Bush Kids Facebook page started on a whim in January 2013. Tricia Agar was contemplating life with no kids at home on the eve of sending her youngest daughter off to boarding school in Toowoomba, from Wyandra in SW Queensland.

Life seemed so hard for people on the land. The drought had started to bite, and people were struggling to keep their heads above water, so to speak – (if only it was water and not dust!) Bush people’s kids play such a big part of keeping the family farms and properties going, as they help out with all the jobs that take to run a rural enterprise. 

Drought is very labour intensive, and each person had a vital part to play from feeding the menagerie of poddy’s (orphaned calves, lambs, kids, piglets etc), driving a tractor or vehicle while helping to feed out fodder to animals that needed to be hand fed, checking waters, helping with fencing, pulling animals out of dams and creeks that had become bogged and helping with the jobs around the house as well as doing their school work.

Tricia was keenly aware of how much help her kids had been to their family operation during the school holidays for the older two girls who were at boarding school, but for many, many months for the youngest daughter who was in grade 7 at the local primary school. Skye’s help had been invaluable to Tricia and her husband Jeffrey, as they spent many hours each day hand feeding ewes and lambs as well as cattle on their 89,000 acre property. 

Skye took charge of the poddy’s at the house while Tricia and Jeffrey went away feeding the ewes and lambs for several hours each afternoon. It took Skye a couple of hours to negotiate the feeding of 13 bottle fed poddy lambs, plus another 15 who were being fed hay and grain, plus feeding poddy calves, horses and of course the dogs. When she had finished doing all of this, she then cooked dinner for Jeffrey and Tricia. Tricia would call her up on the 2 way on dark and see how Skye got on while Tricia and Jeffrey were still out feeding the ewes and lambs and enquire if she had dinner on. Her answer rarely varied. “Yes mum, I’ve fed everything, and I’ve got steak and chips on for dinner” would be her evening reply. This young girl was steadfast in her duty and didn’t waver even though it is never easy negotiating hordes of hungry animals who will run you down to get to the feed in your hands, and leave you trampled. The Agar’s would have been very stretched without her assistance.

Sitting at the kitchen table sewing on name labels to the girl’s clothing, the day before making the trek to Toowoomba to put the girls into school, it dawned on Tricia how invaluable not only were her kids to bush life, but bush kids down through the ages who have been contributed to their nation through their involvement in agriculture. Not only have property and farm kids been invaluable but also the kids of the shearers, truck drivers, fencers, roo shooter, bush town businesses – the list is endless. Tricia decided right there and then to start a Face Book page called “Bush Kids” to celebrate bush and country/farm kids from Australia all over through photos and stories shared through social media. 

Tricia had no idea how popular this platform would become, and over the past 6 years having now grown to over 49,000 followers.