Our guest on Life on the Land this week is prolific rural fiction writer from Western Australian Fleur McDonald. In the last 12 years she’s written 18 books, the latest ‘Something to Hide’ is out this week. Long before Fleur was a writer, she was chasing the dream to be a farmer, hassling the patriarchy at every opportunity so she could build her skills and one-day own her own piece of land.

She realised this dream when she moved to Esperance in Western Australia but her story gradually became complex and difficult, even her writing had to be done in secret sometimes.

Fleur’s own tale is of a lifelong love of the land peppered with challenges; isolation, anxiety, divorce, disability and many disappointments.

Thank you to our Series Sponsor - Blundstone Australia.

Graziher's Autumn Edition is on sale now at your local stockist and for a limited time in selected Coles Stores. This issue is jam-packed with goodness so don't miss it.

From a school of the air childhood, where afternoon’s meant sticky hands from the

molasses feed run in the 90’s drought to riding bikes, chasing birds and starting mini-businesses, there emerged a girl with a quite confidence landing her as a lawyer, an ag-tech innovator and an exciting new advocate with an inimitable spark, that’s hard to extinguish.

Even in the wee hours of the early morning, while soothing sleepless babies, Elisha Parker is excited about the opportunity to spend time not catching up on sleep but working!!

Elisha is from Clermont in Central Queensland. Daytime means working full time as a lawyer.

Night-times mean fine tuning her innovative website cattlesales.com.au which she co-founded in 2015. There’s also two young children in the mix and handful of other community projects – not to mention the fact that she’s the QLD finalist for the Agrifutures Rural Women of the Year award this year. So what is the perfect childhood recipe to produce such a go-getter of women?

By the sounds of things is just a freedom to explore life possibilities.

Thank you to our Series Sponsor - Blundstone Australia.

Graziher's Autumn Edition is on sale now at your local stockist and for a limited time in selected Coles Stores. This issue is jam-packed with goodness so don't miss it.

If you haven't grown up on the land the foray into rural life is often closely followed by a the feeling of isolation, being separated from your people and different from your normal environment where everything you knew was familiar and ordered. Isolation is definitely not unique to the bush it’s a challenge that so many mothers in rural Australia have experienced.

Stephanie Trethewey is one of them and she’s making much of it. Her podcast, Motherland, interviewing ordinary and extraordinary rural Mum’s has had over 110,000 downloads.

Her new vocation is not what Steph ever imagined , she was born in Sydney and with a career as a TV reporter she had not a thought for a life on the land. But on a quiet news day while working in Queensland, she interviewed her now husband Sam Tretheway and thought he was kinda cute and the rest is history. This is her story!

Thank you to our Series Sponsor Blundstone Australia.

Stephanie has also written a piece for the Autumn edition of Graziher which is ON SALE NOW. If you are interested in purchasing a subscription for yourself or a friend visit graziher.com.au

This chick, ARIA award winning Australian country music singer and song writer Fanny Lumsden is a such a legend. The energy that she gives off even via a computer screen is pretty special. Fanny is a born to be entertainer, who somehow maintains the authenticity of a girl who’s grown up on a farm, she sees the true beauty of small communities (insert her Country Halls Tour) in Australia and yet has 8 golden guitars awards sitting on her mantle piece. And is still surprised at the ongoing success or her career.

Part of her story is what happened in 2020. One thing was bushfire - her home was in the middle of the Dunns Road fire. It became a mega-fire, 6-hundred thousand hectares in size. A proper Armageddon. Then on the day her 3rd Album was to be released – COVID lockdown hit. It was bad. We talk about this but not before we wind it back to a topic that’s is pure delight; her childhoods and the days of singing in the sheep shed and doing circus moves on the back of her horses!

Thank you to our series sponsor Blundstone Australia.

If you'd like to meet more women like Fanny, you can do so on the pages of our magazine Graziher. You can purchase a subscription at graziher.com.au

our latest guest was farmer, historian and author Maggie MacKellar who now lives in the tiny town on the east coast of Tasmania – as Maggie so beautifully told us in her interview released on Monday there’s been many bumps in her life. One thing that’s helped her process the blindsides that have beset her is writing and journalling, a discipline she does religiously each morning. Not only has it helped her overcome adversity but her words have become the basis of books and memoirs. So she shares with you, her practise and what it brings to her life on the land.

In her life to-date farmer, historian and author Maggie MacKellar has navigated some of the most horrendously unexpected undertows of life. But now, in her home with her partner, in a tiny town on the east coast of Tasmania, it's their Life on the Land that’s brought her to calmer waters again.

