Introducing the Bush Wanderlust Podcast
The spectacular Narrabri region is the star of a new podcast series called Bush Wanderlust produced by Katie Watson and Ali Smith.
“Of course, the series isn’t just about the place it’s also about the wonderful, colourful, entertaining and diverse people who live here,” said Ali.
“Many of them are our mates, which is a good thing because they’ve been very patient with us in terms of the technical side of recording audio – it’s not as easy as it looks!”
“We have been lucky enough to interview all sorts of characters from Katrina White who is every country bride’s dream wedding caterer and chooses to call the Narrabri home to popular vet Dr Michael Read who shares all the secrets of pink slug-hunting,” added Katie.
“There’s plenty of laughs and fun but also stories of resilience and inspiration, we’ve really tried to bring people’s stories to life through these audio interviews,” said Ali.
“Chatting to people like local legend Col ‘Mad Dog’ Gillham was fantastic – in some ways, he comes across as a knockabout shearer but then he has this big heart of gold in terms of all the whacky and wonderful things he’s done for charity – there’s no stopping him.”
“There certainly hasn’t been a dull moment – our interview with the owners of the Running Bare nudist retreat was also very surprising and interesting - we’re hoping people will like the cheeky insight they gave us but also they were very open and that’s something Ali and I have really valued about all the people we’ve interviewed – their generosity in sharing their stories with us,” said Katie.
“We hope visitors will enjoy listening to the podcast as they drive or even bushwalk around our region, but we also hope locals will enjoy hearing the stories and are inspired to explore our own great backyard,” said Katie.
“We are so lucky to have Mount Kaputar and Sawn Rocks as well as the birds and flowers out in the Pilliga - the sky’s the limit here, there's so much to discover.”
Katie and Ali are neighbours and live on farms near Spring Plains. A road trip to Orange earlier this year to a fabulous event called The Huddle, organised by talented entrepreneur Pip Brett, is what inspired Katie and Ali to team up and produce this podcast series.
“It was a weekend of tips and ideas from some kick-ass business women and two of the big ideas were podcasts and collaboration, so Ali and I collaborated to make a podcast.
"It's been a labour of love and even though I did give birth to my youngest son Waldo during the production of this series, we've still had a great time making it."
Katie is a designer, content creator and mother-of-three while Ali is a journalist and also writes stories for The Courier and Wee Waa News newspapers.
The pair said they’ve had so much fun combining their talents to make this podcast and really hope people will enjoy tuning in and will be prompted to hit the road and visit the Narrabri region.
“We’d also like to thank our sponsors the Narrabri Region Visitor Information Centre for backing our idea and supporting us.”
You can find the Bush Wanderlust podcast series by searching in your favourite podcast app or following the Narrabri region on social media. An interview will be released every week starting from Wednesday, December 16 starting with Katrina White.
