Ep 104: Libby Price _ Part B

This is Part B with Libby Price, picking up after one of the toughest chapters of her career—reporting on Black Saturday.

We dive into a powerful question: how do you cover tragedy and still stay human?

From tough interviews and on-air moments to farming life, “horse heaven,” and her pull back to radio, Libby shares the highs, lows, and lessons from behind the mic.

There’s insight on rural journalism, politics, and supporting women in ag—plus a deeply personal reflection on losing her mother at just 20.

Honest, insightful, and guaranteed to educate, inform, and entertain.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Dip into the heart of Australian agriculture with Told of the Earth farm stories, hosted by Darren Green.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

And I went into the pub and a woman came up and said, Are you to be priced? I said, Yes, I am, and she slapped me across the back in a friendly way.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Welcome back. This is part B of our conversation with Libby Price. And we're picking things up right after one of the toughest parts of her career, reporting on Black Saturday. Libby shares more about the highs and lows of life behind the microphone, the tough interviews, the on-air mishaps, and some classic moments along the way. We talk farming and her move to the country, what she calls horse heaven, and why radio kept calling her back, even after a stint in newspaper. There's wisdom here too. Her tips for good rural journalism, her strong views on politics, and her support for women in aid. And a deeply personal moment. Libby reflects on losing her mother at just 20. It's honest, insightful, and like part A, guaranteed to educate, inform, and entertain. Let's get back into it. And I'll start by asking, how do you cover tragedy and still stay human?

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Put yourself in the other person's shoes. I don't have to do it very often. People it's quite funny, it's almost like you give them a truth serum when something tragic's uh happen in their lives. If they agree to talk, it all comes out. Um and you just have to sit and listen. Oh, the Port Arthur ones, they were the worst.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

That was just Did you choose not to go over?

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Yes, yeah. Yeah, I had small children.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

And uh Sarah Henderson, who's now a senator, she was so ambitious and she wanted to go, so I said, Oh, it's all yours, baby. I'm not going.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

Do you remember where you were when Port Arthur the Port Arthur story broke?

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Yes, I was having lunch with the head of 774, um, who used to work for me, um, Ian Mannix. And yeah, he started getting text messages. And so the lunch was over very quickly, and we all went straight into work.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

Horrible. I remember I was in an OB truck doing the live football, and I was sitting next to Tony Jones, and I was the main contact to the TV station, and they said, um, you know, Studio OB, stand by for an update. There's a possible 25 people shot in Port Arthur. And I had to get them to repeat it a few times before I told and Eddie McGuire was calling it to say quickly announce this. Here's Joe Hall. I could not believe it. I'll never forget that day.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

No, it was shocking. And it was the same with Black Saturday in that the death toll just kept going up and up and up and up. Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

Do those moments change you?

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Change you? Oh hell yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was very proud of what we did. But you don't want to have to do it again. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

Is there one story that still haunts you?

SPEAKER_01 3:41

It was the interview that I logged from Port Arthur about I can't think of his name now, the guy that lost the two children. The gunman was chasing them around a tree. And he actually Martin Brown actually went onto a bus of old people and just started shooting them. And one man just cradled his elderly wife in his arms. Oh, probably the worst one was a woman had her daughter there, and she didn't have custody of the daughter, the husband did. And she didn't tell her ex-husband that they were going to Port Arthur. And when he came into the cafe, the mother said hide in a cupboard. And when he left, her daughter's hat was just on the ground. And he'd opened the cupboard and shut up.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

Oh there you go. That's that would stay with you.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Yeah. Interestingly, I don't have nightmares about them. Thank heavens.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

Well, there's been a few stories over the years.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Yeah. I have nightmares about horses. Horses and husbands.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Did listeners ever surprise you with their support?

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Yes. Equally, when they don't, when they're not supportive. I had one, I won't say where it was, but it was an outside broadcast, and we went to the pub after us for a few drinks. And it took a while for the Bush Telegraph to get around. But I I was having a friendly chat with a farmer, and his wife complained to the ABC that I was flirting with her husband.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

I was like, what?