Some of you may already know Maggie’s story, she’s been on ABC TV’s Australian Story twice. The first was the story of her husband, Mike who became acutely unwell with a mental health illness, which quickly took hold of his once healthy mind and escalated to a situation where he took his own life. Maggie was 6 months pregnant with their second child at the time. Then, soon after, Maggie’s rock, the person who gave her breath - her mother - was taken when an acute cancer took her life leaving Maggie reeling again …..

When we asked Maggie if she’d like to be interviewed she was needed to think. Because stepping back in time is not something she, or her children do often …… and when she looks back now, she admits, things are no less hard or harrowing, but they do look a bit different.....

Thankyou to our series sponsor Blundstone.

Our Autumn issue is so close and will be arriving soon on Subscribers doorsteps. If you’d like the same surprise in your mailbox you can subscribe for yourself - or a friend - or both at graziher.com.au

Thanks for listening, we’ll be back next week with another story of Life on the Land.

When I’ve observed todays’ guest from afar, usually at an ag conference or the like, I feel like she’s akin to rural Australia’s version of the Queen. Always impeccably dressed. A woman of strength, who’s practical, like a farmer, in her solutions and it seems that the crowd almost parts when she enters the room.

Robbie Sefton lives with her husband Alastair on a farm close to Tamworth. From town she runs her national communications business, Seftons. It’s been strategising policy, product and service campaigns for government, research organisations and some big corporates like Westpac and Woolworths for more than 30 years. Robbie’s story spans from a childhood in Deni catching rabbits, to dazzling Freo in the Alan Bond days - surviving on champagne and a full freezer of connoisseur ice-creams - to an unexpectedly arduous medical procedure she was lucky to survive then and back home to NSW again, but not before she trucked thousands of sheep across the Nullabor. Robbie’s story is not one bit as you might expect it to be.

Thankyou to our Series Sponsor: Blundstone Australia.

The Autumn issue of Graziher has been sent to the printers and will be arriving in subscribers mail boxes soon. If you want a copy of your own please purchase or subscribe at graziher.com.au

Life on the Land is a Manson + Company production.

Georgie Robertson is a red dirt country girl from way back. Growing up on a sheep station past Ivanhoe, it was a 2.5 hour drive for the Robertson family to the nearest town. She studied via school of the air and understands the heart of country Australia because she’s lived it.

She’s also one of the go-to voices for Public Relations and media communications in the bush, with a client list that includes National Farmers Federation, AgriFutures and Buy From The Bush to name a few.

Running her business, The Regional PR Co, remotely from a property near Coolamon, 40 minutes outside Wagga, Georgie’s clients are regularly featured in national publications and broadcast slots.

But the road to a thriving business hasn’t been linear or without its bumps.

She founded her agency, The Regional PR Co in January 2018 – originally out of total necessity when she, her partner Scotty and her three daughters suddenly found themselves without a home, and Georgie without full-time work.

Thank you to our sponsor for Series 3 of Life on the Land: Blundstone Australia.

The Autumn edition of Graziher is close to going to print and it's another cracking issue. If you missed out on a subscription this Christmas then organise yourself a treat and sign up to receive all our issues here!

This podcast is a Manson + Company production.

There’s nothing quite like the deliciousness of merino on skin. This gorgeous natural fibre is enjoying a real renaissance, and South Australian farmer and designer, Emily Riggs is helping lead the charge with her label, Iris + Wool. She sat down to chat with Emily Herbert with her tiny daughter, Lucy – at the time only 10-weeks-old – strapped to her chest. Designed from her kitchen table on the merino property she shares with her husband Tom and two young children, Emily has created a stunning collection - despite not having a background in fashion, design or retail. While combining her love of high fashion and merino wool, Emily’s label also pays homage to her own mum, Jane, whose journey with cancer is intrinsically interwoven with Emily’s own story.

This episode speaks about cancer and mental ill health. If you want to speak with someone you can call Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636

Thank you to our sponsor for this series of Life on the Land: Blundstone Australia.

The Autumn edition of Graziher is making its way to the printers as we speak and it's another cracking issue. If you missed out on a subscription this Christmas then why not gift yourself a little something?! Do it - here!!

This podcast is a Manson + Company production.

A special episode shining a light on how some of Graziher magazine's contributors (and some others) will be spending Christmas. What's on the menu, who will be there, family rituals and how to prepare for such a big event when your nearest 'big shop' is miles and miles and miles away.

Many thanks to Jane Smith, Claire Mactaggart, Cara Peek, Robbie Sefton and Sophie Hansen for joining us today.

Thank you to the sponsor for this episode the Rural Financial Counselling Service NSW.

And thank you dear listeners for coming with us on our podcasting journey this year. We have so many more wonderful Life on the Land stories lined up for you in Season 3 of the podcast which will launch in the New Year.

If you would like to subscribe to the Graziher magazine, or purchase a 2021 calendar, you can do so at graziher.com.au.