Bree Wakefield was on the panel of speakers who appeared at the recent event, Hatfield Happening.

Her story is one of varied hardships, and the beauty of overcoming these hardships and elevating yourself.

Bree lives on a sheep and wheat property over an hour west of Hatfield, and 50 minutes north east of Mildura, with her husband Ryan and her three children Angus, 17, Harry, 14 and Alice, 12.

She runs her own farming business, an old hand at this work as she grew up on a farm herself.

“There is nothing like being yelled at in the sheep yards by your father to instil resilience as a child,” Bree laughingly recollected during her speech at Hatfield Happenings.

Bree recalled her high school boarding years as being some of the best years of her life.

“Nothing promotes independence more than essentially moving out of home at the age of 12,” she said. “I loved being in an environment which was like a permanent school camp.”

The school nurtured Bree’s confidence and resilience, instilling in her the importance of being a strong and independent woman capable of anything.

Some of Bree’s favourite sayings are ‘Everything is meant to be,’ and ‘life is what happens when you are busy making other plans’.

A fortnight before her last university examination, Bree discovered she was pregnant.

“A baby, while not on my five-year plan, was definitely on the list somewhere, and he pushed himself to the top of the list,” she laughed.

Bree went full steam ahead, forging her nursing career.

She and her husband welcomed their child, Angus, and Bree went back to work when her son was eight months old. The couple felt they wanted to give Angus a brother or sister, so after a time, Bree fell pregnant again. Devastatingly, life took an unexpected turn. At Bree’s 20-week scan, it was discovered the baby has a major heart defect, and would require open heart surgery to survive.

“This was a pivotal moment,” Bree said. “Life to this point had been relatively easy, and the journey we went through with Harry was challenging in every way.”

Thankfully, Harry’s story had a positive outcome. He had open heart surgery at 11 days old, and spent the first three weeks of his life in hospital. He and the family hasn’t looked back since.

They counted themselves very lucky Harry’s health condition was identified before his birth. If he had been born in the local hospital, his outcome would have been vastly different.

The experience made a lasting impact on Bree and husband Ryan’s perspective on what was important to them in life.

“Going through the life changing experience of having a sick child who nearly died made us realise we didn’t want our children growing up in childcare,” Bree said. “We wanted them to grow up in the bush. We decided to make the move back to my parent’s place.”

In the first three months of moving onto Bree’s parents’ property, they had purchased their own property, and discovered they were expecting another child, their daughter, Alice.

So, there they were, the family living a happy life on the land.

Cut to when Bree was 25. She was diagnosed with having the BRCA2 gene. This meant she would have a very high chance of developing breast cancer in her thirties.

“There is a long history of the disease in my father’s side of the family,” she said. “We lost my grandmother to breast cancer two weeks before I was born. My great aunt passed from breast cancer two weeks before my grandmother, and my aunt was diagnosed with the disease in her thirties. I didn’t have to wait for a cancer diagnosis, and was able to avoid having the same horrible fate as other members of my family.”

Bree made the courageous choice to undergo a prophylactic double mastectomy and reconstruction when she was 31.

She decided to be brave and share her journey at the time, continuing to encourage women to check their breasts and be proactive.

Over the years, women have told Bree her monthly reminders have kept them checking, resulting in finding a lump in their breast they have had checked.

“Knowledge is power,” Bree said.

Another quote Bree lives by is ‘change is uncomfortable but that is where growth happens.

One day, while lost in the ground hog days of life with three small children, she received a phone call. Someone asked her if she was interested in organising a three-day conference for a local organisation.

“I was just a nurse, mother and farmer; what did I know about event planning,” she laughed.

“I was told oh it’s not that hard, you just need to book a few things and organise people. I soon learnt this was a total lie!”

Bree decided to step up and give it a go, in spite of it being something she had never done before and the prospect made her quite uncomfortable.

“The growth I made from that moment was huge,” Bree said. “I have since gone on to organise three successful Mongo youth project conferences for Indigenous and non-Indigenous school children from around Australia. Hosting 300 people in a paddock for three days with no running water or power is no small feat, but I discovered I can do it, and do it well.”

Another quote Bree favours is fake it till you make it.

The initial conference led to additional management work, which she says gives her an outlet from farm life, allowed her to contribute financially and expand her skill set.

Grow by serving was the motto at Bree’s boarding school. She finds this motto incredibly relevant in her adult years.

Highly passionate about community involvement, she has held many positions on committees and has been involved in many organisations over the years.

“There is a huge sense of satisfaction from giving back to your local community,” she said. “Local events such as Hatfield Happenings just don’t happen, there is always a team of local men and women who bring their skills, knowledge and time to make it happen.

“Not only does being on a local committee contribute to your area, but you will grow personally, learn new skills, make new friends and ease the feeling of isolation which is so familiar to people on the land.”

In 202o, the COVID pandemic hit Australia, and this had a huge effect on families with children who boarded away at school, and interstate.

Angus had started school in Year 7 in Adelaide, like his mother before him. His boarding journey did not go the way it was anticipated.

“Angus had to quarantine for two weeks at a time just to get back to school from our isolated property,” Bree said.

“The first time was at his boarding house, which I likened to solitary confinement. The second time was with me in a townhouse in Adelaide with no backyard.

“This was a harrowing experience for so many families and we scrambled to get authorities to listen to our pleas.”

Isolated Children and Parents Association (ICPA) NSW came on board to support families and advocate to their contacts within the government.

Bree became a part of the ICPA state council, on the COVID committee, and the Health and Wellbeing portfolio holder.

“I don’t know how I became a part of such a highly regarded organisation, but Claire Butler and her encouraging words had a lot to do with it,” she said. “Once again I was brave, I embraced the uncomfortable and faked it until I made it.”

An eternal optimist, Bree credited the sole positive to come out of COVID for her as being the ICPA.

She counts the four years of her tenure on NSW ICPA State Council as a huge time of growth.

“Being involved with such a professional and passionate organisation was a life changing experience,” Bree said. “I have spoken to ministers in parliament, travelled all around NSW, met people from all over Australia who are also passionate about advocating for rural and remote education and developed close friendships that will last a lifetime.”

“I recommend everyone be brave, embrace the change, and the uncomfortable,” she said. “Look for the positive, break the mould, fake it till you make it.

“Join the committee, apply for the job, help organise an event, you won’t regret it.”