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Hosted by Stephanie Trethewey. Motherland shares real, raw, and unbelievable stories of motherhood told by women on the land. Each week, a rural mum from somewhere in Australia shares her motherhood journey. You'll hear stories of true grit, resilience, grief, and pure joy. Motherhood is the most life changing and transformative journey a woman can go through, and it's not always easy. No matter where you live or what you do, we're in this together and you're not alone.
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Kelly Johnson lives a purposeful life running a heartfelt food-waste enterprise from her houseboat on the Murray River. But the road here has been anything but smooth. As a mum to identical twins with autism and a youngest son who survived BECAUSE of a medical mistake, Kelly’s early motherhood years were filled with illness, and deep exhaustion… including one incredibly dark moment she’s bravely chosen to share. Through every challenge, Kelly rebuilt, adapted, and found strength. Now, that sa...
Demi Crooks always wanted to be a Mum. But she never knew that her journey into Motherhood would be so challenging nor that it would threaten to take her life. After two gruelling rounds of IVF - Demi successfully conceived her first son River. It was a mentally and physically challenging three years - Demi thought the worst was over but the journey was just beginning. After River was born, Demi developed what Doctors called the ‘worst case of Mastitis they’d seen in 25 years.’ It left ...
When Jenny Lutz became a mum at 22, she had no idea how profoundly her world was about to change. After a traumatic birth and months of sleepless nights, her baby boy Greg cried constantly, struggled to feed, and couldn’t be soothed. Living rurally in Queensland, Jenny faced exhaustion, isolation, and heartbreak, navigating early motherhood with no answers and little support. It wasn’t until Greg was 11 that she finally received the diagnosis she’d spent years searching for: autism. In a time...
From a childhood spent building fences and mustering cattle on her family’s remote Northern Territory station, to life in a Swiss city where she could see France from her balcony, Megan Holzwart’s story is one of grit, adventure, and deep reflection on motherhood. After years abroad, she’s now back in the bush, raising two young kids in Katherine and running KICS- the Katherine Isolated Children's Service, a remote, mobile playgroup for socially and geographically isolated children and famili...
Before she was known as The Jungle Doctor, travelling the world as a wildlife vet, dehorning rhinos in South Africa and fitting elephants with prosthetics, Dr Chloe Buiting was a barefoot kid in the bush on Lord Howe Island. That tiny island sparked her lifelong fascination with the natural world and taught her what it means to belong...to live close to nature and be shaped by it. Today, Chloe is a conservationist and mother of two on Kangaroo Island, splitting her year between global work wi...
Once upon a time, in the small farming town of Finley in southern New South Wales, there was a boy who spent his afternoons chasing footies across dusty paddocks and helping his parents on the land. That boy grew up to be one of the greatest AFL forwards the game has ever seen. Today, I chat with three-time premiership player, father of three and Geelong legend, Tom Hawkins. As you’ll hear, for Tom, life was never just about football. It was about family. About home. About the kind of hard wo...
Claire Brett’s story begins in a country pub on the NSW/QLD border — a lively, dusty place where everyone knew your name. But after losing her dad at just five, grief became a quiet thread through her life. Years later, on a farm in Kentucky, NSW, Claire and her husband Jake built a life together and welcomed their first child... until pregnancy loss changed everything. While trying for her second baby, Claire endured five miscarriages in a row, each one testing her strength, faith, and ident...
What does it really mean to do the work before becoming a dad? For today's guest, Queensland farmer Dave Woods, fatherhood wasn’t something he wanted to just stumble into. He wanted to be prepared. So, long before he and his wife Alice welcomed their three children, Dave confronted his own mental health struggles head-on, determined to build the kind of stability he hoped his kids would grow up with. In this conversation, Dave opens up about growing up on his family’s farm, the pressure...
When journalist Virginia Tapscott became a mum, she thought she’d be back at work within six months. But motherhood had other plans. Raised on a cattle and cropping farm near Narrabri, Virginia had built a career telling stories that mattered, first in the city and later back in the bush she loved. But once she became a mother, life on the farm with young children gave her a front-row seat to the invisible labour of care. Balancing paid work with childcare drop-offs, she realised what society...
