The Freerange Journo Media

12/09/2024

Thank you to Senex Energy for giving me the opportunity to cover the 9th Women’s Wellness Day hosted by Murilla Community Centre Inc. and featuring the incredible Lisa Curry , Lisa Kennedy Collections and Everhaven Massage + Energy Alchemy!

28/07/2024

Talk about a shot!

IMAGE CREDIT: Loic Venance, AFP Via Getty.

https://universemagazine.com/en/dead-on-target-the-rising-moon-photobombed-the-logo-of-the-paris-olympics/

14/07/2024

:: Big turbines, big visions, big feelings, big questions, big unknowns. ::

23/05/2024

:: Some days the universe really just knows when I need a laugh. 😂 I wonder what Hyacinth “Bouquet” would make of this: “It’s bouquet, not boutique”. *BLOCKS* ::

17/05/2024

:: As a little girl I devoured books and when I stumbled across what were the incredibly adventurous (and I now realise, incredibly far fetched) tales of the intrepid girl reporter Sally Baxter, my heart was set.

Gone was the goal of being the next Enid Blyton - I was going to be a reporter! Just like my heroine, I would sniff out amazing tales which would take me out of the newsroom and across continents far away. My “nose for news” would see me have all sorts of adventures from scuba diving in the French Riveria to seeing the Northern Lights in Lapland to being on location as a blockbuster film was brought to life.

At 16, after work experience at a paper which was printed below the newsroom every night and on my desk hours before I walked into the office the next day,I was more determined than ever to pursue what I saw as this most noble of vocations.

Fast forward five or six years and after my passion for hands on journalism had largely been crushed at uni, I was working at a country paper which came out twice a week. So far I’d been in my first chickpea crop, interviewed Barnaby Joyce and covered Dalby’s “One in 100 Years Flood” which was about 10 floods ago. Life as a cadet was okay but it certainly wasn’t glamorous by any stretch of the imagination and I couldn’t understand how Sally Baxter had afforded all these amazing holidays on a journo’s pay as I was flat making rent in a country town in the early days of the CSG boom.

But what I discovered along the way was that what I loved more than storytelling, was the people I met and wrote about and the people who had gone ahead of me doing the same thing.

After getting caught in floodwaters in a two door Festiva and arriving inevitably late and bedraggled to an agribanking dinner, I plopped down at the odd sods table hoping the meal would make working another weeknight for free worthwhile. I can’t remember what I ate or what the economist’s outlook was but I still remember clear as day Genevieve Schutt McAulay telling me that she too, had “worked at the Dalby Herald and used to take my copy down to the Greyhound bus to send it off to be printed”.

I fired back “Please God tell me you go somewhere in life after this”. Well it turns out that had in fact Gen had ended up with quite the career and she inspired me to stick it out and also lead me more into the field of rural and Ag journalism and storytelling.

As I’ve slowly seen journalism and in particular, rural news struggle or even fold over the years, I’ve always found comfort in the amazing work done by female journos and leaders in this area of rural, regional and agribusiness reporting. There is something very real about them not only in how they can sense a good yarn but in how they look out for each other and have each other’s backs. Rather than competition, it’s about encouraging people to excel in the areas they’re passionate about and improve in the other areas which don’t come so easily. My own career, if you can call it such, has taken many a different path and there’s some crossroads where I would have chosen to take a different route with the benefit of hindsight, but it’s always found its way back to storytelling and this wonderful community and hopefully I’ll find my own little niche in it one day.

So it was definitely a highlight of Beef 2024 to catch up with Gen as well as some other amazing rural reporters. I don’t know if you’ll ever quite know how much it means when you make the time to encourage someone much further down the ladder than you, but on behalf of my inner Sally Baxter, thank you to all the Gens and Pips of this industry! And rest assured Gen, my mum will always want a photo of me with the OG Dalby Herald Reporter! 😂

08/05/2024

:: Late to the party but worth the wait, right? Rural Press Club events always a winner. ::



Beef Australia Rural Press Club Queensland

28/04/2024

:: Sunday feels as we head into a big week. 🤣🤦🏼‍♀️🧐 ::

24/04/2024

This was a pretty special yarn to be able to share back in the day.

