Home is Where the Heart Is
Written after the Girls Talking Ag (GTag) event in March 2024, this article – by participant Nikki Thompson about fellow workshop attendee Emily Ware – appeared in the 12 April 2024 edition of the Maranoa Today.
Just as with her family property, Womalbrook, where Emily and her family have adapted with changing conditions and continue to work to create synergies of growth and connection, her ideas are pollinating an increasing level of health and wellbeing for the local community and those who visit the region.
The below transcript of the article has been slightly altered to provide locational details and explanatory information, for those of our website readers outside of Queensland, Australia.
Home is where the heart is
Emily Ware is a Mitchell (Queensland) girl through and through. She has long family roots to the region on her mother’s side and her father, though born in Ipswich (South East Queensland), spent a large part of his adult life in Mitchell as the local doctor.
Emily spent her childhood living on Womalbrook, 26km from town. Thanks to wise and timely succession planning, it is a place that she still calls home.
Emily loved being in the bush and all she wanted to do was be at home with the animals. Her kindy career lasted half a day, as she wouldn’t let go of the bus driver’s leg when she arrived on day one. I can recall a similar incident myself starting school and not letting go of the car door. School more a necessary evil, when home held such an attraction.
Secondary school was boarding at Fairholme in Toowoomba (Queensland). It was a ‘helpful’ School Sister in the boarding house who supported Emily in those early days. At school she enjoyed maths and science.
As she settled in, finding the people with whom she could connect around common interests and similar ways of seeing the world. Even for the most independent of us, belonging is vital and part of what it is to be human and finding our tribe can take time.
After finishing school, despite wanting to return home, Emily studied nursing in Toowoomba. Once graduated, she gained a nursing placement in Longreach (Western Queensland), scheduled to commence six months later. However, once home, the attraction to stay was too great, and Emily started in a part time RN (registered nurse) role at the retirement village in Mitchell in 2000. She became the supervisor and remained there until 2006; during those years, the Booringa Shire Council owned and ran the village.
Emily reflected that it was a challenging role for a young person – dealing with death and dying and the complexities of delivering high quality aged care. She moved into a role doing environmental health with the council, as well as part time work at the retirement village. Once the Queensland-wide council amalgamation process occurred in 2008, Emily needed to decide which role to take.
She opted for the OHS (Occupational Health and Safety) Coordinator for Maranoa Council and remained there until her first daughter Willow was born in 2012. Emily had met her husband Ted, who is an Augathella fella, when she headed that way to do preg testing. Her aunty had been an unofficial matchmaker in the process. Second daughter Linda was born a couple years later, and the two-legged part of the family was complete.
As I mentioned, Emily has strong roots in the Mitchell community – to the land and to the people. She has a deep sense of comfort being part of a small community and feeling connected. I loved her insight around all the good people behind the scenes who play an equally vital role as those in more public positions. It is timely for each of us to reflect on that. Not everyone feels called to the more frontline roles and yet we all play a vital part in the strength and connection in our communities.
Adaptability was in the air that Emily breathed, rooted in the land and working with its capability and the changing climates of weather and economy. Her grandfather and father had run Herefords and her parents had a fine wool Merino flock. Over time, the cattle breed moved to Murray Gray/Angus and the sheep to a breed I had never heard of – SAMM (South African Meat Merinos). A breed raised for both meat and wool production.
In 2014, Emily’s father died suddenly. A huge shock to the close-knit Wilson clan.
Losing a parent has a huge impact on our lives and an added complexity when business, land, home and family are so intimately interconnected. Fortunately, succession planning had begun prior to that. Emily had also been personally proactive over time in the building of an asset base. A house in Mitchell to begin and then a small block at Kaimkillenbun (on the Western Downs), which was share farmed.
Personal proactivity, combined with external support and open communication to alleviate unspoken fears and concerns, proved to be a wise combination to allow the family to stay connected and for members to pursue their own passions.
Emily is a true animal lover. Using principles of holistic management – which Emily studied back in the early 2000s – they run beef cattle, Dorper ewes, feral goats, turkeys and pigs. Over the years, the impact that macropods (kangaroos) were having continued to escalate. With the aid of a QRAA loan, in 2017 the family erected an inclusion fence. Something that Emily said has been a game changer for small holdings in the district. (QRAA, as it was known at the time, was a specialist administrator of government financial assistance programs, including loans and grants.)
Always on the lookout for ideas and collaborations, Emily, her best friend and two others decided to venture into honeybees. The group decided to pool their resources and purchased 15 bee hives. Sweet seeds planted for what is now 15 Hives honey. The initial knowledge needed was overwhelming and the learning journey continues. It took a few years before honey could be harvested and 15 Hives was launched at the Mitchell CWA Christmas Markets in 2020.
If you’d like to know more, head across to the 15 Hives Facebook page where you can find not only honey but beeswax, lip balm and leather conditioner. And some great information about the amazing part that bees play in the health of our natural world.
Emily has a vision.
I love how her passion and holistic view of the world can help not only the local community but also add to the tourism story in Mitchell and the Maranoa. Imagine a community garden close to town where people can buy fresh simple produce like pumpkins and silverbeet grown onsite, pollinated by the bees. A place for connection and practical wellbeing. That’s part of Emily’s vision.
Just as with Womalbrook, where Emily and her family have adapted with changing conditions and continue to work to create synergies of growth and connection, her ideas are pollinating an increasing level of health and wellbeing for the local community and those who visit the region.
Emily jokingly says that she came from a long line of Petticoat Government, and I look forward to seeing what that will bring in the future. A-Buzz with possibilities. Thanks, Emily, for a great yarn when we connected at the Mitchell Spa after our shared time with #GirlsTalkingAg.