I was born in 1965 and have lived in Cummins my whole life. I spent 5 years at boarding school and then came straight home on the farm. My brothers, Peter and Michael, were farming and leasing land by this time. We are fortunate as we all got along and when the time came, were able to separate the farming business for us to go our separate ways amicably.

Meredith grew up on a station near Woomera. She went to Adelaide for her secondary schooling. After training as a registered nurse and working at the Royal Adelaide Hospital she moved to Port Lincoln for work as a palliative care nurse in 1995. We met through Christina Hauesler. Meredith and I married in 1998 and we have 4 children; Jack 22, Lachlan 20, Rohan 18 and Hannah 16. We had a delayed honeymoon and spent 3 months travelling overseas in 2000. Being part of the community is something we value, have always valued, and have role modelled to our children in various ways over the years.

One of my volunteer roles that I have valued immensely has been becoming an Ambulance volunteer. Many years ago Cummins was short on Ambulance Volunteers and I was chatting with Dr Gerard Quigley about it in a social setting. I had finished playing football and had become a trainer with the Ramblers Football Club. Gerard said ‘Why don’t we join together?”. I thought about it and it didn’t make sense that Gerard would become an Ambulance Volunteer as he would have to treat patients when they got to hospital anyway. So I talked him out of that, joined up myself and started the training.

I have been on ambulance for approximately 27 years now and during this time I think I would have seen about 100 volunteers come and go. Going through the training prepared me for the physical and medical situations but it was the mental health patients and situations that were really confronting, and of course these were people who I knew or from families I knew. Seeing people at their lowest and feeling awful is hard. It’s cruel. Seeing them later, better or getting better, knowing that you have helped in a little way is rewarding. At one point I did an ambulance volunteer stint in Adelaide and helped complete strangers, which also gave me a new perspective on helping others. There have been deaths that have been quite confronting, however amazingly enough I was also on call and in the ambulance when 2 babies were born.

After the sudden loss of a community member in early 2016, Emma Gale did some groundwork to see if Cummins could have its own Suicide Prevention Network here locally instead of having to tap into Port Lincoln or Tumby Bay. A callout for a public meeting was put out later in 2016 and this concept was pitched to locals. This meeting had about 25 locals attend which was a massive response in a country town. I went wanting to show my support, knowing that there was significant mental health and wellbeing issues happening in town. From this meeting Empowering Lower Eyre was created and launched in early 2017. It has been well supported from its inception and I have been the chairperson since it started, 7 years ago. We have offered the community experiences many haven’t had before, for free or at low cost. Our Get Out event is probably our biggest and best community event we have put on and we have had 3 of them now.

We get second-hand referrals from people who are worried about others and all of these conversations and check ins are confidential. We have been fortunate enough to have some amazing guest speakers come to EP and visit and speak in Cummins. All of these have had a connection to EP in some way. Chris Blowes and Erin Phillips were both amazing. Erin is one of the humblest people I have ever met.

Over the years there have been some challenges to work through. I have a clear memory of a very wet year which turned into a wet harvest in 1992. In the late 1980s we had to shoot sheep. The value of sheep had plummeted, and the government was paying farmers to destroy the sheep. I was thinking, “Why are we shooting sheep when people in the world are starving?”. They were worth nothing and looking back this was an awful time.

We had a farm block get burnt out in the Wanilla fires. Fortunately, we didn’t lose any stock and everything we did lose was replaceable. It was the financial, physical and mental toll that we had to push through. What I learnt after the fires was the whole community was so supportive of us; in fact, of anyone who had lost anything or anyone. After the fires, a farmer from Naracoorte brought us a truck load of hay. They drove non-stop from Naracoorte with a load of hay to deliver to us. I found out he was an ambulance volunteer too and we had that in common, apart from farming, when we met. I look back fondly on this act of kindness and it reminds me that it is important to give back when you can.

In most recent years I have noticed a changing nature in the mental health and wellbeing overall in society. In particular, the 12–25-year age bracket seems to be the most challenged at times. With having technology at their fingertips, lack of connection and also social bullying seem to be the most common concerns. I would like to see a full time Mental Health Worker/Social Worker be employed at the school. For them to be able to go into the classrooms, to be able to go to the students and not wait for the students to come to them.

One thing that I have noticed is, kids these days are better at the breaking down the sporting club barriers. They do this better than we did. When I was younger, I had great mates from other sport teams but we were discouraged to socialise with them because of what club they were from. I have noticed young people are more worldly and understanding than when I was growing up.

I believe we are incredibly lucky here in Cummins. There are many groups to get involved with as a volunteer or to seek connection. There are many ways to seek support for yourself or others in need, as well as ways of supporting others. The Giving Village concept of Our Town’s will be able to support those in need in ways they need it. This is what the heart of community is all about. One thing about Cummins is when our community is at its lowest, it is also at its best.