Anne Crawford - Women of Spirit: True-life stories of inspiring country women

Anne Crawford was a feature writer for The Age and The Sunday Age for many years. She has co-authored three memoirs: Shadow of a Girl (Penguin, 1995), Doctor Hugh, and My Life with Animals (Allen & Unwin, 2012), followed by Great Australian Horse Stories (Allen & Unwin, 2013) and the award-winning Forged with Flames (Wild Dingo Press, 2013).

Anne is also a published and exhibited photographer. She researched a documentary on South Africa, and worked as a volunteer in Nepal for the Fred Hollows Foundation, contributing to Through Other Eyes (Pan Macmillan, 2002). Anne lives by the sea in rural South Gippsland.

WOMEN OF SPIRIT

Anne Crawford

First published in 2014

Copyright Anne Crawford 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to the Copyright Agency (Australia) under the Act.

Allen & Unwin

83 Alexander Street

Crows Nest NSW 2065

Australia

Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100

Email: info@allenandunwin.com

Web: www.allenandunwin.com

Cataloguing-in-Publication details are available
from the National Library of Australia
www.trove.nla.gov.au

ISBN 978 1 74331 786 0

eISBN 978 1 74343 763 6

Typeset by Midland Typesetters, Australia

To Kathleen, Alexandra and Leanne,
wonderful women and marvellous mothers.

CONTENTS

Chapter One
Annette Reed: Helping Out, the Rural Way

Chapter Two
Emmie Wehr: Riding High

Chapter Three
Kaye Fels: A Battler is Born

Chapter Four
Lee-Anne Bright: The Bush Govo

Chapter Five
Tess Payne: Long Road to the Mountains

Chapter Six
Sue Daubney: Old Farm, New Ways

Chapter Seven
Samantha Martin: Bush Tukka Woman

Chapter Eight
Julia Materne: A Country Womans Champion

Chapter Nine
Gwendolyn Adams: Saving the Family Farm

Women of Spirit took form after a remark by an acquaintance that there were still women living in Australia as the pioneers of yesteryear once did. Surely not, I thought. Allen & Unwin had suggested writing a book about rural women some days earlier; Tess Paynes comment crystallised the idea. She had lived such a life.

In the months that followed I criss-crossed the nation talking to some extraordinary women about their experiences living in rural or remote areas from the outback to high country Victoria. I had a glorious time sharing the driving with my travelling companion, navigating dirt tracks across vast expanses of red dirt country, marvelling anew at Australias stark beauty. Encountering bitumen again after driving somewhere like South Australias Oodnadatta Track came as a disappointment.

Along the way were sights and experiences Ill never forget: being the coldest Ive ever been camping in the Northern Territory outback in sub-zero temperatures on a winter night (even after being warned about it beforehand and investing in space blankets). The sight of some big-eared donkeys grazing wild at the side of the road and a majestic bull camel striding off imperiously into grasslands at dusk. The quaint signs at the side of the roads in South Australia warning motorists to Stop Creeping. One-kilogram steaks at an outback hotel. I gained insights into livestock, the ways of the land and its original, Indigenous inhabitants.

At the end of every trip was a warm greeting, a cuppa and a chat, a meal and sometimes the offer of a bed from a woman I was meeting for the first time... I talked to the women in often unexpected places; sitting on a rock in a dry creek bed in rainforest behind Cairns in Far North Queensland; in the 40 degree heat of Alice Springs, under shady trees; walking at dawn with a mother and her sons on the frosty ground of northern Tasmania, looking over drifts of fog towards the glorious Western Tiers. I listened to farm talk at smoko time as one female farmer laid out a spread of warm scones, home-baked slices, biscuits and sausage rolls for the stationhands at her homestead.

The women in the book shared openly their stories of lives forged in often inhospitable conditions, the hardships imposed by isolation and the personal trials they endured to live there. One woman arrived at her new home on an outback station to find that a donkey was used to heat the water in the housea donkey is a 44-gallon drum over a pit with firewood underneath. Several lived in tin sheds for long periods of time.

They battled bushfires, waited out floods, grieved as livestock perished in droughts. They fought to keep their families together, safe and educated. Family was the bedrock. Education, and the headstart in life it provides, was a common theme. The School of the Air is clearly a lifeline to outback children educationally, as is the Royal Flying Doctor Service medically. Many of the women were devoted to community service; some were fighting against the inequities dealt out by city-centric governments. They were fighting for better services for disabled children in remote areas, more opportunities for Indigenous youth, rural and environmental causes or to save a bush hospital. And they were making a difference doing it.

Between them, the women faced battles universal to their gender anywhere: ovarian and breast cancer, relationship breakdowns, low self-esteem and grief, emerging as stronger individuals. All are successful in what they do, all inspirational although they had the humility to wonder why I would want to include them in a book.

But what binds the women apart from their strength, resilience, vision and irrepressible humour is what lies at the heart of this booktheir love of the land and of our beautiful country.

ANNETTE REED: HELPING OUT,
THE RURAL WAY

The day, 25 February 2008, started off like any other for Annette Reed, farmer and mother-of-five living in northern Tasmania.

Annette was working in her off-farm job in a government office in Launceston. Her husband Nevil was fixing an irrigator on a neighbouring farm. Katherine, Annettes firstborn, was training racehorses not far away. Ellie was studying at agricultural college in Queensland. Rebecca had just caught a plane destined for Canberra on a school trip. Keygan was at his high school and youngest son Hayden at special school.

Annette was in a weekly staff meeting when the phone call came through. She noticed a message about a missed call on her mobile phone as she made her way back to her desk through the office she shared with four others, and although she normally ignored missed calls she rang the number.

It was Katherines boss, Stuart, answering from the racetrack.

Katherines had a bit of a fall, he said. Weve got the ambulance to herwe think she might be hurt in the back a bit. Annette should go to the Launceston hospital, Stuart said.

Oh, damn, she thought. Ive got so much to do.

Annette was used to the kids and Nevil, a saddle-bronc rodeo champion, having spills. Shed grown up with horses; thats just how it was. Shed always thought Ellie would be the child most likely to end up in hospital from a fallEllie had taken up bull-riding.

Annettes workmates urged her to go to the hospital immediately. One of them offered to drive her to where Annette had parked her car early that morning so she could get there sooner. As she drove down the main street towards the Launceston General Hospital Annette hoped that Katherine hadnt done anything too terrible. Theres nothing worse than a dicky back, she thought.