What does it mean to be a good man in the bush? For Matthew Tonkin, the answer has transformed over time. Growing up the youngest of five on his family’s farm near the NSW–Queensland border, Matthew believed a man’s worth was in hard work and providing for his family. But as farm debt and expectations mounted, he equated strength with silence—a silence that led to drinking, despair, and darkness. Seven years sober, Matthew now speaks openly about vulnerability, self-respect, and caring for yo...
12 years ago, Piers Dumaresq walked away from the high-flying world of Sydney wealth management, to return home to the family farm in Tasmania with his future wife. On paper, it looked like a tree-change success story: a 200-year-old family farm, marriage, two children, and a future firmly rooted in the soil. But behind the original stone buildings of Mount Ireh, life wasn’t as simple on the family front. Piers’s marriage ended when his children were still little, and in the after...
Tick Everett is a man who never imagined he’d be the face of a national movement. For decades, he worked the land, raised his daughters, and built a life around family and farming. But in January 2018, that life changed forever. At just 14, Tick’s youngest daughter, Dolly, died by suicide after an extended period of bullying and cyberbullying. Soon after, Tick and his wife Kate launched Dolly’s Dream. Today's episode isn’t the story you’ve heard before. With honesty and vulnerability, he open...
12 years ago on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula, three farmers looked in the mirror and didn’t like what they saw. So they founded Fat Farmers, a grassroots movement now inspiring rural communities to get moving, check in on each other, and quietly save lives. One of the founders is Ben Wundersitz, a fifth-generation farmer from Maitland, SA — a state still crippled by drought. Ben shares how those first awkward workouts grew into 35 groups nationwide, the mental health conversations that h...
When Renae Black stepped into her second maternity leave, she was in the thick of postnatal anxiety and overwhelm. Instead of letting it swallow her, she opened her laptop and set herself a challenge: write a book before going back to work. By the time she returned to the office, she had four manuscripts under her belt! Raised on a farm north of Wagga, Renae’s childhood was full of cattle, dogs, snakes and even the occasional ostrich. That sense of small-town grit and community never left her...
There was a day when Stuart Austin picked up the phone and called his wife, asking her to come home because he needed her. He wasn’t sick, and he wasn’t injured…but he was in a very dark place, and he knew he couldn’t get through it alone. Stu is a cattleman, entrepreneur, and father of three. His story stretches from long days on Northern Territory stations, working on ranches in Canada, 8 years as General Manager of Wilmot Cattle Co, and now, his own advisory business, Audacious Ag. But thi...
Dr Tjanara Goreng Goreng is a mum, grandmother, academic and author. A proud Wakka Wakka/Wulli Wulli woman, she was born in 1958 in Longreach, central western Queensland. Her story is one of resilience across generations. Under the Queensland Act, Aboriginal people were controlled and forced onto missions — but her great-grandfather kept the family on Country by working the land and negotiating with station owners, ensuring their culture survived. From this foundation, Tjanara’s life unfolded...
John Hassell has spent his life farming in Western Australia, raising three kids, and now spoiling grandkids. As Vice President of the National Farmers Federation, he’s fought for fairer outcomes for farmers and sparked deeper conversations about rural mental health. His drive comes from lived experience — grappling with succession pressures, crushing financial stress, and a battle with depression that once left him collapsed on the shearing shed floor. Behind his grit and humour is a raw sto...
Kirsty Evans swore she’d never have kids. Then came motherhood, farm succession, and floods. Raised in Dubbo by a single mum, Kirsty built a career in corporate law and imagined a child-free city life. But love (and a six-foot-five farmer from Orange) changed everything. Now a mum of three, solicitor, and partner in a farming enterprise, Kirsty juggles family, career, and life on the land. Her path into motherhood wasn’t smooth. After her third child she faced postnatal depression, learning t...
Paige Schmidt was just 23 when she became a mum for the first time, living and working on a remote cattle station in central Queensland. From the challenges of raising kids whilst so isolated, to managing her own chronic illness, she's faced more than her fair share of health hurdles. Living hours from the nearest hospital, she’s had to navigate her children’s unexpected medical emergencies while adapting to a life-changing diagnosis herself. Today, Paige shares her story with honesty and str...
The secret is out. Introducing... Father Land 💚 A special podcast series dropping Wednesday September 3rd right here on the Motherland Podcast channel! Proudly supported by Nutrien Ag Solutions. https://www.instagram.com/motherlandaustralia
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