News

Women bloom through the dry

By Jemma Jones

Oct 9, 2025

Farmers in northern Victoria swapped stress for serenity at an event which focused on mental health for women in farming communities. JEMMA JONES has the story.

For one afternoon, northern Victoria’s female farmers swapped their tractors for posies and worries for a hand massage in an event designed to show women the power of their mental health.

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The Kyabram Plaza Theatre turned into a flower shop on August 16 when the free Blooming in the Dry event took over its upstairs area.

Blooming in the Dry was a free native posie workshop for farming women of the region and included a panel discussion led by chaplain Liz Spicer about mental health in the agriculture sector.

The panel included speakers Megan Williams, Tess Brookman and Shannon Miller, who shared their individual perspectives as part of an insightful discussion on mental health for women in farming communities.

Organiser Renee Pichler, who worked alongside Sue Walley from Fab Flowers to put on the event, said the event was a hit, with more than 50 attendees walking away with a native bouquet and a wealth of information.

She said the aim of the event was to provide a space for women in farming to take a step back and think about themselves and their mental health.

“Female farmers in our area are under pressure — not only are they farmers, but also are often running the household, looking after the children or their grandparents and a lot of them are actually working off in town as well and have jobs outside of farming,” Renee said.

“They hold the family together — they’re the glue. So, this was about giving them some strategies on how to bloom despite that stress.”

Megan Williams, Tess Brookman and Shannon Miller discuss mental health and strategies to curb stress on the farm. Photo by Jemma Jones

Each of the panellists spoke about ways to curb the stress, such as going out in nature, making sure you put your health above others and a surprisingly divisive option: taking a bath.

Following the panel, attendees got a tutorial from Sue on how to prepare a natives bouquet, putting together her own with little effort, before sending off each of the guests to do their own.

The event was sponsored by the Look Over the Gate community grants program from the National Centre for Farmer Health.

Following the successful day, Renee said attendees were asking her when the next event of its kind would be, a question she said she wanted to be able to answer soon.

“I want to keep creating places for connection in Kyabram,” she said.

“I would probably do it in a similar design to this event … keep it about taking care of yourself, taking care of your mate and encouraging people to speak about the hard things.”