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Yes, look, it is wonderful. But it was the same working in radio in current affairs. You'd get people who would congratulate you for what you'd done. Because that was tough in those days. The producers who used to, they'd just swear at you down the phone line because they're all based in Sydney. And they wouldn't tell you why they didn't run a story. They just didn't run it. And though I can remember on Anzac Day, they didn't like what I did and being sent out to do it again. And um I started crying. You know, I was in my 30s, but still, um, you know, it was really tough going. Rejection. Yeah, and now with the reporters work hard, but you can't treat people like that anymore.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Sometimes I wish I could.

SPEAKER_02 6:17

Is there a best ever broadcast memory? Someone you've worked with or someone you've interviewed?

SPEAKER_01 6:22

I can tell you the worst ever. Um, was when I was doing Radio National Drive, and we had Archbishop Desmond Tutor on, and I was beside myself with nerves. And they came on and he said, Good eye. I said, I'm I'm sorry. He said it again, and the producer's yelling in my ear, he's trying to say good A. And we never really recovered from that. Oh no. That was that was very embarrassing. Um, oh look, I I did I covered the Linton fires and had no sleep and came back and they said, Can you present State Line? Because I did a bit of news reading and presenting State Line. And I can remember doing a panel interview. I can't, for the life of me, remember what the topic was, but I timed it to the last second, and they were amazed because the the usual producers that have to edit it. And I can remember afterwards thinking, I've got no idea what I said, and I looked back on it and I did a bloody good job. So well done. Yeah, yeah. Oh, the funniest thing was flying around Western Australia with my father on a plane when I was presenting the country hour. We did, if we knew what we knew now, we wouldn't have done it in a Sester 210 with me as the navigator in Daddy as the pilot.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

Was he? Oh, right.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Yeah, yeah, he learned how to fly at 53. And we landed in Cunanara, and um you know, I went into the pub, and a woman came up and said, Are you to be priced? And I said, Yes, I am, and she slapped me across the back in a friendly way, so excited. And my father used to be president of the printing association of Australia and was a world champion in Roswell, which I've already mentioned, and he said, Well, there you go, daughter's more famous than me. So that was nice, that was great, you know. And I I I went back to the Kimberley last year, horse riding, and oh god, that's that's that's the last frontier. That is amazing. I just adore it up there. So yeah, apart from it being a bit human.

SPEAKER_02 8:25

Yeah. Apart from the Archbishop, do you remember your hardest interview you've ever done?

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Hardest interview. Oh, um, not hardest, the most astonishing one was with well, that's not true, it's not astonishing, it's just my recollection of it. It was working for AM and it was the uh receiver for the state bank. No, Pyramid Bank, you probably not you do remember? I didn't have money in there, thank god, but it was a big thing in Geelong in particular. And um, it was about 11 o'clock at night because you'd worked the night before for AM, and I eventually got onto this bloke. So I wasn't terribly thrilled that I'd tracked him down. And we did an interview, and at the end of it, he said, Um, can I ask a personal question? I said, Yes, of course. He said, Are you married? And I said, Yes, I am, and he said, Your poor husband, and hung up on me. That would be difficult. I thought I'd done a damn funny job. Surprising things like Nobby Clark, who's head of National Australia Bank. I asked him what he earned, and he said, It's in the annual report. I said, Yes, but how much is it? And he told me. And I said, Thank you very much for speaking to AM, and I shot the 12 kilogram NAGRA reel-to-reel Swiss tape recorders we used to cart around. I said, You didn't have to answer. He said, Well, you did ask, yeah, and we'd cut it with a razor blade and white tape. I used to love doing that, and there'd be bits of tape going everywhere all over the floor, and yeah, it was great fun. Very tactile.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Well, I just saw at the end of that actually, but like how easy is it now? We can copy and paste and cut.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

Yes, we're on a system that you don't pay for, so it's not as good as the ABC one. You can't leave a line and go back to it. You've got to anyway, but yes, yeah, yeah, that's good fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

What makes a really good rural story?

