Life on the Land

Pip Brett is like a shower of confetti on a sunshine-y day. She epitomised her styling motto 'More is more, less is a bore. The founder of clothing and homewares emporium, The Sonic located in the Orange in New South Wales, Pip is a total inspiration for regional retail. She is a brightly clad creative whirlwind who innately knows how to bring ideas to life. With a fiercely loyal community and a global following Pip has come a log way from her 21 year old self when she moved home from Sydney to open her first tiny clothes shop Iglou, 14 years ago. While the turbulence of COVID 19 has been a bumpy ride for many in retail Pip describes it as the best worst thing that has happened to the business. It also sparked the merging of her clothing line Iglou and her homewares business Jumbled.

Instagram @jumbledonline

Website jumbledonline.com

Thank you to the sponsor for this episode - Graziher. If you want a reliably lovely treat on the mail each season buy yourself and a friend a subscription today.

Author, blogger and farmer Sophie Hansen is no stranger to the Graziher crowd. She regularly contributes recipes to the magazine, working alongside other rural creatives to bring an everyday eating scene beautifully to life through great photography and styling.

Sophie grew up in the city, in Sydney and only moved to the country when she fell in love with her now husband Tim who lives just outside of Orange in New South Wales. When she came she brought with her a love and talent for many things - cooking, writing and community – and since being in the country, she’s found a way to use these talents to spread the word to an audience in the city about the awesomeness of life on the land. Next year Sophie will publish her third cookbook, she was the Australian Rural Women of the Year in 2016 and each week thousands of people devour her Monday newsletter which she pens from the comfort of her farm – and really she’s is an inspiration to so many women, everywhere.

This episode of Life on the Land is sponsored by Seed Terminator.

If you are enjoying this podcast please subscribe in iTunes (so you'll never miss an episode) and share with your friends in Australia and all over the world.

All over the country people are throwing open their windows allowing the sweet Spring air to infiltrate - homes and minds – and awaken our senses. In most parts of the country it’s a wonderful season, worth celebrating. There are still parts of the country that are dry and dusty, insipid almost and we are thinking of you. Today’s guest, Claire Austin has lived through that and it was during times of drought especially that her wonderful homegrown gardening community became all the more important.

She started the Gin Gin Garden Club as a way to glean tricks from local green thumbs about gardening in a harsher climate. Now it’s become so much more than that, a welcoming community for other young local women to come together and foster their own patches of nature, an online store and even reason to take part in Graziher’s Spring Edition’s cover shoot amongst a sea of blossom.

Thank you to our Sponsor - Rural Financial Counselling Service NSW Southern Region.

If you haven’t got your copy already, the Spring Edition of Graziher is on sale now or you can make sure you never miss an issue by signing up for a subscription at graziher.com.au.

This episode deals with mental ill health and addiction. If this brings anything up for you, you can speak with someone right now at Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Alcohol is considered by many the social lubricant of rural life. We knock off with a beer, celebrate and commiserate with a bevvy and mix a drink with every event, from the footy final to the country races. We often think of alcoholism as swigging out of a brown paper in broad daylight. But there’s an insidious reality that is far more common than we realise – that of a high functioning, professional who looks and sounds like us, but reaches for the bottle behind closed doors.

Shanna Whan was one of these people. The CEO and founder of registered charity, Sober in the Country, Shan is now a national face for advocacy. She’s fit, healthy and happy but six-years ago, life looked a lot different.

Living in Narrabri with her husband Tim and her blue heeler, Fleabag, she moved to Australia from Zimbabwe when she was just six-years old, her family fleeing from civil unrest. Hear her story on Life On The Land today.

You can find Shanna here at Sober in the Country or here on Instagram @sober_in_the_country

Thank you to the sponsor for this episode Blundstone Australia, celebrating 150 Years in 2020.

We would love to know where you’re listening into Life On The Land from – send us a piccie of where you are, or screenshot your app. It gives us such a buzz to see just how diverse the landscapes are that our community lives and thrives in.

We’d also love it if you could continue to support us by sharing these podcasts with your mates and loved ones. Let’s continue to give a voice to women and their stories in the bush.

This is a Graziher podcast, produced by Manson + Company.

For many years now, New Zealand born Fiona Baird has been bringing fun, fashion and a feverishly hard work ethic to her work as a stock woman on live export shipments from Australia throughout all of South East Asia. Her story is so unique because she doesn’t allow the grit and grime of working with animals all day, dampen her style standards of well done hair and strong red lipstick. But it wasn’t always about live export for Fi, she’s lived a colourful life, with a few stops and starts since her childhood days on a farm in the south island of New Zealand. We started by asking her – on reflection – how she feel about the path she's led so far.

You can read more about her story and she some beautiful images of her in the Spring Edition on sale now in your local stockist, or you can gift a subscription to a friend at graziher.com.au.

Thank you to this week's sponsor Blundstone Australia.

And thank you so much for your warm welcome of this new podcast. We are beyond stoked about how it's been received. If you like this episode – or any others – we would love it if you shared it with a friend and if your listening on apple podcasts a rating and a review is still the best way for new people to discover these wonderful stories.

