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
325 episodes
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...
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38:39
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 ...
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1:06:29
292: How A Chance Encounter With Alpacas Changed Michelle Hamilton’s Life & Helped Her Find Joy Again
Michelle Hamilton lives on a farm in Central Queensland with her husband Pete and son Wiley. Growing up on the land, she thought she was ready for rural life — but motherhood brought challenges she never saw coming including post natal depressi...
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57:14
291: Vanessa Bell's Life From High Fashion to High Country, And How Wool Healed Her
Vanessa Bell has lived many lives in one. Discovered at just 15, she was launched into high fashion — travelling the globe and shooting for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. But behind the glamour came grit. A chapter marked by domestic violence, slee...
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58:29
290: Kimberly Stevens Turned the Loss of Her Son into A Lifeline For Other Parents
Kimberly is a psychologist and mum from Moranbah, Queensland. Five years ago, her world was shattered when she lost her 13-year-old son, Ethan, just nine weeks after a leukemia diagnosis. Ethan was a talented young footballer, signed to the Bro...
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1:14:59
289: Prue McCormack on Navigating Her Son's Autism & ADHD Diagnosis in the Bush
Prue McCormack is a sixth-generation cattle farmer in the Hunter Valley, NSW, a vet, and a mum of two. When her son Jock was three, Prue and her husband began noticing developmental delays. What followed were long waitlists, countless appointme...
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1:00:56
288: Born for Motherhood - Laura Wilson's Incredible Journey Raising 6 Kids Under 10
Laura Wilson lives in Quilpie in far western Queensland, where she and her partner Jake are raising six children under the age of ten. Yes, six! A registered nurse by background, Laura always knew she wanted to be a mum. What she maybe didn’t p...
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1:06:28
BONUS ep: Kylie Lindsay on Motherhood at 40, Anxiety and Juggling an Incredible Career
Today I’m thrilled to bring you a bonus episode with Kylie Lindsay, Head of nbn Local in Queensland, for a powerful conversation about leadership, motherhood, mental health, and regional connectivity. Kylie shares her journey from growing up in...
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34:34
287: Corrina Rawlinson on When You Can’t Push Through Anymore and Finding Joy Again
Today's episode is one of the most raw and important conversations I’ve ever shared. Corrina Rawlinson is a rural mum from Esperance, WA — a businesswoman and straight shooter, bravely telling the truth about what motherhood and mental illness ...
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1:05:58
286: Why Rachel Kirby Chose to Live in a Caravan, Raise Three Kids, & Work the Shearing Circuit
Rachael Kirby’s version of motherhood looks nothing like it did a year ago. After growing up in rural central NSW and meeting her husband in the shearing sheds out west, she’s now raising three young kids (with a fourth on the way) while living...
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51:44
285: Belinda Vivers’ extraordinary story of love, loss, betrayal and rebuilding her life
Today's episode is a story of love, unimaginable loss, betrayal, and deep, hard-won hope. Belinda Viver’s daughter Adelaide tapped me on the shoulder at a Motherland event last year and said, “You need to speak to my mum.” She was righ...
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54:51
THROWBACK: How city girl turned pilot & farmer Debbie Dowden has "seized life by the throat"
Debbie Dowden arrived in Australia by boat when she was just 3 years old. Her family were ‘10 pound poms’ in search of a sunnier life in Australia. Little did she know that life would see her raising 4 children 600kms from Perth in Outback West...
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46:11
THROWBACK: Sonja Chrystal on growing up with a paraplegic farming dad, no mum, & surviving PNDA
Weeks before Sonja Chrystal was born, her father was in a farming accident and became a paraplegic. Months after she was born, her mother packed her bags and left her paralysed husband and two little girls, and never returned. Her dad and her g...
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1:10:43
THROWBACK: Queen of the jungle & netball superstar Liz Ellis on fame, farming & fertility
When I say the name Liz Ellis, you probably think one of three things:One of the greatest Netballers our country has ever seen A very funny media commentatorThe winner of I’m A Celebrity Get Me out of here a f...
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56:04
THROWBACK: The heart-warming tale of how Phoebe White inherited a mountain
Phoebe White has had a lot of titles and lived in a lot of places in her 35 years. She’s been a PE Teacher in Sydney. A Fashion stylist in London. A High-profile real estate agent in Miami. But it’s the two she’s been given in the past eight ye...
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37:08
THROWBACK: Five Children, One Remarkable Woman: Louise Taheny’s story
At 56, Louise Taheny has lived a very big life. The twists and turns and setbacks have truly made her who she is today; a very remarkable woman, as you’re about to hear. Louise was born and raised in regional South Australia, and met her husban...
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57:21
284: Whitney Spicer on Motherhood, Identity & How Art Changed Her Life
Whitney Spicer always dreamed of becoming a mum. What she didn’t expect was that a few sample pots of Bunnings paint would change the course of her life. While raising her babies, Whitney picked up a paintbrush again — and it grew into...
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53:55
284: Amanda Ferrari & the Boarding School Journey That Changed Everything
Amanda Ferrari grew up in Sydney with no ties to agriculture, yet felt an undeniable pull to the bush. That path took her from nannying and ag college nights, to Warren, Trangie, the cotton industry, and eventually to a life with her husband, R...
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1:09:48
283: Sarah Henney on Watching the Life She Built Fall Apart and Starting Again
What happens when the life you built falls apart? Sarah Henney moved to Longreach for love, leaving behind her Gold Coast life to build something new. But years of IVF, raising two little boys and feeling the weight of holding everything togeth...
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57:26
282: Kelly Johnson on Motherhood, Miracles & the Grit Behind Her Purpose-Driven Enterprise
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 BECA...
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56:13
281: Demi Crooks and the fight for survival just weeks after becoming a mum during seeding
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....
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43:52
280: Jenny Lutz and her 11 year fight to find answers for her son
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 rur...
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51:09
Episode 279: From the Outback to Switzerland and Back - Megan Holzwart’s Story of Motherhood, Grit & Adventure
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 refle...
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1:06:15
278: The Jungle Doctor: Chloe Buiting on Motherhood, Belonging, and a Life Between Continents
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 ...
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1:02:47
#8: AFL Legend Tom Hawkins on Grief, Footy, Farming and Fatherhood
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 AF...
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1:17:31
