Catie Davenport of Carnamah  |  100x70cm Giclée Fine Photographic Print by Martine Perret (2021)

"I’m Catie and I am originally from the United States. I had been living in Texas for roughly ten years and came to Australia on a study abroad program. I had planned on going back and finishing my studies in Texas but then I decided to stay in Australia, where I met my now husband. I completed a Bachelor of Political Science and International Relations.

I moved up to Carnamah to see how I’d go and I have been here ever since. I helped on the tractor as soon as I got here. It was exciting because it was new and I learnt a lot. It’s completely different to anything I had ever experienced before.

I found it a shock moving to a town of 300 people. It is very different. Not only the isolation of being remote but the isolation of farm work. It is something that I'd never experienced before. The hours you put in and all the hard work doing harvest and seeding. It’s just work, sleep, repeat.

You really have to make an effort to insert yourself socially because the opportunities, they are not just everywhere as they would be in a bigger town. There are times when you don’t want to get out of bed and it almost feeds into its own cycle where you isolate yourself even more, and you can get stuck in the perpetuity of that cycle.

I have a bit of a passion project. Hopefully it will come to fruition next year for International Women's Day. It is a project for women and mental health, to shine a bit of light on them and celebrate all the things that they have done, the strength that they have provided for our community."