Celebrating 30 years of Landline and reflecting on changes to rural life

Picture this — it’s 1991.

On Landline there were pictures of a woman steering a header through a grain crop. She’s a farmer, right? Wrong.

Thirty years ago a woman’s legal status in agriculture was sleeping partner, non-productive.

Rural bankers expected the “farmer’s wife” to leave the room after she’d set tea and biscuits down so he could talk to her husband, the “farmer”.

In 1994, Australia’s first Rural Woman of the Year awards were held and the status of women in ag hasn’t looked back — and the law has finally caught up.

“Now women happily say they’re farmers and no one questions it — it’s not seen as odd or unusual,” said Landline host Pip Courtney.

“It’s just part of the fabric of rural life.”

That’s not the only thing that’s…