Episode 33. June Tarlinton

More Than Milk

June Tarlinton spent her childhood as a timber cutter, living in the bush from the age of 9 traveling down the NSW coast clearing trees as they went before ending up at Wandella, when she was 16. It was there she met Richard, her now husband, who was a local dairy farmer. And it’s Cobargo that she’s called home for the last 40 years.

The original farm milked 80-100 cows with a mixed herd and a low flow creek running through it, so after they were married June wasn’t needed physically to work on the farm, so she returned to cutting timber and working in town. And it wasn’t until after Richard’s father died that June began working on the farm on a very limited income.

Unfortunately succession discussions weren’t had for a number of years and the farm was run on a very tight budget with limited infrastructure upgrades, which were all controlled by Fran, June’s mother in law. A few years before Fran’s death, the succession process was finalized and discussion was had between June and Richard around the direction of the farm. And the decision was made to upgrade the farm and increase the herd, making plans around their own future and bringing their youngest daughter Megan and husband James into the business as sharefarmers.

But the hardest battle was to come, with the 2019 bushfires ripping through the farm and the local community. Although they saved the cows, they had no power for 32 days and couldn’t have milk picked up for 10-11 days and the impacts are still being felt both on farm and within the local community all these years later.

In the spirit of reconciliation we would like to acknowlegde the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

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