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Duncan Fysh was passionate about many things, with keeping a record of history high on his list. Duncan spent years contributing local history stories to The Prickly Post.

Spending his early years at Toolebuc, Duncan's family moved to Answer Downs after WWII. Both in the McKinlay district.

From there it was to Proa for 50 odd years. Julia Creek became home and his passion grew to take in the Town and Country Club.

Duncan was always on the hunt for his next big fossil and enjoyed flying. Duncan also had the Nelia mail run for seven years in the 90s.

Most of all, Duncan loved a chat. 

Duncan passed away on October 16, 2023 aged 84. 

It was a privilege to reminisce with Duncan about his life.

More Than Mail is proudly brought to you by Brodie Agencies, McKinlay.

Contact Jim Brodie on 0427468713 or Lachy Smith on 0401168915. 

You can follow More Than Mail adventures on Instagram, on Facebook, or at morethanmail.com.au 

Or, you can send me an email hello@morethanmail.com.au

Luke McNeven worked on properties north of Julia Creek before calling Colwell home for 13 years. 

First as a base while working at Eloise Mine, before managing the property.

Luke, with wife Mary-Ann and their three daughters, took the opportunity to buy their own place after Colwell was sold. 

And started a new life as bee keepers. Actual real life bee keepers! 

Luke has had to learn about a completely new industry. And how to keep 'his girls' happy. He has also discovered producing honey is a little different to producing beef.

Learn more about Mrs O'Connell's Raw Honey.

More Than Mail is proudly brought to you by Brodie Agencies, McKinlay.

Contact Jim Brodie on 0427468713 or Lachy Smith on 0401168915. 

You can follow More Than Mail adventures on Instagram, on Facebook, or at morethanmail.com.au 

Or, you can send me an email hello@morethanmail.com.au

Danielle Wust went to France for a gap year, skyped her parents and discovered they had bought the Walkabout Creek Hotel and upped and moved. 

Danielle quickly refreshed her memory of all things Crocodile Dundee, but ironically could not get a job in the namesake hotel in France.

A big mail user, Danielle has mail tales from all over the world, including working at Amazon in Scotland (and literally being stuck in Scotland during the pandemic!).

Danielle has spent the past two tourist season working at the Walkbout, and made some great memories while working behind the bar, in the kitchen, cleaning and in the mail room. Her energy levels are next level.

More Than Mail is proudly brought to you by Brodie Agencies, McKinlay.

Contact Jim Brodie on 0427468713 or Lachy Smith on 0401168915. 

You can follow More Than Mail adventures on Instagram, on Facebook, or at morethanmail.com.au 

Or, you can send me an email hello@morethanmail.com.au

Mount Isa School of the Air is the standard way of schooling for the kids on the mail run.

And for 19 years, majority of them have had the same teacher at some point - Mrs Mills.

Jo Mills has always taught the lower year levels at MISOTA and has been able to visit students in their homes and attend activity days and mini schools all over north Queensland and the NT.

Mrs Mills has a lot of special memories from her years as at School of the Air, including her first attempt at retirement.

Learning the vocabulary of outback kids was no easy task, but Mrs Mills has always taken anything the kids throw at her in her stride. 

More Than Mail is proudly brought to you by Brodie Agencies, McKinlay.

Contact Jim Brodie on 0427468713 or Lachy Smith on 0401168915. 

You can follow More Than Mail adventures on Instagram, on Facebook, or at morethanmail.com.au 

Or, you can send me an email hello@morethanmail.com.au

Angus Brodie once made his sister lead her horse home after a fall, only to discover she'd broken her arm.

Growing up at Redland Park, Angus got up to lots of shenanigans. He was also the last child to speak on the radio at Mount Isa School of the Air before the big switch to the phone system.

Angus has returned home recently after some adventures, including starting a paddock to plate meat delivery service - Horizon Grazing. Beef from the paddocks of Redland Park delivered to your door.

The last few years have been big ones for Angus, becoming a dad to daughter Louie and marrying his wife, Jo.

More Than Mail is proudly brought to you by Brodie Agencies, McKinlay.

Contact Jim Brodie on 0427468713 or Lachy Smith on 0401168915. 

You can follow More Than Mail adventures on Instagram, on Facebook, or at morethanmail.com.au 

Or, you can send me an email hello@morethanmail.com.au

Makenzie Mills moved north to work and fell in love with the way of life.

Growing up in the Hunter Valley,  Makenzie followed in her sister's footsteps and headed to Queensland.

Five years later Makenzie has worked on various properties including Barkly, Millungera and Coolullah. 

Makenzie has a great group of friends, loves the long days at work and enjoys the social scene. But it hasn't always been easy being so far from her family. 

More Than Mail is proudly brought to you by Brodie Agencies, McKinlay.