It was made no less poignant when I read the final sentence in John’s more than 200 page Word doc autobiography which he had typed himself after learning how to use a computer late in life...

“I have reached my 9oth year and yesterday I pooed my pants so I think I had better give up before I do the same thing on the seat of my bike what a disaster”.

WHEN John O’Reilly went farming with his father in 1937 times were tough - things looked up by...

16/04/2024

It’s situations like this which erode the public’s trust in mainstream media. Journalism is not regurgitating speculation or trawling social media for screenshots for “a story”, but instead it is asking questions, asking what is motivating key players to say or do certain things, researching and then above all else, checking and checking again.

This isn’t new: it happened after the Boston Marathon bombings and in Australia when Seven incorrectly identified a person as the suspect/kidnapper in the Cleo Smith case. It’s alarming to see publishers and broadcasters prepared to make mistakes which can have life long negative consequences on innocent individuals in their feverish rush to “Publish first, correct later”.

I’m the first to admit that I’ve stuffed stories up, not done enough homework or not done enough independent research or fact checking in the past. I think most journos have. But being able to recognise this, own it and learn from it to avoid repeating these mistakes is key. However, to accuse someone of being a mass murderer and then blame it on a junior staff member is another thing altogether. I hope the individuals and the media organisations which published these claims are held to account for their actions all for the sake of “Getting the scoop”. It’s not a scoop if it’s inaccurate.

Benjamin Cohen was falsely accused of the Bondi Junction stabbings. Here's how the lie spread around the worldABC Investigations / By Kevin Nguyen and Michael WorkmanPosted Yesterday at 8:35amMon 15 Apr 2024 at 8:35am, updated 9h ago9 hours agoTue 16 Apr 2024 at 2:23am Sydney university student Benj...

30/03/2024

:: Easter Editorial Meeting - BREAKING NEWS! The sales reps sold their ads but the journo didn’t make deadline cos she got distracted by an espresso martini.

Or is that the scoop? That adults prefer the Easter Bunny deliver espresso martinis instead of chocolate? 🧐

Happy Easter to you and yours! ::

26/03/2024

:: This arvo’s walk was the first time I’ve spied a cobweb as glorious and glistening as this! Mother Nature is so spectacular, even on what is a path well trodden for me. ::

11/03/2024

Time’s running out to get your entries in! This is an amazing local competition - thanks to Senex Energy for sponsoring yet again and Hope and Leesa the tireless Wandoan Photo Challenge coordinators for their work! 📸

08/03/2024

International Women’s Day - reflecting on just a few of the most amazing women doing what it takes to get the job at hand done. It’s been a privilege to meet these women over the last 12 months or so for work and a huge shout out to the woman who lifts up and champions other women so well - the manager, the label wearing, tequila loving lady who is Erika Brayshaw!

Can’t wait to share many more women’s stories with you over the next few months.

Shout out to all the women in my family and friends who have my back day in, day out. I hope to be the same support for you that you are to me.



Condabilla Fish Cotton Australia Outback Beef Bunya Range Lamb Bloom and Grow Flowers

10/01/2024

The last few years have been pretty big for a lot of people and businesses for a myriad of reasons.

I read this a while ago and it reminded me why I do what I do - yes, it’s storytelling but it’s a lot more: it’s the people who feature in those stories.

I’m looking forward to meeting many more people and reconnecting with previous connections to tell more of their stories this year.

He called four times in four minutes. It must be important, I thought – but I’d sworn to myself I wouldn’t answer my phone. Not today, of all days.

06/01/2024

I’ve had this yarn open in a tab to read on my phone for a few months. Embarrassing really. But I’m glad I did get to read it - East Timor is a fascinating place with huge resources and big players fighting over them, but this is about empowering the nation from the roots up. Can’t wait to follow this progress.

Discover the untold stories of Timor-Leste with the country’s first English-speaking news service.

