Motherland Australia

Jack Kennedy is a livestock contractor in Western Victoria, a dad of two little girls, founder of a local Tough Guy Book Club chapter, and someone you may recognise from season three of Muster Dogs. But behind the TV cameras, Jack was navigating a much bigger adjustment. Becoming a dad changed everything. He was managing a busy farming operation, working 60-plus-hour weeks, trying to be a good partner and father, and beginning to understand firsthand the pressure that can come when farming and family collide. When his wife Nikki returned to work, their local daycare had closed and childcare was almost impossible to find. So Jack made a huge call: he left a farm management job he loved and became a stay-at-home dad. Later, after the birth of their second daughter, drought, financial pressure, grief and fatherhood all collided, and Jack found himself struggling with his mental health. Today he opens up about farming, fatherhood, postnatal stress, and why finding a life and identity beyond the farm matters.  
Father Land is proudly supported by Nutrien Ag Solutions, going further for Australian farmers. From farm supplies and agronomy advice to livestock and finance, Nutrien’s local specialists combine local know-how with the backing of one of Australia’s largest agricultural networks.
Find your local branch at nutrien.com.au and see how Nutrien can go further for your farm.
https://www.instagram.com/motherlandaustralia

Tom Curtain always dreamed of living and working in the Northern Territory. What he didn’t know was how much that dream would ask of him. After heading north, Tom built a thriving horse-training business across the Top End and discovered an unexpected talent for music. Then the 2011 live cattle export ban hit. Almost overnight, the work dried up. Under immense financial pressure, Tom did whatever he could to stay afloat, shoeing horses, working around the clock and singing at caravan parks four nights a week. At the same time, his marriage broke down and his two young children moved to WA. What followed was an extraordinary reinvention. Today, Tom is a country music singer, horseman and dad of four who runs Katherine Outback Experience with his wife Annabel. Today he shares how he rebuilt his life, the unlikely hitchhiking encounter that led him to love, and the joy and heartache of rural fatherhood across two chapters.
Father Land is proudly supported by Nutrien Ag Solutions, going further for Australian farmers. From farm supplies and agronomy advice to livestock and finance, Nutrien’s local specialists combine local know-how with the backing of one of Australia’s largest agricultural networks.
Find your local branch at nutrien.com.au and see how Nutrien can go further for your farm.
https://www.instagram.com/motherlandaustralia

John Murdoch likens people to rubber bands. You can only stretch them so far. And for him, the breaking point came during the drought and bushfires of 2019 and 2020. Years earlier, he’d left a career in accounting to return to the family farm in the Monaro region of New South Wales. He wanted to work alongside his dad, and build a future with his wife, Kate. Now, he was feeding livestock through drought, helping his parents through their separation, and raising a young family of his own. He felt needed everywhere. Then, in the middle of it all, his second daughter arrived five weeks early via emergency caesarean. The rubber band didn’t just snap. In John’s words, it “disintegrated into dust.” Now a father of three girls, he shares what it took to find his way through, the joy and guilt of being a farming dad, and how he’s learning to manage the anxiety he’s carried since childhood, while farming without the father he came home to work beside. 
Beyond Blue Mental Health Counselling: 1300 22 4636, 24 hours / 7 days a week
Father Land is proudly supported by Nutrien Ag Solutions, going further for Australian farmers. From farm supplies and agronomy advice to livestock and finance, Nutrien’s local specialists combine local know-how with the backing of one of Australia’s largest agricultural networks.
Find your local branch at nutrien.com.au and see how Nutrien can go further for your farm.

https://www.instagram.com/motherlandaustralia

In June this year, Nikita Hayes was home with her two little boys when their house caught fire. They escaped, but within hours, almost everything they owned was gone. Just a few months on, she’s speaking publicly in depth about what happened for the first time. But Nikita’s story begins long before that — growing up on a sprawling cattle station outside Alice Springs, going droving, meeting her husband Luke and, just eight months later, being the one to propose… and trust me, where and how she did it is a story in itself! Then came motherhood and two little boys born just 11 months apart. In this episode, Nikita opens up for the first time about her experience with postnatal depression, raising Irish twins far from family support, the terrifying night they lost almost everything, and how her family is now picking up the pieces and starting again. This is her story. 
PANDA helpline: 1300 726 306
www.gidgetfoundation.org.au
Today’s episode is proudly supported by Haakaa, creating practical products for breastfeeding, pumping, baby feeding and postpartum life. From their iconic Silicone Breast Pump to milk collectors and everyday motherhood essentials, Haakaa is designed with mums in mind. Visit haakaa.au and use the code MOTHERLAND15 for 15% off.
https://www.instagram.com/motherlandaustralia

Charlie Arnott’s great-great-great-grandfather founded Arnott’s Biscuits. His grandfather helped create the Tim Tam. And Charlie became the first in five generations to forge a different path. At just 25, he unexpectedly took over his family’s farm near Boorowa in New South Wales. But behind Charlie’s life on the land is a deeply personal journey of figuring out who he is, what makes him happy, and the kind of man, husband and father he wants to be. Today, Charlie opens up about the beliefs he carried from childhood, the inner work that followed, and how it’s shaped his approach to mental health, marriage and fatherhood. He first became a stepfather before he and his wife Angelica went through IVF to welcome their daughter. Years later, their son was being carried by a surrogate in California when they received a call: their baby was arriving two months early, just as a bushfire erupted near the hospital. From an extraordinary family legacy to finding his own identity, this is his story. 
Father Land is proudly supported by Nutrien Ag Solutions, going further for Australian farmers. From farm supplies and agronomy advice to livestock and finance, Nutrien’s local specialists combine local know-how with the backing of one of Australia’s largest agricultural networks.
Find your local branch at nutrien.com.au and see how Nutrien can go further for your farm.

https://www.instagram.com/motherlandaustralia