Rural and Remote
Case Study

Excerpt from Mini Case Studies 2008 - Nick Deshon

Introduction

Nick and his wife Cath have 3 boys (Tom 6, Harry 5 and Jack 3 ½). They live at “Llanillo” Lightning Ridge, where they run a 30,000 hectare mixed farm business of goats, sheep, cattle, and cropping. Nic and Cath drove 70 kms in each direction to attend the SSF 2 day Workshop at Walgett. Nick was very keen to attend and encouraged his wife who was slightly reluctant to attend.

Workshop Highlights

Nick enjoyed the entire workshop over the two years. One thing that surprised him was that the catering provided. He said “the tuckers good”. Learning about good healthy food, that tastes good was an important highlight for Nick. He also said that gaining an awareness of health issues and lack of resources available in the bush has made him more proactive about his health. The fact that his health was assessed last year and again this year was also a highlight. Nick said “the testing set a good benchmark for now based on my results from twelve months ago”.

Impact of the Workshop

The impact of the workshop for Nick is that he is now “a bit more health conscious”. He now sees family time as more valuable, and he is able to identify that the farm is a workplace and a home. He can now easily “identify the workplace” and ensure that it is a safe environment for himself and his family.

Nick would recommend it (the SFF Program) to others farmers to attend and “have a go”.