31/12/2023

:: When you want to ring in 2024 but you also want to make an impression. 😂👌🏻 ::



Bodega Bar Jabba Band

11/11/2023

:: Today we remember those who wrote a blank cheque for their country and paid the ultimate price.

Thinking of all caught in the crossfire of conflict worldwide today whether military or civilian and praying for peace.

Thank you to Shirley, Downsie, WDRC and everyone involved in organising today’s ceremony in Miles.

Lest We Forget. ::

04/11/2023

:: I’ve never been much for a busted arse cowboy who “could’ve been the next Lane Frost if only xyz had happened”.

So it’s a bit of a shock to admit that the absolute highlight of my weekend, actually week, was running into Angus Mitchell at Wandoan Rodeo tonight. I spent two days tailing Angus in Roma and at the Charleville Rodeo back in 2018 and spoke to people who’d rodeoed with him all his life and kids who may have ended up on the street or in Arthur Gorrie but for his influence. Word count was 1500+ and yet I still couldn’t do justice to his story.

He talks a big game, in fact the only things that are bigger than his tall tales are his smile and his heart. It’s one thing to be a champion bull rider or roper, but it’s another thing altogether to be a champion human being.

I’m with Willie and Waylon when they say “Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys” but if they do, then I hope they’re half the cowboy this bloke is! ::

📸 Jessica Mayes

25/10/2023

It was an honour to be able to cover the 8th Women’s Wellness Day hosted by Murilla Community Centre Inc. for major sponsor Senex Energy. Thanks to Senex, Jemena and all the other sponsors as well as the businesses who donated prizes and the volunteers who gave their time so freely! Julie Cross brought energy, laughter and tears to the day with her sparkling presentation! The event was yet again a credit to Murilla Community Centre Manager Cecily Brockhurst and her team!

01/10/2023

Oh so much went into getting this shot just so! Amazing. Such a different take on what could have been a pretty, but cliche moon photo. LOVE IT!

Me and Steve roping that big old Harvest Moon last night!! We are truly blessed and thankful.
We cannot thank Ashley Turner Photography enough for her dedication to excellence.

26/09/2023

Two of my fave parts of rural storytelling include patting dogs and enjoying farm fresh food. 🐾 🥕 And the ever changing office views like this!

Wait, that’s more than two…hopefully I’m better with words than numbers. 🧐

But the absolute best part of it all for me is meeting people like the Nixon Family and being entrusted with telling their story and taking some images which capture them, showing their relationship with each other and their land.

Fourth edition of The Downs Farmer out today.

Thanks to Bunya Range Lamb and Food With Style - by Jan Cranitch for your time, knowledge and culinary tips and tricks. 🗞️ 📸 🐑 I’ll let you know how the roast tastes! 😍 ::

20/09/2023

:: It’s been a big week, but somehow, we’re only half way through it!

This perfect ❤️ shaped prickly pear just wants to remind you that everyone needs a bit of self compassion so go easy on yourself! Even the prickliest weeds can have feelings too, you know? ::

14/09/2023

After a tough couple of months for bull vendors, The Grove Shorthorns achieved its top price ever at their 40th sale held on property at “Myall Grove” outside of Condamine today.

Sandy Munro of Weebollabolla Shorthorns paid $100,000 for Lot 12, The Grove Witness S0813 (P), ahead of Weebollabolla’s 56th annual bull sale near Moree tomorrow.

Vendor Spencer Morgan said it was a tough call to sell the two-year-old roan, but it paid off with today’s top price an impressive increase on the stud’s previous top price of $65,000. The Grove has retained some of the bull’s semen. While the sale average of $12,175 was back on 2022, all 126 bulls sold to achieve an outstanding 100 per cent clearance rate with buyers travelling from Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory and strong performances from repeat clients.

According to Mark Duthie of GDL Stud Stock, today’s results show that buyers who have had a smaller pool of stock to choose from the last few seasons are now able to be more discerning and focus on consistency and quality with numbers steadily increasing since the drought broke and herds have been rebuilt.

“While things have been back and more competitive this season, the takeaway is that really good quality cattle will still sell, they’ll sell for good prices and the clearance rate reflects this.”

Shorthorn Beef