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Oh my gosh. Um I think telling people what they need to know. Um, it was different at the ABC and it's become even more so. They do a lot more of colour stories now, and a lot less of the Roger, stop it. Yeah, just padding. Um, a lot less of the hard political stuff. I think that would be uh one of the disappointments of the ABC now. Some of them are pretty good, some of the rural reporters, but a lot of them are the softer colour stuff. So I think it's, for instance, over this whole war with Iran, uh, a lot of farmers might think our coverage on Ace Radio has been relentless about it, but it's make or break for them. Uh, the on the program today, dairy farmers saying that if they don't get a price increase before the deadline of June, they're going to stop milking cows because they're not getting paid enough. I heard you talking about it. Veggers, yeah, veggie growers not harvesting or sowing crops because they're just not going to get enough money because the costs are so high. So these are really important things that people need to know. And I I take that very seriously.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

And you've got to keep it real, don't you? Especially for rural audiences.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Yes, absolutely. I'm interviewing a Commonwealth bank economist uh in about an hour, and it has to be with that rural-specific focus, and who knows that?

SPEAKER_02 11:51

That'll be an interesting conversation.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Yeah, well, it's really what's happened at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. I had no idea. They have specialists who have worked in the army and in diplomacy who now work in understanding, you know, oil supplies and shipping and all that kind of stuff. So that's been fascinating to learn a lot of that.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

Is radio more intimate than TV?

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Oh, yes, absolutely. I don't watch TV news anymore. I have to watch Al Jazeera every now and then because my daughter works for Al Jazeera. She was in Doha. Yeah, she was in Doha, but she came up to visit me or us, her family in February, and the war broke, and there was Isabella and two New Zealanders on holidays that couldn't make it back to Qatar. So they've all been sent to Washington. So she's living the dream. She's in TV production. Um, they do live broadcasts from Washington.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

Behind the camera or in front?

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Behind.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Yeah. I didn't actually, I was quite glad she didn't want to be a war correspondent. Um, she's behind uh as a producer calling all the shots, and she's very good at it. She's a force to be reckoned with, and I'm incredibly proud of her. So I do have to watch that every now and then to keep up with what she's doing. But I yeah, I don't watch the news anymore. I'll I'll watch um spiggest travel and cooking shows so better.

SPEAKER_02 13:13

Yeah. So around 12 years ago, a move out of the city to the country.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

Yep. Um I was a single mother, my second long-term relationship had broken up. I was renting in Melbourne with two university students, my children living with me. And I just was going out backwards. And then when they turned 18, I no longer got any support from my ex-husband. And it was actually Judy Kennedy, who's a familiar voice on the ABC. She said to me, for heaven's sake, sake, stop thinking a night in shining arm is going to come and solve all your problems. Buy yourself a house. I said, What in Melbourne? She said, No, go to Regional Victoria. So I applied for a job first of all in Bendigo and didn't get it. And then I uh got the job with as editor of the vanilla enzyme here. So I moved here. And I wouldn't say I haven't looked back. It's an aging population here. I know I'm aging, but I mean really aging. So there aren't that many people. But I've made some wonderful friends now, all through horses actually. And uh tonight's date night, the girls come over, only one of us is still married, and um we're gonna have pizza and talk horses all night. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:31

Thursday nights.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Yeah, perfect. Yeah, so look, I love it. I love my garden. This house that we're sitting in now, when I bought it, the bank described it as uninhabitable. So a lot of work's been done on this. The garden was nothing, so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

I'm an avid gardener. Horses and gardening and dogs.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

So we're in banilla.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

But you've also got horses on adjustment, clearly.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

Yes, out on a farm at Badagine, so just out of town.

SPEAKER_02 14:59

Yeah, and equestrian horses?

SPEAKER_01 15:01

Yep. I've only got one at the moment, I just sold one. So it's a little paint horse. I've started doing a thing called working equitation, which is relatively new to Australia. You'll have to Google it, but it's based on the Spanish and Portuguese farmers with cattle. So they have a long spear called a garrocha because the the Spanish cattle are really aggressive. They'll you don't push behind Spanish cattle, you go in front and they want to attack you, so to speak. So you have this long garrocha to keep them back. So you do a lot of stuff with a garrocha and other things in working equitation. And then in in working equitation, the the final um one is actually working cattle, but it's done more like team penning, but quietly. It's not done the Spanish way, and that's great. So my little is actually registered paint, but it's a little quarter horse, it's only three. So I've been doing that. I was doing it on thoroughbred, but yeah, that was a bit hard.

