Beef Australia Expo (Rocky’s Beef Week) 2012

May 14th, 2012

Beef Week is over for another 3 years. This year a record crowd attended of almost 85,000 people, over 5 days.  Many Beef Australia visitors travelled from interstate and remote areas, and other countries.  Though the tradefair keeps me flat out for the duration, it’s immensely enjoyable.  I’m already looking forward to Beef Week in […]

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Rocky’s Beef Week, May 2012

April 6th, 2012

Only a month to go until Rockhampton’s triennial Beef Week Exposition, running from 7th to the 12th of May, 2012. I’ll be there again this year, in the Walter Pearce Pavilion at tradefair stand number 45.  This year, not far from the restaurant – so I’ll be able to smell food, even though I won’t […]

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Rural Exchange NZ – working on farms overseas

March 27th, 2012

Increasing numbers of New Zealanders are spending a year or two working on Australian cattle stations and farms, along with backpackers from many other countries. It’s a two way street – many Australians head to other countries to work in agricultural jobs also.  Rural Exchange New Zealand (RENZ)  has plenty of information on working on […]

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RMWAH’s purchase of Henbury Cattle Station, NT – on ABC Landline

March 23rd, 2012

R.M. Williams Agricultural Holdings (RMWAH) ‘carbon farming’ plans for Henbury cattle Station will feature on ABC television’s Landline programme at noon this Sunday (25th March).  Landline is repeated at 11.00 each Monday morning. Henbury is a cattle station located in the Alice Springs region of the Northern Territory, and was purchased last year by RMWAH with the help […]

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Phone problems & the NBN

March 23rd, 2012

Please note that our phone has not been working properly since Saturday 17th March (we can ring out, most of the time, but callers trying to ring us either get just a dial tone, crackling or other sounds – it doesn’t even go to Messagebank, which is a first). Telstra says the deadline for repair […]

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‘A Farmer’s Life for Me’ BBC television series

February 21st, 2012

‘A Farmer’s Life for Me’ was filmed by the BBC in 2011, and has just started screening on ABC television from 6pm-7pm on Tuesday nights. Filmed during midsummer in the beautiful rolling hills of Suffolk, ‘A Farmers Life for Me’  features 9 varied couples (siblings and married/partnered couples, gay/straight; of all ages & from all walks […]

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Rural Women Speaking Out

February 6th, 2012

Stumbled upon a very interesting blog piece by ABC journalist Flint Duxfield titled ‘Women are farmers too, so why don’t we hear them more?’  Flint describes the all-too-common occurrence of ringing a farm, speaking to the wife who is clearly knowledgeable but when asked about the possibility of an interview – the wife defers to the […]

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Farm blogs – personal stories from the bush

February 3rd, 2012

There are now quite a few Australian farming blogs – and there are several different kinds.  There are those that are entertaining and informative accounts of daily domestic issues, written by women, which highlight the lifestyle and financial management differences between living in towns and living in the bush.  These blogs are interesting and very useful in regard to […]

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Keeping up with the Joneses of Coolibah final episode

December 15th, 2011

After last week’s episode of Keeping up with the Joneses, full of end of year bullcatching, cane toad racing, croc egg collecting and Christmas preparations, it was great to see baby Jack Jones, the newest arrival in the Jones family.  The story of Cristina Joneses pregnancy has reminded me of how different it is to have […]

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Keeping up with the Joneses of Coolibah Station

December 3rd, 2011

Recent episodes of ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ have touched on a number of issues associated with remote area living.  These lifestyle/business management differences range from unique education arrangements (eg remote area students are enrolled in school of the air/distance education and meet their ‘classmates’ only rarely), medical issues (eg. the need to travel long distances […]

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