Shine Awards 2022: Jackie Peacock nominated for Beyond Blue campaigning

Jackie Peacock has conquered Australia’s toughest desert race to break down the stigma surrounding mental health.

From the outside, Jackie Peacock looks as tough as they come.

The 41-year-old marketing consultant from Hamilton is an amateur motorcycle rider who has tackled some of Australia’s most gruelling desert courses, including the 460km two-day Finke Desert Race in the Northern Territory.

“She’s pretty brutal,” Jackie said. “It’s all types of terrain. Sand, rock; it is really rough and unpredictable.”

Marketing expert and amateur motorbike rider Jackie Peacock rode the Finke Desert Race to raise funds for Beyond Blue. Picture: Nicole Cleary

Riding cross-country last year with more than 600 racers from Alice Springs to Aputula and back, Jackie aimed to come home in one piece, and raise funds for Beyond Blue.

“What I wanted to show was that in other people’s eyes I look like a tough chick because I ride motorbikes,” she said. “But, I’m not like that all the time.

“I’ve had a lot of mental health struggles throughout my life.

“I wanted to show people that it is OK. It is quite normal to struggle. And it is nothing to be ashamed of.”

Jackie raised more than $20,000 for the charity, but crossed the finish line under a cloud after a shocking accident killed a spectator and the second day of racing was called off.

Despite the tragedy, Jackie said completing Finke was still a huge personal achievement because she helped normalise conversations about mental health struggles.

Jackie rides for personal satisfaction and to raise funds for Beyond Blue. Picture- Nicole Cleary

“I didn’t realise how many people struggle with mental health until I did that fundraiser,” Jackie said.

“A bloke (riding the course) came up to me and couldn’t speak, he just burst into tears because he had such a big connection to mental health, and struggles himself.

“It normalised it for me. And I think it normalised it for a lot of other people, too.”

Growing up in the tiny town of Logan, near St Arnaud, Jackie had a “great childhood” racing around on motorbikes with her brothers.

She learnt to ride on her family’s 8ha, where her parents ran a gold mine gravel pit.

Then, when she was 14, her perfect world shattered.

“Dad was 46. He had a sudden heart attack,” she said. “My mum and I were there at the time when it happened, and we tried to save him. But we couldn’t do anything.

“A lot of my life I have blamed myself for that. And felt a lot of guilt.”

Struggling with low self-esteem and negative self-talk for years, Jackie eventually sought help from psychologists. She said they gave her coping strategies, but it took constant effort to “keep on top of it”.

“With mental health, it is not something that you fix,” she said. “I have to keep working at it.”

Jackie also runs her own successful marketing company JP Creative. Picture: Nicole Cleary

Despite having more than 20 years of graphic design experience, working in marketing roles for multinational companies and running her own successful business, Jackie said her self-doubt still reared its head. It was also made worse by the fact she chose to live rurally.

A former employer even told her she was worth “30 per cent less” than an equally skilled worker in the city, simply because of her location.

“I doubt myself all the time,” she said. “People who work in the country really need to value themselves … there is the stigma that we’re not worth as much as people in the city. It is not true.”

Jackie said she owed a lot to the motorbike community.

“Riding has made me push myself and realise that I am a strong person,” she said.

“The races that I’ve done have given me something to aim towards and it is also part of proving to myself that I am good enough and I can do things that I set my mind to.”

In October, she will host a Big Blue Table fundraiser for Beyond Blue as part of Mental Health Month. Her goal is to raise more money for the charity, and create a “safe space where people can talk about mental health”.

Jackie Peacock is a nominee in The Weekly Times 2022 Shine Awards, supported by Harvey Norman. Nominate a rural woman in the form below and read here to find out more about the Shine Awards.