SPEAKER_02 16:00

You're around horses every day for a few hours, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

Yep, yep. I once I finished work, yeah. Tomorrow, you would have seen the back of my ute's already got a lot of stuff in the back of it. I'm heading out to a cleaning out at Lurg just out of vanilla and sleeping in the horse floating my swag. Do you still jump in the swag? Yeah, I've got a new one. Good on you. It's very fancy. The dog doesn't fit, I don't know what he's going to do.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

So going back to banana newspaper, a different pace, perhaps.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Yeah, I really loved it. Funnily enough, I particularly enjoyed the photography. Uh, I loved that. It was actually more stressful because there's the big Wednesday's the day, Tuesday the papers are printed and they come out Wednesday. Wednesday's kind of you relax. Monday is just flat out putting the paper together. There's a huge amount of work, and because it's printed in Shepperdon, it's all done in Shepperdon. So you you're doing it over the phone with a lot of it. So you do the layout of the paper and hope they'll make a good job of it. You don't do the headlines, and I took it way too seriously. I I was so serious about it and made myself very unpopular with the council. I think they've kind of got over it. Um, but it was good, but I I really missed radio and I got headhunted for the job I'm in now, so that was lovely.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

So back to radio. This is Ace Radio.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

Uh and what are you doing now?

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Presenting Country Today, which is very similar to the country only, it has ads, usually agricultural ads, um, and it's broadcast around the state of Victoria and into the River Arena, uh, but not into the major centres, not into the Geelong, Ballarts, or Benigo's, but uh Wang, I can name them all if you want. Want me to name the stations? Uh Wangaratta, Albury, Achuka, Daniloquin, Swanhill, Horsham, Hamilton, Warnable, Colak, and Trouwen.

SPEAKER_02 18:01

There we go. At what time of the day?

SPEAKER_01 18:04

The morning program in some stations is 5.30, but most of them at 6.30. So it's similar to the rural report on the ABC. And I think it's all pretty much all done by me. Uh, and then after midday on the AM stations.

SPEAKER_02 18:23

And you'll record this from home?

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Yes. I have a studio in my office. They built a little studio.

SPEAKER_02 18:29

Do you miss the buzz of a newsroom?

SPEAKER_01 18:31

Yes, I do. I do. It was wonderful. Just the intellectual rigour of people at the ABC. Uh, and people from all areas. You know, Radio Australia, all the people from PG and East Timor, you'd be at the canteen talking to them. So, yeah, sure I do. But now that I'm um a lot older, life slows down to a degree. So yeah, I'm pretty happy here. I certainly wouldn't go back to live in Melbourne, even though my granddaughter's there, my son and granddaughter. Uh and I thought I'd never say this, but gee, it's grown a lot. It's a lot more difficult to get around, especially in a big Ute with a horse float sometimes. I helped move and had my son move the other day and had my horse float parked in Thornbury, and I thought, I don't think anyone's going to pinch my horse flight here. I look up pretty safe.

SPEAKER_02 19:19

They wouldn't have a vehicle to hook it onto. But you do the lot now, don't you? Do the research, you do the interviews, you do the.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

Oh, it's always pretty, pretty much been like that, even at the ABC.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

The editing. And there's more technology you've got to grasp now, too. Oh, yeah, it's pretty easy.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

Yeah. I I'd say the editing with a razor blade was a lot more difficult. Yeah. You did get very good at doing an interview about the length that was going to go to air. And that's what I find frustrating. A lot of reporters will do 10-minute interviews and they'll spend another hour editing it down to three. Just do it three minutes, huh?

