Nicole’s Life
Nicole’s Life
I grew up on my family’s property. We’re located 100 km west of the NSW QLD border town of Goondiwindi and 110km north west of Moree. It takes us about 81/2 hours by car to get to Sydney, 5 hours to reach Brisbane and if we headed east to the coast it would be a good six hour drive.
Education & Career
I have spent half my life in the bush with The Correspondence School (lessons delivered via the mail) taught to myself and my two brothers by our mother Marita. My younger sister Brooke went straight to primary school: Thereby missing out on freshly baked cakes and early marks! Later I attended our local primary school in the village of Boomi (current population 75), followed by six years at boarding school in Sydney. And yes when I got to Sydney I had never seen so many children in one place!
A Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of New England, Armidale followed and I had a short career on the catwalk which was fitted in between ‘real life’. After a number of years working in Sydney in the financial services sector I moved overseas to continue my marketing career in fashion. On my return to Sydney I was fortunate to be offered a marketing role with The National Trust, but it was this very job offer that made me think about returning home.
After some deliberation I headed back to the family property, initially for twelve months. This was in the late 1990’s and I’m still there.
Being a fourth generation grazier:
The longer I stayed on the property on my return the more I began to appreciate working in the family business. My great grandfather selected our property in 1893 and as a fourth generation grazier I feel very blessed to be part of a generational holding. My two brothers and sister have pursued city based careers, so at this point in my life I feel compelled to be part of the business and I feel extremely proud knowing that in some small part I am helping to feed the world. Most days you’ll find me working in the stockyards, mustering sheep or cattle or working in the station office. We grow hereford beef cattle, merino/white suffolk fat lambs and our dry-land cropping includes wheat, barley, chickpeas, faba beans, oats and sorghum.
Writing
Life in the bush allows me to pursue my passion for writing. I’ve been writing for over eighteen years and my poetry, travel and genealogy articles have been published in Australia, America and Singapore. I’m the author of the The Bark Cutters (2010) and the sequel A Changing Land (2011), my third novel will be released in October ‘Absolution Creek’. My non-fiction works include my first poetry collection Divertissements – Love. War. Society (2008) with part proceeds from the sale of the work being donated to the Moree Regional Gallery’s fundraising program.
Along the way I’ve been fortunate to be involved in many different things including judging the The Queensland Country Life’s ‘Bachelor & Bachelorette’ Competition and being chosen as the advertising ‘face’ of Central Queensland University’s National print media campaign from 2005-2007 (following the completion of a Masters in creative writing through CQUniversity).
This year I’m thrilled to be a ‘supporter’ of the Australian Year of The Farmer & a ‘friend’ of The National Year of Reading. It’s an honour to be involved with both of these organisations. Thanks for visiting. Happy trails…
