Waching daily Jul 28 2017

My name's Rick Hinge, I come from Mandulla in South Australia.

I'm the son of a fifth generation farmer,

and have recently hurt my back, and now work within the rural industry

listening to people's stories and seeing if I can make a difference.

Generally us fellas don't do communication well.

So what I try and do is create a space where people feel comfortable

and able to communicate what's really going on for them.

Within the dairy industry, one of the biggest issues is a long hours, fatigue.

I've come across different situations where there is not enough money to pay the bills,

and that creates all sorts of feelings of shame, and guilt, and less than, and more than,

and it's not even their fault.

Andrew Cavill from Bool Lagoon.

I'm a dairy farmer down in the southeast of South Australia, milk around about six hundred cows.

Dairy farming can be a very lonely business at times because you know,

you're working by yourself a lot of the time, early mornings, late days.

To have a mate, for me that I can just lean over the back fence with and have a five-minute discussion with,

is really, lifts a load.

One of the things that we struggle with as rural people is trust,

and my goal is to build trust and rapport.

Andrew Cavill is a good friend of mine.

I deeply respect the way he goes about things.

He lives and works a complicated business, as well as has time to give to other people,

he has a deep sense of community, and is prepared to do something about it.

He's someone who I can just, you know chat to and run an idea past.

We quite often talk at community events, and I'll talk about my struggles,

and how I overcame them and Rick will chime in with some gems about how men operate.

In conclusion I'd say this;

it's an honour to listen to people and be included in their struggle.

Nothing is too hard.

You can always come through it.

You are worth, and are of more value than your problem.

Us blokes are a bit of a weird mob,

we're told and we know that talking to people and counsellors is the way we should go,

but making that first step is extraordinarily difficult for men,

particularly rural men who are so attuned to solving problems on their farms,

that they think that they can solve all the problems,

and they don't need help for this, like they don't need help to fix a fence,

so it's really critical for men to overcome that stigma of

not wishing to talk to anyone, because the results are amazing as soon as you talk to someone,

and it doesn't have to be a doctor, or a counsellor, or anyone else,

it just has to be another bloke.