with MS and today's guest, Lynda MacCallum is one of them.

Lynda is up at dawn most days alongside her husband Jim, training their homebred quarter horses for the next bug Cutting event while running 400 head of beef cattle on their property near Walcha in the cool New England hills in northern New South Wales.

Horses are medicine to Lynda and have been an integral part of her therapy since her MS diagnosis in 2018. But long before the appointments, the scans and the Neurologists, horses were interwoven in the fabric of Lynda's life.

This week's podcast is sponsored by Sorority Clothing. A relatively new brand, which was founded in 2021 by Cara who; after living in London for many years wanted to bring a little piece of this to Western Qld. ⁠

Sorority Clothing has quality cotton pieces that are not only wearable and timeless but would suit any age, shape and style. Liberty of London is the main signature collection and the beautiful blouses, headbands and accessories have sold out many times over. New styles are now available.

She describes herself as a 'sometimes farmer'. You’ll rarely find her milking the cows but without her, her family may not be able to make a living from dairy cows nor live on-farm – for there would be no one to ensure her children get a good education in a bigger city, drive long distances to sporting events, move a mob of cows at a minutes notice, make business phone calls or generally tie up all the loose ends to form some semblance of an ordered life.

I think many of you might also be sometimes farmers.

Meg Bignell, who grew up on a farm growing Hops for the Cascade Brewery in Tasmania is also a published author, she’s a trained trauma nurse, she presented the weather in the Tassie nightly news, wrote medical scripts for Channel 7’s All Saints – and there is more – including her soon to be released dissertation on the modern-day feminist, her novel The Angry Women's Choir.

Thank you to Boarding Schools Expo for sponsoring this episode. "Boarding Schools Expo Australia has been a trusted resource for families searching for the right boarding school for their children and now they're reaching right across Australia."⁠

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Newly launched Boarding Expo 365, is a virtual Expo reaching families across Australia- whether you're up in the Kimberley, flying choppers east of Normanton or making brie on King Island - Boarding Expo 365 will showcase schools right from your kitchen table! Head to their website www.boardingexpo.com.au to discover your boarding school options today⁠

Social media can be a real mixed bag. There’s so much juiciness about it – its power of connectivity, its ability to help forge new, global friendships, it' enriching escapism, its use as a portal to new worlds and as a tool for information.

But there are the downsides, too. Trolls, for one. If you’re not careful, Instagram can play perfectly into the hands of the old saying, comparison is the thief of joy. That’s one of the reasons why Emily Herbert enjoyed today’s guest so much. Marion Saunders is the fabulous woman behind the Instagram account @mazlifestyle and it is joy on a grid.

Maz is a grandmother, designer, entrepreneur and something of an Insta It girl. She lives on a property near the tiny community of Carinda in the far north of NSW, nearly 90 kilometres from Walgett and 100km from Coonamble.

Maz is cheerfulness personified. Em laughs out loud at some of her reels and just love her positivity and zest for life, and how she brings humour and a contagious sense of fun to her everyday. She’s all about getting women to love the skin they’re in; boosting confidence in her 30,000 followers.

Yet her journey to representing self-love and confidence has been a long road - leaving high school when she was 16 after struggling with her sense of self and where she fit in.