Motherland Australia
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.
Episodes
348 episodes
Father Land S2E3: John Murdoch on reaching breaking point, fatherhood & life after the fires
John Murdoch likens people to rubber bands. You can only stretch them so far. And for him, the breaking point came during the drought and bushfires of 2019 and 2020. Years earlier, he’d left a career in accounting to return to the family farm i...
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314: Nikita Hayes on Station Life, Raising Irish Twins & the Night Her Family Lost Everything
In June this year, Nikita Hayes was home with her two little boys when their house caught fire. They escaped, but within hours, almost everything they owned was gone. Just a few months on, she’s speaking publicly in depth about what happened fo...
Father Land S2E2: Charlie Arnott on family legacy, finding himself & his extraordinary path to fatherhood
Charlie Arnott’s great-great-great-grandfather founded Arnott’s Biscuits. His grandfather helped create the Tim Tam. And Charlie became the first in five generations to forge a different path. At just 25, he unexpectedly took over his family’s ...
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313: Kristie Bargenquast on Mothering on the Land Through a Life-Changing Disability
Kristie Bargenquast was pregnant with her son, Mitchell, when she went searching for answers about her own health. Everyday movements were becoming harder, and when Mitchell was just over a year old, Kristie was diagnosed with limb-girdle muscu...
Father Land S2E1: Brendan Cullen on Facing His Demons, Fatherhood and the Swim of His Life
Brendan Cullen lived 600 kilometres from the nearest beach when he decided to become an open-water swimmer. Training before dawn in lakes and dams, he went on to swim the English Channel in 2022 - spending 17 hours in the water and covering 64 ...
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312: Amie Penny Left Sydney With No Job & No Farming Experience — Now She Runs 1,200 Cattle
Amie Penny was born and raised in suburban Sydney and was building a promising career at Macquarie Bank when one weekend on a family farm near Cowra changed everything. Within a month, she’d quit her job and moved into a rundown farmhouse with ...
311: Fiona Bryant's Secret Fight to Become a Mum of Five — Plus Raising a Son with Diabetes
Fiona Bryant always knew she wanted to be a mum — she just didn't know how hard she'd have to fight for it. After a polycystic ovaries diagnosis, Fiona faced years of fertility treatment, multiple miscarriages and gruelling trips to IVF appoint...
310: Jess Guthrie On Finding Love on Farmer Wants a Wife, Fighting Endo & Finally Becoming Mum
During one of Melbourne’s lockdowns in 2020, Jess Guthrie’s friend convinced her to apply for a little show called Farmer Wants a Wife. Jess and Andrew met on the show, spent 11 months navigating a long-distance relationship and eventu...
309: How Young Farm Manager Liz Escaped a Coercive and Controlling Relationship
At 21, Liz thought she was building a business, a relationship and a future. Three years later, she walked away carrying debts in her name that she hadn't created and questioning everything she once believed about herself. Liz grew up in Queens...
308: Georgie Cavanagh on the Chance Meeting at a Rural Pub That Took Her from Sydney Life to Farm Life
Nine years ago, Georgie Cavanagh was living in Sydney, working in influencer marketing while building her French linen and homewares brand, Carlotta + Gee. Farm life was the furthest thing from her life plan. But during a work trip to Orange, s...
307: Jo Edson On Her Wild Adventures From Sheep Stations, Bodybuilding & Losing Herself in Motherhood
Jo Edson first met her partner Nathan at a country rodeo in South Australia more than a decade ago. Before life brought them back together, Jo spent years chasing adventure across Australia. She worked on sheep stations, milked cows in Tasmania...
306: Lezli Burgess on Leaving Texas for Love and Building a Life on Remote Bruny Island
Lezli Burgess was living in Austin, Texas when she met the love of her life. The only problem? He was from Tasmania. Just six months later, she moved to the other side of the world for a man she barely knew. Today, she's raising two young sons ...
