Wattle & Twine’s Amy Ballinger, from In Love, Out Bush

Amy Ballinger, founder of Wattle & Twine, lives on a 1000ha farm in the Western Downs with her husband and three young kids. How will she spend her Sunday?

Amy Ballinger with her kids and Lulu the sheep in Jandowae. Picture: Pip Williams

Amy Ballinger knows exactly what she’d like for Mother’s Day: breakfast in bed, followed by a potter in the garden. A short break from all the responsibilities she juggles – looking after three young kids and a sheep named Lulu, helping her husband Josh run a 1000ha beef cattle farm in Queensland’s Western Downs, and managing her own online store, Wattle & Twine, which sells hand-made items – ceramics, homewares, jewellery and the like – produced by women across rural Australia. Talk about a busy life.

Ballinger, pictured in an image from photographer Pip Williams’ new book In Love, Out Bush ($39.95, Bush Journal), grew up on a cattle property and was cautious when Josh mooted the idea of buying a farm. “He’s a townie, from Kingaroy,” she says of her high school sweetheart. “I was the voice saying, ‘Do you know what it means to own a farm? We’ll never take a holiday again, for one thing’.” But he has proved a natural, she says. “He’s made a damn good farmer.”

They’ve had tough times, of course: the big drought that finally broke in 2020, then another that pushed them to the edge late last year. Six months ago, with all their dams dried up, they had to sink new bores and run kilometres of poly pipe to keep the cattle watered. But since late January, they’ve been blessed with good rain. “Our dams are full again, and everything’s a beautiful green,” she says.

This photo was taken a couple of years ago, when Clarrie was a newborn; that’s Lawson riding Lulu the sheep, with his sister Hattie beside him. (Lulu’s a family pet: she was gifted to them as a bottle-feeding lamb one day by Ballinger’s younger brother Sam, who’d been working out west on a sheep station. “Only a single, twentysomething bloke could possibly have thought that was an appropriate gift for a mother with young kids to look after,” she says fondly. “But Lulu has become a much-loved member of the family.”)

It’s the kids who’ll be making Ballinger breakfast in bed this Sunday. What a treat! Although she’s keeping her expectations in check. “I reckon it’ll be toast spread very thickly with Vegemite,” she laughs.

To see more go to:

https://wattleandtwine.com.au/

https://www.bushjournal.com.au/