2012 Australian Year of the Farmer | ABC Landline | Rosie | Jacqui Bateman Photography

We all know that the stereotypical farmer is a bloke.  And because of that, I thought I’d include a few of the local farm girls in my exhibition – because in most cases, the farm wouldn’t operate nearly as efficiently without them.

Rosie’s a country chick with city roots and had always wanted a life away from the big smoke, so she decided to pursue a wool-classing career after she left school.  Along the way, Rosie met and married the farmer of her dreams and they now run a prime lamb operation on their Thornlea property.  She’s pretty much a hands-on kinda gal, taking over the day to day running of the farm when her farmer/cray fisherman husband heads out to the high seas for the cray fishing season.  And she’s just as much at home sitting on the tractor, working up a paddock, feeding hay or in the shearing shed, as she is sitting in front of the computer, negotiating never-ending mountains of paperwork, inputting data and doing the dreaded BAS.  Then after all that, she still scrubs up pretty well to frock up to mix it with the best of them amongst the vibrant social settings of the Hatherleigh and Beachport communities.

No doubt about it – these country chicks are a pretty versatile bunch.  Hell yeah!