SPEAKER_00 19:51

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Get it right in the first place. I mean, you would have known from working in television, you get very good, particularly when we were shooting film, that you had to be very sparse in what you did because it was just too expensive to we used to have to run down the street at the ABC and rippingly and get it developed.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

I I stress at the start of an interview, you know, short answers, that's all we want, short answers. And then they'll give me a long one. And they'll say, look, can you sum that up for me? Bang, there's the one we'll use. Yeah. Uh eight years in, Libby with Ace Radio, still loving it.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

Yes, yeah. They're very good. I was a little nervous going to the dark side, uh, but I run my own show. Uh, they seem to be pretty happy with it. In the last 18 months, I've had they've employed a new reporter to work with me, Jade Egan, and she's she knew nothing about farming, which she knows a fair bit now, and she's doing a great job. And yeah, they're they're most appreciative. It's a really very much a sort of like a big family in Ace Radio. It's great.

SPEAKER_02 20:53

Any plans for retirement, Libby?

SPEAKER_01 20:55

No, not at this stage. I still have a mortgage. And you're still young. I'm not, I'm 66. That's not young. Yeah. Mate's husband retired at 60, the schmuck. Um, not that I'm dead or anything. I don't know. You know, quite often I think, oh, wouldn't it be nice? And then I think, well, what would I do?

SPEAKER_02 21:12

Yeah. Well no, he has to be.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

So it keeps you intellectually active and involved and interested. So, no, I suppose I I probably will retire at 70. I've got to be able to keep riding horses while I can. I always get very inspired when I see 85-year-old women still riding. I think, oh yay.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

But no, I can't see myself retiring anytime.

SPEAKER_02 21:37

Use it or lose it.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

What are your thoughts on journalism today?

SPEAKER_01 21:41

Oh, if they had any idea of how difficult it used to be, without contacts, you were nothing. Now you just got to Google. And I keep saying to the reporters, if you Google someone's name in 04, you might even get their mobile number. You know, they like to be hand fed. I find that irritating because it was sink or swim when I was learning. It was very tough. But it's wonderful how, and I'm enjoying AI. Like if you Google something, you can get pretty good information fairly quickly that can at least set you on the right path. But the media cycle is so much quicker. When you look at the conflict in Iran and how quickly it's gone to hell in a handbasket, and we know about it as it's happening. And I can remember the first Gulf War, I was at home pregnant with my first child, watching that on television, astonished. You know, it's happen happening in minutes now, not hours. So yeah, and I I think the quality of a lot of journalism has dropped in some areas. Um, I think there are a lot of young, ambitious people. Also, to be honest, the quality of the voices, they're not enunciating properly. I sound terribly old school, but you know, I was lucky to be born and educated to speak as I do. I didn't have to be trained, so I guess I had a head start. But yeah, I I get I often shout at the radio and say, Oh, please speak properly.

SPEAKER_02 23:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

So that's very old-fashioned of me.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

Have we lost empathy in interviews?

SPEAKER_01 23:17

I suppose I go back to the Andrew Denton one. And even Yana Vent, I had a great deal of admiration for her. Did you ever meet her? She was a tiny weenie.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

We did a lot of live crosses with her. Yeah, she's but then she worked with you then in with ABC, didn't she?

SPEAKER_01 23:36

No, not not with me, but I did meet her. I mean, she she was uh pretty calm.

SPEAKER_02 23:43

She was always the same.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

Yes. Paul Lynham was wonderful. Oh, it's terrible when he died. Uh oh, Lee Sales, what an extraordinary woman she is. Absolutely. I've got so much time for her. And you see her on the the assembly on the OBC.

SPEAKER_02 23:58

I love it. Yeah, it's great, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 24:00

Yeah. Um programs like that are fabulous.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

Yeah. A story's more disposable now.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:09

What advice would you give to young rural journalists today?

SPEAKER_01 24:13

Um, keep it simple. And I always, when I do an interview, write an introduction and questions. I can throw that out, and I keep saying it to reporters. You have a better focus in your mind. Like you've done your research, you know roughly where you want to go with an interview. So have it all planned. Don't wing it. You have to wing it every now and then, but don't wing it.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

Yeah. And it's not a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

And have it and think of the answers you want to get. You know, a lot of reporters will think, oh, that's a smart question. Well, you won't probably won't get a very good answer. That's not the point. As I said earlier, it's not about you.

