Josie Clark is home on the family farm for the weekend.
It's a Kempsey on the mid north coast of New South Wales. She's
a PhD student studying agronomy, and is giving her dad Glen
advice on what he should and shouldn't plant to fatten the
cattle.
Personally, I probably wouldn't have planted millet because it
doesn't put much weight on your cows. But rye would have been
better.
The family has farmed in this area for three generations and
for Glen, agriculture has been his life. He also drove trucks
to help support a family of four children, until 2003, when he
had an accident that almost claimed his life and changed his
family's forever
I remember getting woken up in the middle of the night to go to
Sydney, which was very strange. And yeah, going to visit Dad in
hospital. And I guess, you know, you don't really recognise at
the time that you as a five-year-old kid, you were
maybe saying goodbye to your dad. So yeah, that was hard.
Glen's prognosis was still heartbreaking.
My first memory of it was waking up and looking out the window
and seeing Sydney Harbour Bridge and wondering where I was. And
yeah, then the news was given to us that, yeah, I'd probably
never walk again.
He finally got to go home after nine months in a hospital
undergoing extensive rehabilitation.
I wasn't allowed back in the house until the bathroom
modifications were done. And I could access the house. So that
was a pretty traumatic time well it was all traumatic, you know,
for everyone, for the family and everyone. So we got all that
sorted out. And then it was time to think about what's the next
plan. I was 41 at the time. So yeah, never had a sick day.
Sorry. Never had a sick time in my life. And yeah, we were just
busy with four kids and pony club and work and everything
else, and health is the last thing you think of.
Nearly 20 years later, the emotions are still raw. But what
it has done is open both their eyes to a greater issue. Josie,
the youngest of the four saw how determined her father was to get
back to farming. Two years ago, she asked him a simple question
that would transform her life and possibly the lives of
Australians with a disability living in rural areas.
It just came from a conversation we were having in the paddock
one day, she said, Oh, you know, is there a support network or
you know, anything like that where you can share thoughts and
ideas? And I said, Well, no, not really.
So she started one launching Ability Agriculture on Facebook
and Instagram. It's a place for Australians with a disability
working in agriculture to tell their stories.
For me, it was just to share the incredible stories of people
Nigel Koresh's story is just one of many Josie has shared. Born
working in agriculture with disability because there are
incredible people working in our industry with disability. That's
something we don't talk about. And I think there's so much
power in just starting a conversation
with cerebral palsy. Nigel grew up on a broad acre farm near the
Queensland border town of Goondiwindi. How did having
cerebral palsy affect you growing up in the regions.
The way I viewed it is that I didn't know any different. So I
was just a normal kid growing up. It wasn't until I probably
got to my teenage years where I started to fall behind at sport
and just couldn't keep up physically with my friends. And
that was the first time I realised that I had disability
and it was going to affect me for the rest of my life.
Nigel was an avid rugby player in his teens, but as he got
older found he could no longer keep up with his mates. His
disappointment in his body led him to be pretty down on
himself. He says it took until he turned 30 to be able to
accept himself and his condition.
And one of the difficulties of being disabled on the farm is
using a grease gun to grease the grease nipples and the bearings
of the machine. So basically just get the grease nipple onto
there. And you have to hold it there the same time as you pump
the grease in so it ends up being quite difficult. And messy
too. And very messy. The worst thing you can do is get
frustrated get angry, and suddenly you can't do it at all.
So just staying calm, staying patient and just taking that
extra longer bit to do and pays dividends in the end.
So yeah, I suppose realising your limitations but also
knowing that you can overcome them to get the job done in the
Absolutely. And this is a great example of if you are disabled
end.
and need help doing it is putting up your hand and getting
someone to help you. That was something I was not very good
at, particularly growing up. And as a young person, I'd spend you
know, I could have spent two hours down a paddock just trying
to adjust something small that someone with two hands could do
in five minutes. But I was that stubborn and arrogant that I
wanted to do it myself.
A bit of bush mechanics along the way helped.
Growing up I learned how to ride a quad bike early on in my life.
There was just only one problem, it wasn't very safe because I
had the reach across and use the right hand throttle with my left
left hand. Beacuise they're all? Yeah right hand control? Hop up.
