Victoria Carey

A few years ago I was invited to go to a workshop on a very pretty farm, just beyond the NSW Blue Mountains, to talk about writing to a group of very interesting women. It was here that I met Kirby Kaye. I remembered

her very well because she had driven with her husband Jack all the way from Nowhere Creek in Victoria. I was impressed because, 1. It was nearly a 1000-kilometre drive; 2. She was pregnant and had two little boys under two; 3. It was only for ONE night; and 4. She told me that Jack had kept going to Inverell as he had to pick up a tractor cab! I left before he came back to pick her up for the trip home, but I’ve always been interested in seeing what Kirby did next. The dream she told me about that day, years ago, has finally been realised and today this young mum of four hosts long lunches and other events at Ballakaye, the property her children (and the sixth generation of their family) call home. The landscape there is spectacular, as you can see on our cover this month. Turn to page 68 for our story.

Another family in this issue has also spent several generations on its property: the Shannons at Bookham, just out of Yass in NSW. Their children are older than the Kayes’, away at university or working, but the pull of the land is still strong. “There is nothing better than driving home,” Margot told our writer Skye Manson in the story on page 48. “Coming down the driveway fringed by the big granite boulders, with the Burrinjuck hills in the background, the big skies and not a house in sight. I always say there is no place like home.”

And finally, the last word has to go to Kirby who sent me an email while I’m writing this letter about the day she spent with the Country Style team shooting the cover. “Everyone did a great job working with 1500 sheep, four kids, fire, wind, rain and a disobedient basset hound!” she wrote. The Kaye family certainly doesn’t sit around waiting to live life!

Enjoy the issue,