Inspiring true stories about locals from the real regional Australia. In each episode, a trusted local host sits down with a well-known and well-respected member of their community to share their story and understand what it’s like to live in regional Australia.

Drew Bauer knows how it feels to struggle with his mental health. An unexpected breakup turned Drew's life upside down. He didn't know how to deal with it and he thought his life was over. Now he's using his experience to help others with his charity Kick On.

Drew founded Kick On as a preventative mental health charity to support people to look after their mental health before it reaches a crisis point.

In this episode, Jamie sits down with Elliott Lovejoy from Triple M Cairns to share about how he pulled himself out of the lows of his mental health including reading and exercise, how he empowers young people to take charge of their mental health and why people in Far North Queensland can struggle to open up about their mental health.

Stories Of Us

Looking after your mental health with Drew Bauer

What makes a place feel like home? For Christian social worker Stina Constantine, it's the people.

Stina was born in Sri Lanka and moved to Wagga (via Norway) when she was a kid. In spite of the language barrier and the adjustment to the Australian heat, Stina felt at home. She was living happily in Wagga until an administration error on a visa application form meant she was going to be deported unless she could raise the money to fight it in court.

Her community rallied around her: over 14,000 people signed a petition calling for her to stay and a crowd-fund to pay for her legal fees raised over $17,000.

In this episode, Stina sits down with Leigh Ryan from Triple M Wagga to share about founding the Virtue Ministry and supporting young people to engage in healthy relationships, winning Miss Wagga (and why Miss Wagga isn't what you think it is) and winning her fight against deportation. 

Stina Constantine was almost deported from Wagga because of a typo

Grant 'Scooter' Patterson never wanted to be a swimmer. He wanted to play cricket or footy and he only swam because it was good for his joints. But he changed his mind after the Canadian Paralympic Swimming Team dropped by one of his training sessions before the 2000 Games, and he his sights on making the Paralympic Games himself.

Scooter has represented Australia at the IPC Swimming World Championships, Para Pan Pacific Championships, World Para Swimming Championships and two Paralympic Games, most recently in Tokyo where he came home with bronze and silver medals.

In this episode, Jamie sits down with Elliott Lovejoy from Triple M Cairns to share about why it was important that his parents treated him the same as his able-bodied brother, how he got back at bullies in school, the disappointment of missing out on the Rio Games in 2016 and why he's stayed in Cairns when he could have more opportunities elsewhere. 

Paralympian Grant 'Scooter' Patterson doesn't need to be wrapped in bubble wrap

Even when Simon Bonetti was at the top of his game in Sydney, he always knew he would return to live and work on his family's farm in Griffith.

Simon grew up playing local rugby league before being recruited to joint the Sydney Roosters in his early 20's. The transition was intense. Not only did Simon have to adjust to life in the city, he also went from training a few times a week to pushing his body to its limits twice a day. 

Simon was a part of the Roosters' 2002 premiership winning team before retiring and moving back to Griffith.

In this episode, Simon sits down with Leigh Ryan from Triple M Wagga to share about being recruited by legend of the game, Arthur Beetsoon, practicing thousands of passing drills, a life-changing concussion which still affects him today and why he returned to Griffith.

NRL star Simon Bonetti could've lived anywhere and he chose Griffith

If an animal can bite, sting or eat you, chances are Jamie Seymour is either researching it already or making plans to research it in the future.

Associate Professor Jamie Seymour has been researching and teaching about venomous animals for over 20 years and he's doing it from the most venomous place on the planet: Cairns, home to the world's most venomous jellyfish, platypus, snails and octopus. Although he didn't originally choose to work in Cairns, he couldn't live anywhere else.

In this episode, Jamie sits down with Elliott Lovejoy from Triple M Cairns to share about his game-changing research into the best way to treat jellyfish stings, his opinion on crocodile culls and why he gets grumpy when he spends too long out of the ocean.

Cairns is the perfect place to live for dangerous animal expert Jamie Seymour

In his time in the police force, Graham 'Buzzy' Burridge was shot at 5 times, stabbed twice and needed a titanium plate to hold his chest together. He also won two Commissioner Commendation medals for bravery and wrote the book 'Piggy Tales' about his life in the force.

After having his life threatened one too many times, Buzzy retired from the police force to work with young Indigenous people in the small town of Yarrabah. 

Seeing his young people grow into successful adults remains the highlight of Buzzy's career.

In this episode, Buzzy sits down with Elliott Lovejoy from Triple M Cairns to share about the incident that made him leave policing, his process for stashing away the traumatic memories of the job, attending shipwrecks and crocodile attacks in the Torres Strait and why nowhere else in the world compares to God's Country of Far North Queensland.

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