Why young women are trading in city life and sushi bars for cattle stations and pub meals

Young women raised on bustling urban streets are breaking the mould of their metro upbringings to pave their own way in the outback.

Swapping their apartments and sushi restaurants for cattle stations and pub meals, University of New England students Lucy Cole, Chloe Bremner and Ella Crowley are the first generation in their families to study or work in agriculture.

The women, all 20, are based at north-west Queensland cattle property Devoncourt Station for their university placement.

It is a far cry from their city life, but they now consider the outback home and have no plans to return.

Between two worlds

Ms Cole’s journey from cosmopolitan Adelaide to cattle country in Queensland was almost 2,000 kilometres.

She said it was not just the landscape that was vastly different.

“You’ve got to learn all the language up here,” she said.

Ms Cole said she fell into the industry after a lifelong fascination with the rural lifestyle.

She decided to do a gap year in the Northern Territory and never looked back, even changing her degree to agriculture.

Ms Cole said learning tricks of the trade for cattle industry during her current placement had solidified her plan to pursue a job in agriculture.

Gen Z boom

According to Australian government statistics, the average age of a livestock farmer is 60 years old, and five years ago it was 58.

But the industry has been striving to get more young people on board to keep it ticking.

Two decades ago, the Future Farmers Network was established to address a lack of opportunities for young people in agriculture, and it has since joined forces with the National Farmers Federation to create the Young Farmers Council.

It was a move designed to improve the peak industry group’s engagement with the next generation of farmers.

Ms Cole said misconceptions contributed to her city peers’ lack of interest in working in agriculture.

“It definitely seems harder to get people into the ag industry now,” she said.

Cattle producer Alistair McDonald, who employs the women, said seeing the next generation ready to take the reins gave him hope.

“Seventy per cent of the applicants we have for all of our stations are all girls,” he said.

“There’s no shortage of girls, mostly school leavers, that want to come up work in this industry, which is excellent … as well as plenty of young blokes.”

Culture shocks

Brisbane born and raised, Ms Bremner’s life has flipped from one extreme to the other.

“I grew up in the city life for sure … I’m probably about as city as it gets,” she said.

The Bachelor of Agriculture and Business student said high school work experience on a cattle station sparked her “obsession” with rural life.

She said her friends back home questioned her decision to study and work in agriculture.

“They think it’s a little out of place for a city girl to go out in the country where it’s so remote,” she said.

“This is what I want to do, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”

Ms Crowley’s love for the industry started in high school, leading to her decision to study a Bachelor of Rural Science.

“I actually went to school in a rural area at a boarding school and absolutely loved the community and all the horses and cattle,” she said.

Ms Crowley said innovation and technological advancements made it an exciting time to be in the industry.

“The future of ag might change so much by the way young people see and think,” she said.

Ms Crowley said there was only so much someone could learn in a classroom.

“Someone would go to the unit and say, ‘Can you grab this tool?’ and I actually won’t know what it is,” she said.

“[But] everyone’s helping us learn and are really patient with us.”