Tough farm dads open up

Farmer John Hassell was hard at work when a colleague noticed something that would change the course of his life.

The farm machinery dealer had looked down, alarmed to see a red rash covering his legs.

“He saw that I had psoriasis ... and said, ‘that’s caused by stress’,“ Mr Hassell told AAP.

“Until that point I didn’t realise I was suffering depression, even though I was getting two hours sleep a night and spent a lot of time in tears.

“It wasn’t until he said that to me that I realised there was something wrong.”

Caught up in fraught succession planning about the future of his family’s farm, frustrating business dealings and the everyday stresses of working on the land two decades ago, Mr Hassell decided to fight back.

He was moved to join WAFarmers, taking a stand alongside his industry peers and going on to lead the peak body for four years until mid-2025.

Many rural Australians would recognise Mr Hassell as a force behind the fiery Keep The Sheep movement against the Federal Government’s phase-out of the live export industry.

But Mr Hassell has revealed what lies beneath that tough exterior, sharing his trials and triumphs in a new podcast mini-series called Father Land, launching on Wednesday.

The eight-episode run is part of the Motherland podcast, a juggernaut that has featured hundreds of rural mothers’ stories over nearly six years.

Its founder, 2024 Australian of the Year for Tasmania Stephanie Trethewey, launched a charity and podcast to connect women raising their families in the isolation of the bush.

For years, she has been hoping to do the same thing for rural dads.

She has interviewed eight rural fathers from seven states about their experiences of farm and family life.

“The common theme is fatherhood and mental health but their individual journeys as fathers on the land and as farmers is so different,” she told AAP.

“We cover everything from the breakdown of a marriage; we break down the really outdated stereotypes on what it means to be a man and what it means to be strong.

“A big part of Father Land and Motherland is that vulnerability is not a weakness and, in this sense, it’s part of being a bloody good dad.”

Ms Trethewey, a former television journalist and rural mother-of-two, wanted to tell the human stories often left out of industry and mainstream reporting.

“If it helps just one man or a woman who’s navigating something, then it’s worth it,” she said.

Mr Hassell said he took part in the series to help others realise that tough periods did have an end.

“I’ve come out the other side and I’m experiencing this wonderful joy of being a grandparent and parent,” he said.

“It’s good to be able to tell people: you might be going through a lot of shit but it’s bloody good to crawl out the other side.

“It might feel deep but you can swim. You don’t have to sink.”