The greatest adventure of all

It’s been a few years since we visited Terry Smith at his property in rural New South Wales, a (relative) stone’s throw from Broken Hill. The landscape is much the same, but the farm is abuzz with change and growth as Terry sets to work with his teenage son George, taking on a hearty mix of agricultural tasks and more playful passion projects. The day starts early – 7am in winter and earlier in the warmer months – and no two of them really look the same. Between the two properties that Terry operates some 200km apart, daily chores can include stock work, mustering, flying, fencing, yard building and inevitable repair work.

“Both of the kids are very capable around the farm,” Terry says of 17-year-old Annabelle, currently studying at boarding school, and 15-year-old George, who attends a more local school in Broken Hill, which sees him make a 160km round bus trip daily. “During school holidays they’re very involved in farm work and during busy times, George may even skip a day or two at school to give me a hand with mustering and stock work.”

It’s not the conventional approach to schooling that many Australians gathered in our nation’s coastal cities and towns will know, and it’s a challenge that Terry faces daily. “The options for education, be that School Of The Air, remote learning or boarding school all have an impact on the family unit. There is no right or wrong solution and everyone does it differently,” Terry explains. “Being a parent and trying to also be your child’s teacher in home learning can have the effect of being too close together for too long, and boarding school is the opposite, being too far apart for extended periods of time. One of the hardest things I find I have to do on the farm is drop my kids off at boarding school.”

However challenging the logistics may be, Terry’s also assured by the many benefits of raising a family in rural Australia, and the qualities of resilience that the lifestyle is instilling in his kids. "The biggest advantage is having space and freedom to let them do what they want, being in a remote location and having to problem solve and be self-reliant helps build confidence and character to take forward into life.”

Terry’s family have been farming since 1892 and it’s clear that every care is being taken to educate and empower his kids to continue this legacy for generations to come. Both Annabelle and George have shown a natural aptitude for tasks around the farm, the former a keen butcher and aspiring shearer, and the latter a burgeoning mechanic. George’s tinkering in the workshop has recently seen him transform an old motor bike into a makeshift motorboat, and his next mission is a fully functional go kart.

“I hope I’m passing on the skills needed to run a station on a daily basis,” Terry says. “They can both ride a motorbike, drive manual vehicles with trailers attached, and operate heavy machinery.” Both Terry and George take their motorbikes for a spin today, but it’s for a friendly father-son jaunt across the paddocks rather than on a pastoral errand. For longer journeys, he’ll opt for his trusted propellor plane.

He speaks of a lifestyle rich with possibility and adventure, and it's evident as we follow Terry and George around the property from the setting of one project to another. The sheer opportunities for his family to create, build and explore on this land are immeasurable; one can only imagine the core memories his kids will share of their childhoods as they grow into adults with families of their own. For Terry, the adventure continues everyday as he shares his love of the land and his sense of purpose with his tight-knit clan. “The times that my kids, my wife and I are all working together towards an end goal or project are the most special. At the end of the day, you look back and think, ‘these kids have got this.’”