| Abstract: | The words ‘rural Australia’ summon images of big men in Akubras, CWA ladies with loaded plates of scones and cream, sheep‐dotted hillsides and summer's golden wheat. On the surface this is the good life, and even though many people are now aware that rural Australia is suffering, there is little said about what is happening behind closed doors. The couple relationship bears the brunt of the growing pressures on those who live on the land, but it has its own inner conflicts and can hardly sustain these additional pressures. These couples do not tell their story in public, they guard their privacy jealously, and only as a last hope will they come to counselling. The common theme that emerges is that of the meeting of old and new roles—the traditional expectations of relationship (typically held by the man and his family) encountering more contemporary expectations (typically held by the woman or ‘outsider’). Here is their untold story. |
