// Hello again - this week’s pod chat brought me such joy. I’ve been a fan of ‘Miss Chardy’ for years and finally got the chance to sit down with her and get the real story of life on a cattle station in the middle of ‘bum truck nowhere’.

For those of you not familiar with Dan’s alter ego ‘Miss Chardy’, she was born out of a need to connect with women everywhere and dispel some of the myths that surround our most outback women. I’ve been following along since the days when Miss Chardy and her neighbour, Mrs Savvy-B would meet on the boundary for a drink and a chat with the kids every week…. A committed journey of 120km. These meetings which turned into house weekends gave their children the joy of playing with other kids their own age - something we take for granted where we’ve raised our families. 

Dan speaks about the journey to boarding school for her three sons, and the realisation that her youngest, Clancy really needed to head off a bit earlier as 5 years on his own with nobody his own age was not giving him the full breadth of childhood experiences. So so tough for any Mum. He’s thriving, by the way, down in Brisbane at Marist College Ashgrove.

In fact, the whole family is thriving - and Dan is absolutely enjoying every moment of their years at Marist having made the trek from the Northern Territory down to Brisbane countless times.

Dan is most recently renown for her published cook books - she’s a bit of a sour dough guru and regularly does lives on social media sharing her skills with followers all over the world. Her infectious zest for life in remote Australia is breaking down barriers between city and country and there’s nothing more engaging that watching Dan on her travels between Mittibah and Mount Isa or Brisbane or an overseas trip with her mum and sister, or doing what she does with so much love which is feed the station crew. Like she says, the cook holds the crew together - feed them well and they’ll be happy.
Look I could keep going on with this introduction - we talk about ICPA, Sports for Bush Kids and her young life in Mudgee, NSW. But let’s get into this lively chat with Danielle Doyle ‘Miss Chardy’.

Thank you to Courtney Dunn for editing the podcast.