Heartbroken farmer makes touching appeal for a new job after 35 years on land
After running her own property for the past three decades a heartbroken farmer is all but ready to walk away as her business crumbles under the strain of the drought, and she has turned to social media to help land a career change.
Marlene Brewer said she won’t sell her sheep and cattle farm just yet, as that would be ‘financial suicide in these current drought conditions’, but she will sell all her remaining stock freeing her up to work off the farm and ‘start a new life’.
Her farm near Bingara in northwest NSW is in the middle of the worst drought area in the state. Just nearby 83-year-old Bingara farmer Alf King was pictured on his knees in the dust praying for rain, his prayers going unanswered.
Ms Brewer says she may be able to go back to her farm when the drought breaks, but in the meantime she hopes to use her skills to start a new career.
“After 35 years of being self-employed as a ‘sheep and beef farmer’ and owning my own farm, today I'm going to ask my friends and business that know me to help me, recommend me, suggest to me any job opportunities that might be going for someone of my skill set,” she wrote on Facebook a week ago.
Her “Tough to Ask for help” post included a huge list of practical business and marketing skills the businesswoman has developed while running her farm over many years.
Ms Brewer’s skills include animal training, commercial breeding, wool classing, operating heavy machinery and fencing.
“I am very capable of working alone, I do it regularly” she added.
The seasoned farmer said she was considering positions elsewhere in the state, or even Queensland.
Job offers flood in after farmer’s desperate plea
It didn’t take long for the job opportunities to flood in, given Ms Brewer’s keen work ethic and varied skill set.
Ms Brewer updated her Facebook account days later, with news of offers coming from far and wide, saying she was “truly humbled by the response” to her appeal.
“I am considering a few jobs locally that enable me to stay close to home. It's an interim measure and nothing is certain but I’ll have more news by next week,” she wrote on Thursday.
“I am considering a couple of bigger options namely the mining industry but I'm finding it hard to crack into them. Also another offer of management.
“Thanks to all of you, the above has been made available for me to venture forward,” she added.
She offered advice for other farmers facing hardships by the drought to ask for help.
“Drought, as we know it now, is simply heartbreaking, personally and financially destroying. You can only drought-proof for so long. It erodes life, it challenges your hardest core values and it simply continues to test the endurance of farmers,” she wrote.
“If I've learned anything from this simple post I made in reaching out, it's exactly that reach out, people care, don't shut down and think you're alone.”
Ms Brewer promised to update her followers when opportunities firmed up.
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