Queensland Country Life journalist Andrea Crothers has embarked on a journey with rural wedding photographer Edwina Robertson to document extraordinary love stories from the bush into a book titled ‘Hearts of Australia’.
The creative duo have just completed the first leg of their mammoth tour around the country, a 6600-kilometre road trip through Queensland.
The trip took them outback and along the coast to meet families in Quilpie, Charleville, Augathella, Tambo, Blackall, Alpha, Mount Isa, Cloncurry and Middlemount.
Miss Crothers, 22, said she was excited to be taking on the new challenge.
“I think romance holds a very special place in rural Australia’s psyche,” she said.
“It’s in the passion with which we describe our diverse landscapes – even though it is known to be unforgiving with these enduring tough times, but it’s what draws people to make a life in regions where the majority of Australians haven’t even considered.”
In this nationwide search, the pair plans to gather 80 love stories, with 30 to be published in a coffee table book and the remainder to be blogged online.
Miss Robertson, 30, comes from a beef property in northern NSW and said the road trip through drought-stricken Queensland had reinforced her understanding of the conditions out there.
“Travelling through Queensland and seeing drought through my own eyes and then having the ability to share what I’m seeing to followers on social media, to me, is a way that I can reiterate to followers how bad it is in other parts,” she said.
Miss Robertson attracted global media attention when she donated $15,000 to rural mental health organisation ‘Tie Up The Black Dog’ after a dusty wedding photo from Blackall went viral on social media in September.
“Hearts of Australia is not just about love stories,” she said. “It’s about sharing the realities of these regions – in both the seasonal conditions and the people who live and work there.”
Miss Crothers first met Miss Robertson after writing a story on her life as a rural wedding photographer.
She’d been contemplating writing a collection of rural love stories for some time when she approached Miss Robertson with the idea – admittedly “over a glass of wine”.
Miss Robertson was on-board immediately, having had similar thoughts about profiling rural Australians herself.
“Love stories seemed like the perfect fit; they are never out-of-fashion,” she said.
The pair will be collecting stories until the end of April.
You can “dob in a mate” by getting in touch with them via their Facebook page.