SPEAKER_02 24:52

It's about the question's not important to us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

You're not that was the awful thing about television, too. It's so much involved on personality and looks and all that palava.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

Libby, women in agriculture, you've been a supporter here. What have you seen change over the years with women in agriculture?

SPEAKER_01 25:13

Oh, a lot more women going into leading roles, particularly in agronomy, and also women who are passionate about it and taking taking a lead rather than following. So that's great to see. It's still nowhere near what it should be. So that's great to see, and a lot stronger voice. It's it was wonderful when we've had women in leadership roles. It'd be great to see more of that. But gee, who'd want to do it?

SPEAKER_02 25:42

I know there's some very clever female agronomists out there doing great things.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

The Riverina group are incredible. They're most of the staff's women.

unknown 25:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

Great.

SPEAKER_02 25:51

Did you ever think about a move into politics?

SPEAKER_01 25:56

No, but one chap, and thankfully I've forgotten his name, came into my office at the Insign, all the way from Wangarata, unannounced, too. So he just walked in and introduced himself as being involved with the National Party in Wangarata. And he wondered if I'd consider running as a candidate. And I said, I'll give me 24 hours to think about it. And it was really quite, I was quite chuffed, really.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

I think you'd be good.

SPEAKER_01 26:23

And then I thought, no, no, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 26:27

It was not too late.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

No, thank you very much. I mean, when you watch question time in parliament, it's an absolute disgrace. And the lack of respect they have for each other, you know, decades ago, Labour and liberal people could be friends. Um, now they're just throwing crap at each other. It's awful. And I think what Barnaby Joyce has done is a disgrace. Yeah, I mean, I I spoke to Judy Brewer about this, as you're no doubt aware, that Tim always said one nation wasn't a party for rural people. And yeah, I oh I can't don't start me on Trump. So no, I would never go into politics.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

Yeah. Uh you recently had a trip to Germany.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Agri Technica.

SPEAKER_02 27:11

Right. How's that?

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Mind-blowing. Very stressful. So it's the largest agricultural machinery trade fair in the world, and it's on every year in Hanover in Germany, and they flew a lot of farm Australian farmers out. It's run by the equivalent of the German Farmers Federation. And they've obviously got lots of money. And they uh James Wagster from the Weekly Times went. We went out there. David Johenkey was there. But they it was very late in organizing it. So we only had accommodation for two nights. So we're only there for two days. It was over about 20 acres or something, I can't remember. But there were buses, shuttle buses going around taking it from one pavilion to the other. It was in October, so it was quite cold. Not that I mind it. Uh, and I kept standing on the wrong side of the road to get the shuttle bus. So getting, oh damn. And so I walked, I did like 20,000 steps in a day. But it was just so difficult because everyone was too busy to help. So you just had to wade through all the information yourself. The media person was one media person, you know, she was far more interested in speaking to German exhibitors than she was a reporter from Australia. So that was that was really difficult. And then to find people who spoke English, and then because they were such echoey big pavilions, would have to go and stand outside um to do interviews, and it was very cold. So look, I I have to say it was an experience, but did the technology surprise you? No, it didn't. There weren't many examples of autonomous tractors. The emphasis was a lot more on all the bells and whistles in the cab. And I suppose there was um, yeah, no, it didn't. I was a bit disappointed. I thought there'd be more.

SPEAKER_02 29:06

But there'd be AI driving tractors and sprayers and so forth?

SPEAKER_01 29:10

Yes, and but that's been around for a while. There's the green sprays and the brown sprays, so they they can with weed spraying now, if it's green, they'll spray it if it's not meant to be there. So they're increasing that technology, and they're already using autonomous tractors a lot in horticulture. I think it's a little while off from being really big in broadacre cropping. I think, you know, when you we see the big guys with several headers out there in a all in a row, I don't think that'll be going autonomous for a while yet.

SPEAKER_02 29:40

Libby, we're up to the off-the-wall questions.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

Uh oh.

SPEAKER_02 29:43

These are a little bit fun, a little bit quirky. The country hour theme music, does this still give you goosebumps?

