Jillaroo Jess Outback yarn
Jillaroo Jess turned her back on life in the city to work the land, and she’s never looked back
When Jessica Edwards’ parents told her they were moving from Brisbane to a small town in rural Queensland in 2006, the 16-year-old was understandably upset.
“I got dragged there kicking and screaming,” Jess, now 27, tells Woman’s Day. “As a teenager it was hard completely changing your life.”
When she left school just a couple of years later, Jess started working in an art gallery but, to her surprise, she was soon drawn into the rural way of life she had fought so hard against.
“I grew into it pretty quickly once I got a horse, which made me happy,” she says. “I volunteered for the Riding for the Disabled Foundation and went to all the country shows and rodeos.”
Before long, Jess was also attracted to some of the male-dominated professions the bush life had to offer.
“I’m quite competitive,” she tells. “I’ve always liked driving and anything with a motor. When I first got behind the wheel of a truck, that was it – I needed to keep going. I had to get the biggest licence I could.”
HER DRIVE TO SUCCEED
Still, it wasn’t easy breaking into the trucking industry. “Most of the men are pretty supportive, but it was difficult to get my first driving job,” Jess admits.
“Even though there were lots of jobs around in the mining industry, I couldn’t get a job as a woman with a new truck licence. So I went 2000km away to drive a tractor for harvest season in the south of Western Australia.”
Soon Jess was driving cattle in road trains across the red desert of Australia. And when she made a tongue-in-cheek video about stereotypes of road-train drivers and safety for long-haul truckies, it went viral and she became something of a media superstar in outback driving circles.
She also made a guest appearance on Terrain Tamer TV, a show about four-wheel driving, teaching viewers how to prepare and maintain a 4WD vehicle for long-distance trips.
And with over 50,000 followers on Facebook and 12,000 on Instagram, Jess, who also runs a blog, is nothing short of an outback hero. “I guess I’m proof that it doesn’t matter where you are born – if you have a passion for something, you can get there,” she says.
Jess balances her social media stardom with working on a 100,000ha cattle station in the Pilbara region of WA.
“It isn’t just truck driving or station work, it’s a combination of everything, and every day is different,” she says. “It can be boring tasks such as fixing tyres and digging holes, or jobs like fixing windmills, solar panels or fencing, or pulling animals out when they get stuck.
“It’s not like the office, where each day you succeed by getting rid of paperwork and then it piles up again the next day. What I do, you can physically see what you’ve done and it is really rewarding.”
SILENCING THE CRITICS
Living on such a huge station can be isolating but Jess keeps in contact with her mum and other women on the stations in north WA, leaning on them for support and advice.
While she says there are more women working in trucking and on cattle stations these days, she’s copped her fair share of criticism. “I just prove them
wrong,” she says defiantly.
“There have been quite a few people who have told me I can’t do it. I get a lot of trolls on Facebook, but I inherited a sharp wit from my mum, so I’m usually able to turn them away pretty quickly. I guess there’s still a bit of a sexism in the trucking and farming scene.”
The self-confessed adrenaline junkie isn’t slowing down any time soon. “I would love to get my helicopter licence,” she says.
Jess has also become a role model. “I get a lot of messages from young women asking how they go about getting their truck licence or get work on a station, or even just how to deal with certain situations on the station,” she says.
“It is pretty humbling and rewarding. It’s hard juggling social media life and station life, but that’s what makes it worth it for me.”