Through The Farm Gate – A life on the land

 Through The Farm Gate – A life on the land

Reviewed By  Janet Mawdesley       January 29, 2014

 

Author  Angela Goode

Distributor:     
ISBN:                 978-1-74331-825-6
Publisher:         Allen & Unwin
Release Date:    

Website:    http://www.allenandunwin.com 

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Angela Goode takes us on a journey of hope, despair, laughter and love as she gently introduces us to life on the land, a life both enriching and challenging, as she looks back over more than 30 years of learning to become a farmer’s wife, woman of the land and country woman, learning to roll with the tough stuff and celebrate when times are good.

Seeing the rural lifestyle through her eyes, for what it is, not what many city dwellers imagine it to be, is as rewarding as but not quite as good as being able to experience life on the farm, firsthand.

She has very comfortable way with words, being able to create her life and that of her family in a manner which tells it like it is and was, presenting the hard facts with compassion and often a more than a little bit irony mixed in with the wit.

As a regular columnist for the ABC she paved the way for women on the land to be able to have a voice, to speak up about the things that matter, and the challenges that face women as a daily occurrence when they depend on the land for their livelihood.

Through her more than 20 years of radio broadcasts and newspaper columns, she documents the changes in social acceptance of the role of women on the farm, bought the plight of the drought stricken farmers and their families into the forefront of Australian consciousness and made a difference to the understanding many city and urban dwellers had about life on the land.

This is her story and that of her family, as they moved from farm to farm, cattle breading experiments and finally to owing their own property. The Field of Mars, where cattle breading has moved over to encompass a desire to rehabilitate the land, encourage the return of the curlew and the rare red-tailed black cockatoos to return.

Fascinating, enjoyable and also very informative on what it takes to survive and thrive in a life on the land in Australia during both the good and bad times, climate challenges and also that of constantly changing government legislation.

 

Lifestyle, Non Fiction