Kaitie Nash traces the rising dust tail to its source. It’s her oldest son Wiley on his motorbike, burning along the dirt road to the cattle yards. Her youngest son Fletcher is in a black sea of bobbing heads, moving intuitively around them alongside their dad. “The boys are growing up knowing this like the back of their hand,” Kaitie says.
Farming and free weekends don't mix. Days off only come when it rains, so they’re rare and unpredictable. But Sundays have a different rhythm. When the boys are home, the pace slows and there are lessons in every task. “I often say that kids out here know responsibility before they can spell it," Kaitie says.
There's always work to do. Kaitie lives with her husband, fourth-generation farmer Will, and their sons on the family's 2,800-hectare property in the Coonabarabran region, running Angus cattle and growing cereal crops. They moved there in 2018 from Darwin at the height of the drought, and Kaitie wasn’t prepared for the isolation and financial strain. “I kept telling myself, ‘It's going to rain, it's fine,’” she says. “Then, I started to see the desperation in Will, who'd been through drought before.”
The reality of farm life hit hard and pushed Kaitie to her limits. “It was a massive transition—parenthood, moving somewhere new, and realising it wasn't what I'd imagined. ”Her mental health suffered—a depression she likens to a relentless dust storm. “There was a lot of shame because people had told me I wouldn't cope, and I didn't want to prove them right.” But with professional help and Will's support, Kaitie's dust storm lifted. She abandoned nostalgia for her old life and found inspiration in her new one.
When RB Sellars visits, the Nash’s have just concluded preg testing. “I couldn’t film it because I was so focused on getting the weights right,” says Kaitie, whose unedited video snapshots of farm life often include her struggles to decode Will's instructions. “I kind of see myself as an apprentice,” she laughs.
Beyond farm life, Kaitie recently spent four days as a support driver for Sarah Wheeler's 5500-kilometre horseback journey across Australia, raising funds for upper gastrointestinal cancer research. After learning about Sarah’s loss of her parents and determination to make a difference, Kaitie jumped at the chance to help. “I felt so inspired,” says Kaitie. “Sarah’s humbleness, resilience, and the fire in her belly to turn grief into helping other people—you can't teach that.”
Kaitie’s time away allowed her to reflect on her most important role—motherhood. "Being a mum is special because you greatly influence their lives,” she says. And as the family heads home after a day’s work, Fletcher sits on Kaitie's lap at the wheel of the ute. She resists the urge to correct him. "I do my best to guide them, like the bowling alley side guards— bouncing off me as they move along," she laughs. "But good manners and a good work ethic is all that matters to me, and maybe they'll keep wanting to hang out with us.”
