It is almost unfair that as I prepare to start work at the Katherine Times in a role which I already know I am going to love, I also get to embark on a particularly enjoyable road-trip from my base in Melbourne.
It is many-a southerner’s secret dream, I believe, to pack up the car, hit the road, and don’t stop until you have been through the desert, the climate has become unrecognizable and you find yourself in the magical, mythical north.
I mean, let’s face it, all Victorians are soft, and we need to live a while in the Territory to harden up and get some life experience.
I am a journalist who grew up in the country in a sheep and cropping district.
While not from a farming family, my dad is a professional kangaroo and rabbit shooter, and it is his livelihood, among other things, that has encouraged my love of country Australia.
After cutting my teeth in finance journalism in Melbourne, I went to work in the agricultural journalism sector, which I loved.
However, the call of northern Australia – which I have been listening to for about the last ten years – just had to be heeded.
All of which brought me to the point at which I delightedly spotted a job opening here at the Katherine Times, and the wheels were set in motion.
A lot of the hobbies I enjoy in life revolve around the outdoors, as well as a spot of writing.
So, this job should have the latter covered, and I think nowhere could be better for enjoying nature than Katherine.
I like jogging, bushwalking and horse riding, and while I’m not a fisherwoman, I wouldn’t mind learning.
My movie tastes include anything starring Cary Grant, and my most beloved childhood pet was a mammoth muscovy duck called Boris.
I also just got married last November, and having enjoyed an adventurous and wonderful honeymoon in India, my husband Michael and I didn’t think it seemed quite enough to go back to ‘normal’ life in Melbourne.
So, I am possibly more excited than you could guess about coming up to join the Katherine community as a reporter for your local paper.
I look forward to learning more about the region, and to hearing some of the magnificent stories which I know you have incubating, just waiting to be told.