Boggabilla, NSW, March 2021
Austin: I took a job out at a station with no electricity, one little water tank. And all of a sudden, Sharon’s stuck out there, in the middle of bloody nowhere, nine miles from anyone. She was only nineteen. And I’m working in the daylight and the dark and at times I had to ride the horse all bloody day and then ride it back off at night. I wouldn’t get home until 10 o’clock and would be gone again at three thirty. In the finish they bought me a motorbike. I guess we gave up a pretty easy lifestyle to go out there.
Sharon: My biggest sacrifice was horse-riding and horses, when I married so young. I was a crazy horse rider. I still did outside work, but over life my biggest sacrifice was not being able to keep up with what I loved. I compensated with my singing, and occasionally got to ride a horse. But looking back on my life that’s one thing that I just wish I had made room for. It was the second love of my life.