Westwood is home to a fourth generation farming family with six kids

The Monday after Matt and Kellie first met during a night out in Wellington, New South Wales, Kellie strolled in to work and told her boss: “I’ve met the man I’m going to marry.” It was 1999, and Kellie was living and working in Dubbo as a subeditor on the local newspaper. As it turns out, she was right. Matt is a fourth-generation farmer on his family’s 2430 hectare property, Westwood, at Spicers Creek, which is now home to the couple and their tribe of six children.

“Matt has worked on this property for most of his adult life,” Kellie explains. “He is an incredibly hard worker, which is something he gets from his dad. I don’t know anyone who has a stronger work ethic than my father-in-law and my husband,” she adds, proudly. After they married in 2002, Kellie made the move out to Westwood to join Matt in a beautiful old farmhouse. “This house was built by Matt’s great-grandparents in the 1930s,” she says. “We’re really lucky because it is a beautiful old house with a lot of history attached to it.” Over time the pair began to make it their own, renovating the kitchen, adding a pool and opening up the entertaining area. “It’s a lovely big house, which is lucky because we have a ridiculous number of children.”

Farm life was nothing new for Kellie, who grew up on a farm at Beckom in the Riverina. “My parents had a property down there, so I guess I’ve lived on the land for most of my life as well.” One exception being her stint in Bathurst, where she completed a Bachelor of Communication at Charles Sturt University. “Ultimately, I went into print journalism,” she explains, which led her to the local paper in Dubbo.

“I don’t know that I ever really saw myself being a stay-at-home mum. I thought I’d always work,” Kellie admits. But things changed when tragedy struck in 2003. “I was pregnant with our first baby when I was involved in a car accident,” she says. At 37 weeks, Kellie and Matt’s baby boy Hamish was stillborn as a result. “We had to come home to an empty nursery. And that’s devastating.”

Losing Hamish changed Kellie’s life trajectory. “It makes you realise how everything can change in a second,” she says. Climbing any kind of corporate ladder fell to the bottom of the priority list. “I don’t think it was a conscious decision, but
I guess I just decided to enjoy my kids.”

Instead, her focus shifted. “When you’ve known the sadness of leaving a hospital without a baby, there’s nothing quite like the joy of holding a newborn in your arms.” In 2005, Kellie and Matt welcomed their second baby and first daughter, Airlie. For the next decade, they continued to add to their family. And now the family is beginning a whole new chapter.

As Tilly prepares to start school next year, Airlie has just earned her L plates. “It is a terrifying prospect. I’ve worked out that I will have somebody on their Ls or Ps for the next 13 years,” Kellie laughs, a little nervously. The good news? With the kids growing up, it means extra help around the farm. “Finley’s been learning to drive the header and the tractor. I mean, all the kids love the farm,” Kellie says. “It’s a great place to bring up kids.