SPEAKER_01 29:50

I never liked it. No, and they sort of modified it and it sort of sounded pretty tinny. I didn't like that. So no, I don't listen to the country hour to be honest. Every now and then I'll see if catch up with what they're doing, but I'm on here at the same time, so no.

SPEAKER_02 30:05

If you could redo one interview, which one would it be?

SPEAKER_01 30:07

Oh, Archbishop Desmond to do without a doubt. Roger, back off.

SPEAKER_02 30:13

And teach him how to say goodie.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 30:16

Well, if Libby Price wasn't a journey, what would she be?

SPEAKER_01 30:19

A writer. I've got a book in my head, yeah. Have you? Yeah, but I'm not gonna write it. Oh, I started writing a book on dating, it was very funny. And my daughter read it and thought it was fantastic, but I thought, no, I don't really need to reveal all my dating mishaps.

SPEAKER_02 30:33

I think that one could be good. If you could sit down with three people for a cuppa or a cold drink, who would you choose? And they can be dead or alive.

SPEAKER_01 30:42

Okay, this is a bit sad. I'd I'd like to sit down with my late mother. She died in her 40s, she was bipolar, and in the 60s they used to give them lobotomies. She had two. So I I never really knew my mother. My older siblings.

SPEAKER_02 30:58

You were like 20 or a late teenager? 20, yeah. Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

Yeah. When she died. Um, and my sister found her she'd been dead for some time, and yeah, it was just awful. It was, it was a I had a pretty fraught childhood with all of all of that. And I'd like to sit down with her and and get to know her because I really didn't ever know her.

SPEAKER_02 31:17

Wow. Another two people you can sit down and have a couple with.

SPEAKER_01 31:21

I would love to sit down with Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart, who do the Restis Politics podcast. Sit, you know, you have to subscribe. I'm furious about that. They're fantastic. I don't know if you've ever listened to them. They're uh amazing. Alistair Campbell worked for Tony Blair as the head of media, and Rory Stewart was a conservative politician in the UK and actually stood against Boris Johnson and lost the leadership. And they're both they've both got great minds, they're great readers. Alistair Campbell speaks German. Um, Rory's married to a woman, I think, from Afghanistan, and that they are right on top of things that are happening around the world, and they're great, they're fabulous. So, yes.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

Let's throw you in the mix, it'll be an interesting conversation.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

I couldn't keep up with them. They're amazing.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

Your favorite tool.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

My favorite tool. What do you mean?

SPEAKER_02 32:17

It could be a microphone, it could be something to do with the horses, it could be my new battery-operated lawnmower.

SPEAKER_01 32:24

Oh, have you got one? Yes, it's fabulous.

SPEAKER_02 32:26

No fuel.

SPEAKER_01 32:27

No fuel. And best of all, I don't have to do that. Getting a bit old at 66 doing that, and it's beautiful and it just goes. It's fabulous.

SPEAKER_02 32:37

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

SPEAKER_01 32:41

I wouldn't mind going back to Harndorf.

SPEAKER_02 32:43

Would you live there?

SPEAKER_01 32:45

Yes, except my life's moved on. Um I think here I'll do.

SPEAKER_02 32:51

I think you've got a good spot.

SPEAKER_01 32:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

You've got the horses close by.

SPEAKER_01 32:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:55

Libby, this has been an absolute privilege for me to sit down and have this chat with you. I'm exhausted. Sit here all day in the aren't here. It's been fascinating.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

I do apologise for Roger's misbehaviour, and that's that bark you would have heard is the deaf dog wanting to be let out.

SPEAKER_02 33:09

So Audrey.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

Yeah, here she comes.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

All right. But thank you very much, Libby, and you've been very generous with your time today.

SPEAKER_01 33:15

My pleasure. Great to meet you.

SPEAKER_02 33:18

That's part B and the end of our conversation with Libby Price. What a story. From the highs of an extraordinary career in radio to the challenges of reporting on tragedy and everything in between. There's no doubt, Libby has already left a lasting mark on rural journalism. Her honesty, resilience, and passion for telling real stories really shines through. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you share it around, leave a review, and help us keep telling these stories from across rural Australia. Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next time.