Mira travelled from Austria to Australia and fell in love with our landscape, vast skies and attitude

Despite an urban upbringing in Germany, Mira Rumpel has discovered a deep love of life on the land in rural Australia. While taking a break from her busy photography career last year, the 28-year-old worked as an au pair for the Holcombe family at their sheep farm, Rocky Bar, near Yetman in northern New South Wales. Here, she reflects on her adventures.

I grew up in the city of Berlin in Germany, but after spending one high-school year in Montana, United States, I found my happy place: rural spots, horses, cowboys. When I returned to Berlin, I never really adapted to life back there, so I moved to Salzburg, Austria, in 2016. Salzburg is a beautiful, almost fairytale town, surrounded by beautiful mountains, lakes, rivers and all that goodness. Nature-wise, it is my favourite town on this entire Earth, though some Austrians do have prejudices against Germans, which doesn’t always make life easy there.

After finishing my film studies, I started working as a freelance wedding photographer and a ski instructor during winter. I felt I needed a change, so I was looking for an alternative place to spend a season. It had been my lifelong dream to come to Australia, so I booked a ticket.

Fast-forward about a year, and I am back home in Austria, working as a photographer and missing my Australian life immensely. For six months, I lived at Rocky Bar, helping take care of Lillie and Henry Holcombe’s two precious little boys: Eustie, three, and Beau, one. There’s no place I’d rather have been!

I loved everything about life at Rocky Bar: from riding horses on the vast fields to all the adventures I had with the kids and their cousins — the fresh fruit, the laidback atmosphere, the calm. Not having one house next to the other and enjoying space to breathe might be the best part of life on the land. The evening sun and sky paintings are simply breathtaking.

I love how life is less cluttered, but always adventurous. There is always something going on: new puppies, riding horses, mustering sheep, spontaneous pizza parties or lagoon barbecues.

I love that sourdough bread is traded for fresh eggs and that little boys riding their own small motorbikes are a thing. Besides the kids, who grew so dear to my heart, what I miss most about my time down under is having such hands-on people around me. I was amazed at how capable they are, able to fix whatever is broken. I guess I could go on, with the fresh oranges from the garden or the ute rides to the river, but I’ll leave it at that.

One thing is for sure: I’ll be back for another long visit as soon as possible!

I’m so glad I was able to capture some of these memories in my photos. My photography journey started at around 12 years of age, when my aunt gifted me an old camera. I think she must have seen I had an eye for it, considering my older siblings did not have the same privilege. I remember dressing up my little cousin around that time and taking my first photos of her.

In 2012, I became responsible for taking photos of the youth group I attended and had the chance to use a really good camera there. This sparked my passion for it all, and then I was asked to shoot my first wedding in 2015. From then on, photography was my side hustle, until I ended up shooting 20 weddings in 2022. It’s hard when your passion involves more and more pressure — mostly from yourself — so time away from my business ‘somewhere in the nowhere’ on the other side of the world was a godsend. The golden hour photos on these pages were one of the few occasions I got out my camera, in an attempt to have a break and bring back my true passion for it.

I love to capture those special little moments that go unnoticed by many. In photography, I find it’s the small things that bring the magic, because when people see the final results, they are often most amazed by what was overlooked throughout the day. I love the authenticity of the little laughs, a thoughtful stare or loving hug. The most important part of photography for me is for it to be genuine, raw and real.

I have had a very colourful life full of seasons abroad and diverse experiences, which is why I have reached a point where I wouldn’t mind finding a place to settle down and build a nice little country family. I have grown to love quiet, peaceful places, so being back in my business life in an urban setting is a little scary. However, I’m taking every free minute to cherish Salzburg’s beautiful surrounding lakes and mountains and try to not get too sentimental about things I miss in Australia. Despite the uncertainty, my soul says ‘it is well’, because I believe I have a loving God at my side constantly, who opened all these wonderful doors for me in the first place.

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To hear more extraordinary stories about women living in rural and regional Australia, listen to our podcast Life on the Land on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all major podcast platforms.