Inverell is home to many powerhouse women, like Christine Wirth, and she and those like her can be found working the land as well as balancing a career in health.
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In the world of Rural Allied Health, a sector dominated in today's era by powerful women, hurdles are overcome each year that are, quite simply, not faced by healthcare professionals in the 'Big Smoke'.
As the celebrations for another International Women's Day commence, reflections on why women are the backbone of the health sector are not only interesting, but necessary.
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Inverell-based physiotherapist, Christine Wirth, is not newly accustomed to the challenges of balancing cattle-work and treating patients.
"I'm currently on the property right now as you talk to me. That's what I've been doing all day - cattle work and fencing," she laughed.
Originally, she had planned to work specifically in stroke rehabilitation but quickly realised that would mean choosing a life in the city.
Opting for country living, Christine now enjoys the diversity of working as a rural generalist physiotherapist working with a range of patients from many different locations and backgrounds.
Working on the land while holding a career in Physiotherapy; however, does have it's challenges.
Christine, for example, purchased her first property 'smack-bang' in the middle of the infamous drought that recently affected so many across multiple Australian states.
"Even physio work was so much harder during the drought because so many of our patients were affected by it. It became more than just physical pain you were treating."
The mental strain the drought caused affected many others in the organisation who are working on the land.
Trish Bellinger, Senior Physiotherapist and Director of Vital Health in Inverell agrees with the complexities that Christine touched on:
"Farms can't wait. They don't work 9 to 5 and they don't understand sometimes when you have a physio client who is booked in at 4pm. The answer sometimes is just to 'get in and do it'."
Farm work isn't the only side-gig these rural superstars are juggling. For others, like Gab Mooney, they are playing AFL in as summer series representative for NSWAFL and convincing all of their colleagues to join local community teams.
Gab talks about her sister, Beth Mooney (Cricket Australia) as being a key role model for her.
"She quit Uni, she quit her job, all so she could make it. And she didn't know that in ten years time there would be more money in the sport; that people would invest; that people would watch it. So I guess... I admire her drive to want to be a part of that change."
Gab says that she applies the qualities she admires in her sister to her work as an Occupational Therapist and as an AFL player.
This dedication to supporting the community and to making positive changes for the next generation is something that seems to define all rural women.
Their empathetic nature, this attitude of 'getting in and doing it' and this unrelenting commitment to change and to improving necessary access to healthcare shown by all these incredible women, and many others not mentioned, is certainly something to be celebrated.
Happy International Women's Day.
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