Contact Jim Brodie on 0427468713 or Lachy Smith on 0401168915. 

You can follow More Than Mail adventures on Instagram, on Facebook, or at morethanmail.com.au 

Or, you can send me an email hello@morethanmail.com.au

The number of TAB country race meetings continues to increase. 

Branden Wood and Didier Kay are part of the Panosonic Studio Productions (PSPVideo) team and head to country race tracks, providing video footage to Sky Racing for broadcast.

Seems like a simple job, but when you are dealing with heat, wind, flies, cold and an assortment of infrastructure, it can sometimes be a little stressful.

More Than Mail is proudly brought to you by Brodie Agencies, McKinlay.

Contact Jim Brodie on 0427468713 or Lachy Smith on 0401168915. 

You can follow More Than Mail adventures on Instagram, on Facebook, or at morethanmail.com.au 

Or, you can send me an email hello@morethanmail.com.au

Regional Cast supply the footage of non-TAB country race meetings for Racing Queensland.

The logistics of covering five, six or seven race meets a weekend across regional Queensland is intricate.

General Manager Mark Jones has the job of ensuring Regional Cast find the best solutions for providing the footage from often tricky locations.

First hand experience tells us that videoing the races is not as easy as it seems.

More Than Mail is proudly brought to you by Brodie Agencies, McKinlay.

Contact Jim Brodie on 0427468713 or Lachy Smith on 0401168915. 

You can follow More Than Mail adventures on Instagram, on Facebook, or at morethanmail.com.au 

Or, you can send me an email hello@morethanmail.com.au

Roxy Weston is the photographer behind RLR Photography.

Roxy has a passion for photography and racing, combining the two to take fantastic racing photos that are about more than just the winning horse. 

She also captures the emotions of the jockeys, trainers, strappers and owners.

Based in Windorah, Roxy travels thousands of kilometres capturing the horses and the humans of country racing in Queensland. And for that, we are very thankful.

Roxy also has a spectacular portfolio of channel country landscapes and wildlife that you will want to hang on your wall.

More Than Mail is proudly brought to you by Brodie Agencies, McKinlay.

Contact Jim Brodie on 0427468713 or Lachy Smith on 0401168915. 

You can follow More Than Mail adventures on Instagram, on Facebook, or at morethanmail.com.au 

Or, you can send me an email hello@morethanmail.com.au

Jaye Hall grew up at Caiwarra, the most western point of the mail run.

An accomplished horsewoman, Jaye remembers having to catch the horses with an old piece of bread when growing up, and just hoped she chose the right direction when finding them on foot.

Jaye has worked in America and New Zealand, experiencing different horse sports. But campdrafting has always been Jaye's thing.

But being at home at either Bibil at Muttaburra or at Cairwarra is where Jaye is happiest.

More Than Mail is proudly brought to you by Brodie Agencies, McKinlay.

Contact Jim Brodie on 0427468713 or Lachy Smith on 0401168915. 

You can follow More Than Mail adventures on Instagram, on Facebook, or at morethanmail.com.au 

Or, you can send me an email hello@morethanmail.com.au

Jockeys Sarah Robbins and Brooke Richardson are also mums. 

Sarah's son Dusty is six and daughter Bella is three. 

Brooke's son Rylan is also six.

Getting back on the horse after becoming a mum is a big decision. 

And both Sarah and Brooke travel thousands of kilometres to get to race meetings across Queensland, adding big travel days in to the mix.

Sarah and Brooke take us through the decision to resume race riding post children, and the added joy having their kids support them brings.

More Than Mail is proudly brought to you by Brodie Agencies, McKinlay.

Contact Jim Brodie on 0427468713 or Lachy Smith on 0401168915. 

You can follow More Than Mail adventures on Instagram, on Facebook, or at morethanmail.com.au 

Or, you can send me an email hello@morethanmail.com.au

Jayne Ward is the Group Head of Performance, Remuneration & Payroll at Australia Post – an organisation which has over 35,000 employees.

Jayne is passionate about making a difference by creating and implementing tailored strategies that work for the business by developing a values led culture, filled with high performing teams.

In 2017 and 2018 Jayne achieved LinkedIn Power Profile status within the HR space, and has one of the most viewed profiles in Australia.

She is also a Board Director, transformational change leader and corporate governance specialist with over 20 years of progressive and global experience and has extensive consulting and corporate experience advising Boards, senior leadership teams and the management of publicly listed organisations.

Episode Highlights include:

• Jayne's leadership journey beginning with when she was a team leader in a contact centre.
• The differences between being in a consulting role and being in a leadership role
• Jayne's area of leadership passion - coaching and supporting someone to grow into the best they can be.
• We also end up talking about the impact her CEO has had on the business overall

Links:

Jayne's LinkedIn Profile

Australia Post Website