Hello,
I'm Grace, a mum, a wife, a sister - you get the picture!
I grew up 45mins from Sydney in a little town called Cobbitty, the eldest of 3 girls. So how did I end up living in the outback?
I had a blissful childhood spent camping all over the place from Cape York to the Victorian High Country. Mum and dad gave us freedom to explore the bush and I was lucky enough when I was 7 years old to get my first pony.
As far back as I can remember I have loved horses, I spent afternoons riding through the bush at the back of our place listening to the bellbirds and imagining I was the first person to discover a waterhole I came by one day. I'd spend hours here as I grew up pondering things.
John Williamson and Shania Twain were played endlessly on 4wd trips and are still firm favourites for me today (Galleries Of Pink Galas J.W & The One S.T)
Teen years were harder as I didn't fit the normal mould of teenage girls, preferring the company of boys that liked adventuring and being outside just as I did. Horses and escaping 'down the back' into the bush were my 'therapy'. High School was a tough gig.
After working in an office for a year after finishing school still waiting for my passionate career path to present itself, a friend mentioned he was 'heading up north' to work on a cattle station. Intrigued but without much thought I applied. I actually forgot all about it until an acceptance letter came in the mail (I don't mean email)!
Those two years were the biggest challenge of my life back then, leaving home to move interstate to a job I wasn't even sure I could do.
Since that first adventure away from home I have worked in different parts of Australia and even a stint in Canada on a ranch, somewhere in there I became a Vet Nurse, but one thing was always clear, the bush had my heart.
Eventually I met my now husband Jordan and we had a family, of course the most sensible thing was to pack up and move onto an outstation when Ruby our first was only 3 months old. I won't lie I sat on the bed that first night and cried, but only for about ten minutes. I got to work making a home. Then soon after I was pregnant with Della. 17 months separate our girls.
Becoming a mum and choosing to live away from family, friends and support has been at times, bloody tough. I have only just started to see a way that there can still be room for me as a person and not just 'mum', whilst wearing all the hats and working alongside my husband managing a cattle station.
I have been an avid reader my entire life and in the quiet hours when my family sleeps sometimes I sit and I write, or read.
Jordan purchased me a camera, I couldn't buy one for myself (mum guilt) and it has given me a new outlet and joy.
I hope by sharing life through my lens and sometimes my pen (or keyboard) I can connect with people in a real and honest way.
Thank you for reading and please say hi!
GP.