We’ll be back in your ears next week with our another episode of Life on The Land.

Christine humbly refers to herself as a farmer, living mostly in central west NSW but between there and two properties in the far western corner New South Wales with her partner, affectionately know as the Ginga Ninja and she has two grown children living in Canberra and Adelaide.

But her story is remarkable –Christine has always had a deep love for the land and for animals – and her drive to have her own farm and be amongst the natural world has seen her face some huge adversities. She hasn’t escaped these events unharmed – but she tells Skye Manson she just loves the wisdom that comes from getting older and living life – labelling it one big beautiful mess.

This podcast talks about some challenging issues including Domestic Violence. If this raises anything for you, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Thank you to our sponsor for this episode RB Sellers.

You can purchase the Spring issue of Graziher now at your local stockist or subscribe for a friend at graziher.com.au.

This episode has some language which isn’t suitable for little ears, and deals with the aftermath of a bushfire and mental ill health. If this brings anything up for you, you can speak with someone right now at Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Today's guest Georgia Mattschoss is a mum and farmer from South Australia.

What a rollercoaster Georgia has ridden. A series of unforeseen circumstances have thrown some serious curveballs at Georgia over the last decade and her story, which she shares with Emily Herbert, is ultimately one of survival and triumph through some pretty dark times.

A defining moment in Georgia’s life was in 2011, when her dad was tragically killed in a farming accident, something that Georgia and her family continue to grapple with up to this day.

You can find Emily here on Instagram.

Thank you to our sponsors for this episode Seed Terminator.

The Spring issue of Graziher goes on sale this week 17th September 2020, subscriptions are in the mail awaiting delivery. Head to your local stockist to pick up a copy or you can send a friend a subscription via our website here.

Annabelle Hickson isn’t your average country girl, in fact, even though she’s written extensively about her life on the land she still feels like a foreigner travelling to another wonderful planet. She's lived in Moree and now on a farm near Tenterfield in northern New South Wales for almost a decade with her husband Ed and three children and continues to be astonished by her life, lifestyle and the people within it. Her story is about learning the worth of simple things, harnessing ambition and that sometimes a big house in the country isn’t what’s going to make you happy.

This episode of Life on the Land is sponsored by birdsnest. For the month of September birdsnest are giving you $10 off your next order, for orders over $70 - simply enter the code LIFEONTHELAND at the checkout.

If you're enjoying our stories please share them with a friend (or several0 via a text message or show us where you're listening on Instagram stories tagging Graziher.

You can find Annabelle here on Instagram and her updates on her new publication Galah can be found here.

Our guest for today's show is Grace McLeod, a young farmer from Western Victoria.

If you fancy a McLeod's Daughters joke she's already beat you to it - often seen on horseback with her three working dogs never far behind she lives her own version of Drovers Run every day.

Grace is currently managing her family's two properties which straddle the Victorian and the South Australian border with around 6,000 acres of arable and 2,000 acres of grazing for just under 3,500 head of sheep it's been a busy 3 years since Grace came back to work on the farm full time.

She very kindly drove to town to get reception for this conversation with Emily Herbert. They speak about a vast array of topics from mental ill-health, the challenges of isolation on the farm, this year - compounded by COVID-19 and properties by a state border to the importance of travel beyond the farm gate to gain new perspectives.

Thank you so much to this episode's sponsor, Just Country.

Just Country offers gear for out here, designed to keep up with the demands of life on the land, whether that’s Graziers, broadacre or hobby farmers through to rural community groups and committees. Check out their range of workwear and more here.

If you've enjoyed listening to the independant Graziher podcast they help us spread the word by telling a friend (or several) - you can text them this episode or share it on your Instagram stories! Take a screenshot of your app, or show us how you listen by messaging or tagging us @graziher

If you would like to read more stories on interesting and inspirational rural women, you can do so by picking up a copy of the latest edition of Graziher magazine, or you can head to our website www.graziher.com.au to subscribe.

It's fitting that Julie McDonald is our first guest for the Life on the Land podcast. Her story is extraordinary, but many of the challenges and triumphs she's lived through, run parallel to the experience of other women all over rural and regional Australia.

For Julie, her story is about falling in love; a life on the land; her husband Zanda, her four daughters; being CFO of one of Australia largest privately owned, beef enterprises, McDonald Holdings and so many more things. Sadly life was to become unhinged seven years ago, when Zanda, passed away after a farming accident on their cattle property 75 kilometres south of Cloncurry in Queensland. She shares this story and talks about life now with Skye Manson for this edition of Life on the Land.

Thank you so much to this episode's sponsor, the Zanda McDonald Award.

To apply for the 2021 Zanda McDonald Award click here www.zandamcdonald.com

We'll be back next week with the story of another wonderful rural women - make sure you Subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss it.

If you would like to support this independant podcast publication please share it with a friend (or several).

Either text them this episode, or share it on your Instagram stories! Take a screenshot of your app, and show us how you listen by messaging or tagging us – whether that is checking the waters; baking at home; going for an afternoon walk, doing whatever you are doing.

Life on the Land is produced by the Manson + Company podcast production house.