Good boy. When I was about 12 years old, my father came up
with the idea to modify the quad bike and put the thumb throttle
on the left hand side. That was a game changer in my life. Just
the fact that I could ride a motorbike with all my friends
completely gave me access to the farm so I'd spend hours and
hours just riding
Technology has improved life and work for rural people living
with a disability. For Nigel and Glen machinery and vehicle
modifications have given them independence and freedom and
kept them on the farm
The car I got is a dual cab ute, automatic and it's been modified
for me to give me independence, which is a huge thing for me. So
it's just had the hand controls adapted like they are fitted by
an engineer in Sydney. So yeah, I can get in that and throw me
chair in the back and when the kids were younger, soccer and
all that sort of thing Friday nights. all the fun stuff. And
yeah, with that gator there I'd be lost without it. Like it's
just been modified. With hand controls in it. I can just I can
still contribute to the farm in any way that I possibly can.
The tractor pretty much drives itself in the paddock with GPS.
And I can solely focus on the control panel with my one hand
and pretty well do it quite easily. So technology has come a
long way in agriculture to basically allow disability
people to drive the tractors.
Nigel praises the NDIS which allows him to access
physiotherapy services, and specialised compression clothing
in his hometown of Goondiwindi. Minister for NDIS Bill Shorten
acknowledges more can be done for rural and regional
Australia. He's creating a new position to prioritise services
for people with profound and severe disability living in
regions so they don't have to move to big cities.
If we're spending $30 billion a year on the NDIS that makes us
arguably a big dog in the debate. So what we need to do is
to bark loudly on behalf of people with disability to go to
equipment suppliers to educate people that modifications
actually increase productivity, increase choice increase
control.
About two hours drive west of Brisbane Christy Banks lives on
a property with her husband Dale and their two sons. Her story
featured on the Ability Agriculture social media pages,
recounting her dream job as a jockey
Started when I was 15 riding in races so it was a lot of it was
a lot of pressure for you know being so young, but it was what
I wanted to do. I was an apprentice to my father.
Until a race on New Year's Eve 2011 left her a paraplegic.
It's just a normal day, rode in race one, jumped out of the
barriers and went you know, trying to pick up a position in
the race and unfortunately clipped heels of the horse in
front of me and fell. I was fully conscious the whole time.
And yeah, I just laid on the track and couldn't move my legs
and going into Toowoomba Hospital. And the doctors
telling me that I'll never walk again. Yeah.
Determined to keep her hospital stay as short as possible.
Christie learned the basics of life in a wheelchair in six
weeks. In eight weeks, Christie enacted the old adage and got
back on the horse. But it wasn't a great experience. With no grip
from her legs. Her body moved too much in the saddle, and she
had to be led around Christie thought if that's what riding is
like as a paraplegic, she wanted no part of it.
So I thought that option was gone. I just didn't think the
speed would be anything I'd do again until I seen a girl
Amberley Snyder in America riding with a seatbelt. And that
was only about three, about three or four months after my
accident. And I seen that and I thought, Well, I'm gonna do
that.
With the support of husband, Dale, a wheelchair that lifts
and a very special horse named Bob riding is once again a joy
for Christie.
She's so confident on Bob the horse and extremely competitive.
Christy is now a regular on the barrel racing circuit.
I won thtree ID, that's the top level barrell racing titles. So
yeah, the fact that I'm as good as anyone on the horse and, you
know, paralysed I think is I'm pretty happy with that.
Sport is often seen as a great way to get people to be involved
in the disability community. But it's not for everybody.
There's not a lot out there for people who are on the land.
Because when you're injured you're either times you're gonna
play basketball or tennis or wheelchair rugby, but I was
never a sports person before my injury and I thought, well, I
don't think I'm going to be one now.
Eventually, though, Glen found a sport that gave him the freedom
of movement he'd lost, and an activity he could share with
Josie.
I went to Sydney here a while back, there's a respite place
down there called So Good and you go there and they did
different activities as far as like bike riding, canoeing,
kayaking, snorkeling, all that sort of thing. And you have, you
have support full support, so you're not relying on family and
friends. So I went down there, and they had a hand cycle. So
it's a three week cycle. So we ride around the lake. And I love
it. I just if I don't ride every week. I've never been so
passionate about sport, in all my life. It's just come along
and it's just a feeling that you take on and you're not thinking
about any of this, you just, you're just one of the boys you
just out there having a go.
People with disability who are deciding whether or not to stay
involved in agriculture, or even to stay in a rural area. Josie
encourages them to check out the Ability Agricultural social
pages and take advice from the stories
Because I think Nigel said it best when he said, for a long
time, I felt like I was different and that he didn't
really apply for things and he said just give it a go. He was
like the worst thing that someone can say is no, but the
alternative is so much better.
Don't discount someone because if they have a disability, I
think you'll find that they'll give you their heart and soul
like everyone else.