305: "Why Not Me?" Kirstin Fox's Extraordinary Story of Rebuilding Again and Again After Loss
By the time Kirstin Fox was 35, she had been married twice, lost a daughter to stillbirth, and rebuilt her life more times than most people ever will. Growing up on a small farm outside Young in regional NSW, Kirstin never imagined the heartbre...
304: Rodeo Champion Shianne O'Donoghue-Kent on Becoming a Stepmum of Four & a Pregnancy That Nearly Took Her Mobility
Shianne O'Donoghue-Kent entered her first rodeo at five and by 25 had won Australian rodeo titles, spending most of her life in the saddle. What she didn't expect was becoming a stepmum to four children before 30, or facing a pregnancy that nea...
303: Jess Reynolds on Raising Neurodivergent Kids, Burnout & Finding Herself Again
Jess Reynolds lives in the Snowy Valley region of NSW, helping run her family’s Angus stud while raising four daughters with her husband. Warm, funny and incredibly jovial by nature, Jess also has a deeply reflective side that shines through in...
302: Lacey Long on Building Buck Wild Country, Raising 3 Kids & Backing Herself
At just 19, Lacey Long launched her first online clothing store—long before online shopping became the norm. A proud indigenous woman with an entrepreneurial spirit, Lacey later founded Buck Wild Country after struggling to find the kind of cou...
301: Katie Craig’s Incredible Journey Raising Her Son After Becoming a Widow at 29
Katie Craig thought she knew what motherhood might look like. She and her husband Lachy were building a life together in Biloela, Central Queensland, and after years of worrying endometriosis might affect fertility, they were overjoyed to be ex...
EPISODE 300: Lottie Rae’s Most Honest Conversation Yet: Motherhood, Chaos & Change
You might know Lottie Rae from Australian Survivor. Or from Portrait Artist of the Year, where she painted Ken Done. Or maybe from the time Gigi Hadid slid into her DMs and bought one of her paintings for Bella. Perhaps you follow her art onlin...
299: Mum of 4 Nikki Lyons on Setting Shearing World Records, Mental Toughness & Motherhood
Nikki Lyons didn’t grow up on the land. She was raised in Western Australia, and only discovered agriculture as a teenager. But by 17, she’d bought her first shearing kit and started chasing work in sheds across the country. More than 20 years ...
298: Cailyn Muntelwit on Breaking Generational Cycles, Neurodivergence & 48 Hours in Paris
Cailyn Muntelwit grew up on cattle properties across Central Queensland in a loving but emotionally unstable home, navigating school, undiagnosed neurodivergence, and a brain that never switched off. At 19, she met her partner Frank in the stoc...
297: Alison Gossage on Postpartum Rage and the Decision to Leave the Land
Not long ago, Alison Gossage made a decision that some rural women quietly face… but rarely talk about. She left the land. Ali is a mum of two, who was living and working on a farm in Esperance, WA, building a life in agriculture alongside her ...
296: Ellen Fitzgerald on Unimaginable Loss, Motherhood & the Rural Childcare Crisis
Ellen Fitzgerald is a mum of three living on a cattle property northwest of Longreach. Like so many rural mothers, her days are full… raising children, running a business, and building a life on the land alongside her husband. But recently, Ell...
295: Courtney Moir on Winning Muster Dogs and the Hobby That Became Her Lifeline
Last month, rural mum of two Courtney Moir was crowned the winner of Muster Dogs Season Four. But there’s a lot more to her story than what you saw on TV, and today she shares all of it publicly for the first time. From working in banking, to s...
294: Rachel Bjelke-Petersen on Following Her Gut & the Pothole That Changed Everything
Rachel Bjelke-Petersen spent her childhood weekends travelling Queensland’s campdraft circuit with her dad. While horses, cattle and red dirt were always part of her, life took her in many directions — but something was always missing.After spi...
293: Tahnee McCarthy On Motherhood, Her Husband’s Life-Changing Farm Accident & Finding Herself Again
Tahnee McCarthy is a paediatric physiotherapist, mum of two, and stepmum to one living outside Wagga Wagga in New South Wales. The life she’s building with her young family has been shaped by extraordinary challenges. After the traumatic birth ...