“Those of us who are lucky enough to live, work and play in regional Australia know there is nothing stronger than the spirit of the bush. The tales of rural and remote NSW are told in That’s The Spirit in a way that only Jen Cowley is capable of. There are many illuminating stories of the hidden heroes of our communities, illustrated with wonderful photography, across many special parts of the western region including my home town of Mendooran. Reading That’s The Spirit is bound to put a smile on your face, and the fact it has been created on behalf of an organisation that deals with loss and grief should be lost on nobody.  Well done to NALAG for commissioning the book, well done to the subjects for sharing their stories, and well done to Jen for reproducing them in such a warm and engaging way.”

Dugald Saunders MP – Member for Dubbo

https://www.nalag.org.au/thatsthespirit

To purchase a copy of That’s the Spirit (all proceeds from which go to NALAG) please visit the website above, or reach out to me at jencowley@live.com

https://www.nalag.org.au/thatsthespirit

Published in November 2020 as a project of the National Association for Loss and Grief NSW Inc. (NALAG) as part of the Our Shout Drought Support program.

Funded in part by the NSW Department of Health and NALAG

The spirit of small regional communities never ceases to amaze me, and I know I’m not alone when I say it’s also of great comfort when things get tough.

In this land of what Dorothea Mackellar famously called “a sunburnt country of droughts and flooding rains” – it doesn’t matter what life throws at its people, the spirit of the bush always seems to rise to the challenge.

When That’s the Spirit first began as a project in late 2018, we couldn’t have known then just how much we would all come to need a direct injection of positivity by the time we finally pressed “go” on the book you’re now holding in your hands.

Borne out of adversity in the form of drought across the western region of NSW and from NALAG’s role in supporting communities as part of the Western Rural Support Services Network, the purpose of the That’s the Spirit project was never to present a rose-tinted view of regional life, but to seek out a diverse cross-section of people whose positive contributions have helped keep small communities, and in turn, the region itself, united and resilient in the face of adversity.

That’s the Spirit gives voice to the positive people and groups and work being done, consciously or otherwise, to keep small communities strong. This book presents a collection of excerpts from interviews I have conducted over the course of two years with people from across a wide demographic who have shared their stories and thoughts so that we might all draw inspiration, and therefore strength, from their example. It’s not about drought, or flood, or fire or pandemic – it’s about that indefinable thing we call “the spirit of the bush”.

It’s been such a privilege and an honour – and a reminder of the value of my own small-town roots – to spend time with this eclectic but inspiring collection of people, over a cuppa or a beer (or both), in their kitchens, their paddocks, their businesses, their offices; in towns and on farms and on riverbanks and along dusty roads.

From farmers and graziers to bus drivers and business people and shearers, teachers, fire-fighters, sporting club committees, artists, musicians, publicans, retirees, indigenous and migrant, old and young; those who fly the flag and those who fly under the radar. People whose families have been in the region for generations or for tens of thousands of years or those who have settled here from other countries or have escaped from the cities or who, after exploring the big wide world beyond, have come home to the bush.  

All these people, and many more like them, help to weave the fabric that makes the small community net strong enough to catch people when they fall.

There is much that Australians as a whole can learn from the special brand of resilience that exists in small regional communities as a result of having woven that net, sometimes over the course of many generations, for when the times get tough. This is particularly true in these fast-paced modern times when we are so acutely conscious of protecting and maintaining good mental health, and when our need for connectedness and community has never been greater.

By no means was I able to capture ALL those people doing positive things in small communities. That’s the Spirit is a snapshot only. Neither is it a comprehensive list of all the different communities or towns or localities of our region. It’s a small cross-section only, a representation of the many, many, people who carry and keep that flame of community spirit burning. Their stories of hard work, determination and triumph are testament not only to the resilience of rural people but to the value of small communities to our regional identity.

Similarly, what you see on the pages of this book (which is available for purchase through NALAG – with all proceeds supporting the work the organisation does in the loss and grief space) is a collection of excerpts from the interviews, which appear in full on the NALAG website – www.nalag.org.au/thatsthespirit. Like the community spirit it sought to capture, the project grew and grew in strength as more and more people became involved. While this was a particularly nice “problem” to have, it has meant that only a small glimpse from each interview could be reproduced here, and I would urge readers to further explore the extraordinary stories and inspirational contributions of the people you are about to meet on the pages that follow.

         I hope you will go to the website, buy the book and enjoy meeting some of these incredible people and reading their stories as much as I enjoy telling them, and I hope they help to inspire you to dig deep and find strength in yourself and your own community.

NALAG’s and my role in this big, beautiful positivity project has all but come to its end, and now we hand it over to you. The next phase of That’s the Spirit is in your hands. One of the people featured in the project wisely said that community strength is a relay, not a marathon, so it’s up to us all to take the baton and keep running with it and passing it on to ensure that the spirit of the bush lives on…and on…and on.

Long may it help keep us all strong.