Kate Strong and Claire Harris

Kate Strong grew up on her family’s farm near Clifton Q and it was through this that Kate developed a strong connection to the land and passion for agriculture. Throughout her schooling, Kate continued to study ag and then headed north for a gap year in the Gulf. After this Kate studied a double degree of agriculture and business through UNE. Meanwhile, Claire Harris grew up in Brisbane, but with country parents and many childhood holidays travelling around rural Aus, she always felt connected to country life. She studied science at UQ and with an honours ag research project and a small journalism internship under her belt, managed to score a job as an ag journalist at SA’s rural weekly newspaper, Stock Journal, at the start of 2019.

The pair have founded Hoedowns For Country Towns (I: @hoedownscountrytowns) – a 20,000km road trip around Australia this year, teaching line dancing in rural communities, raising money for seven amazing rural charities (one in each state they’re travelling through), and putting smiles on the dials of country people right across the nation. The trip is from March to December this year, where they’ll be teaching at already established country events, as well as running their own events in halls, pubs, barns and on red dirt.