Profile

With eyes focused clearly on the horizon and both feet planted firmly on the ground, Rural Woman of the Year Sue Middleton is blazing a trail as bright as her vision for regional Australia. By 2013,...

A couple of years ago, Brad Murphy was running a clinic at Theodore in central Queensland when Emerald Brophy walked in the door. She is the daughter of boxing legend Fred Brophy, and Brad...

A red-dirt track leads a gentle dance through the 20 hectares of remnant vegetation surrounding Ian and Anne McClelland’s home, “Cambrae”, 27 kilometres east of Birchip, in...

 CRACK! The air shudders with the sonic boom of a lightning bolt that splits the sky, terrifyingly close. Eight startled camels unfold gangly limbs and scramble to their feet, eyes rolling...

 Peter Andrews can see the vision splendid. Not Clancy of the Overflow’s sunlit plains extended. And certainly not Dorothea Mackellar’s wide brown land of droughts and flooding...

  The crackling fire throws a warm glow over the room. “That’s the original fireplace, built in 1895,” says Liz Cook from the kitchen, where she is preparing a sumptuous...

The oven door opens, releasing a waft of steam that carries the delicious aroma of freshly roasted beef. While rain patters rhythmically against the dark windows, making the warm kitchen seem even...

If David Goodfellow is feeling the pressure from suddenly emerging as a major player in Australia’s northern cattle industry and having the spotlight trained on him, he isn’t showing...

Sandy Thorne is striding energetically backwards and forwards across the stage, the spotlight darting to keep up with her. She barely pauses for breath amid the torrent of words. Her audience in the...

Greg Brown has spent a lifetime with cattle. He’s just as much at ease plaiting a greenhide rope or cooking up a damper in a stock camp in the Territory as he is discussing matters of national...

A tiny Aboriginal woman with a shock of white hair under a bright orange and blue headscarf strides across the vast dry salt beds of Lake Mackay in the wilds of the Western Desert. The dazzling crust...

As a rising winter sun struggles to glimmer through showers over Caulfield Racetrack in Melbourne, the trainers’ tower is humming with quiet chatter backed by the rustle of early morning papers...

Newly elected Balonne Shire mayor Donna Stewart is about to give an inspirational speech to 264 young school students in St George, south-west Queensland. Indigenous leader Chris Lamb steps forward...

“Anything is possible when attitudes are changed.” Agribusiness leader Terry McCosker is talking about grazing, but he might just as well be talking about his life. The 57-year-old...

A plume of dust hangs behind the four-wheel-drive like a tail as it rattles along the track towards Bourke. Typical of far western New South Wales, the dirt road is dead straight as far as the eye...

“My first memory as a kid on the station was probably killing a cow with my parents, and looking into the guts. I was fascinated and I just loved it.” Annabelle Coppin is recalling her...

Of all Ben Fargher’s experiences growing up on a farm at Warren, in western New South Wales, few stick in his mind as strongly as the day his family closed the gate and left. “It was a...

When Roger McDonald won the Miles Franklin Literary Award his first words were, “At last!” No newcomer to the prize, Roger had already been short-listed for the award four times before...

Goose-necks and horses are cluttered on a red ridge. A shaft of light hits silver making rubies shine. This is bling, outback style. Peter Comiskey runs his rough hand over the belt buckle. A quiet...

Annette and John Cassidy are down-to-earth people. They have heaps of common sense and great community spirit, which has seen them become a huge influence in the New England district of New South...