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
310 episodes
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
277: Claire Brett’s Journey Through Five Miscarriages and the Courage It Took to Keep Going
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, N...
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58:45
#7: Facing Himself First: Dave Woods on Fatherhood & Challenging our Approach to Mental Health in the Bush
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 we...
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1:06:43
276: Virginia Tapscott on Why All Mothers Work and Why It’s Time the World Valued Care
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, ...
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1:12:15
#6: Sobriety, Vulnerability & Masculinity on the Land with Matthew Tonkin
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 p...
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1:13:33
#5: Piers Dumaresq — Rebuilding After Divorce and Putting Fatherhood Before Farming
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 far...
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1:01:51
#4: Dolly’s Dad Tick Everett Speaks on Fatherhood, Family and Fighting On
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, Tic...
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1:14:21
#3: Ben Wundersitz — From Fat Farmers to Fit Fathers, A Movement Saving Rural Lives
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 q...
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55:20
275: From Anxiety to Author: How Renae Black Wrote Her Way Through Motherhood
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....
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47:03
#2: From Rock Bottom and Back — Stuart Austin on How Fatherhood Saved His Life
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 ...
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1:34:25
274: Dr Tjanara Goreng Goreng’s Extraordinary Lifelong Work of Healing and Fighting Her Demons
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 A...
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59:06
#1: NFF Vice President John Hassell on his journey through depression, succession and showing up as a dad
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 abo...
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48:42
273: Kirsty Evans swore she’d never have kids. Then came motherhood, farm succession & floods
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 ...
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57:38
272: Paige Schmidt on Motherhood, Medical Emergencies, & Managing Chronic Illness Remotely
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 mo...
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50:36
Father Land: A special series launching September 3rd!
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
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271: Country Music Artist Shenai Johnston On Finding Her Voice Again After Loss
Country singer songwriter Shenai Johnston grew up near Ongerup in WA with music in her veins — singing from the moment she could talk, winning competitions, and chasing her dreams. But at 19, she lost her mum — and with her, the music she loved...
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51:57