18/02/2024
📸 Look at this post on Facebook
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=122102181320213440&id=61556403213114&mibextid=ZbWKwL
If you've sat with me long enough in the studio you know me 😬 😂
I'm a bit of an open book.
For quite a while now I receded to the shadows wondering what a little someone like me could do, the world's worries too big.
But I have regained my strength and decided now is the time.
And I doooo love someone telling me I can't do something. It makes me work harder!!! 😅🤷❤️
Bella's incredible as you all know and doesn't need me lurking around.
Time for a new chapter that involves doing what I'm passionate about.
Listening to people and reassuring them that while things are rough we will be okay as long as we're together.
Anyway, I'd appreciate your support but only if you feel I deserve it.
I'll never be a yesman, I don't need blind followers or pander to deals made behind the scenes.
I'm asking for help in getting my name known for the September election because I believe we need a change and some good role models to show us the way.
(I'm also going to need your strength! It's a long time and a rough crowd!)
Hello,
So you want to know who I am?
I'm a 5th generation local, my children are the 6th.
My grandfather George Yager, originally of Ulmarra was a pioneer to Grafton in the early days. He brought double decker livestock transport to the Valley.
He ran cattle out on the farm at Gillets Ridge, while building GW & NE YAGER livestock transport company with my grandmother Nola Yager, born of Maclean 1920.
They raised 4 kids in the Clarence valley. My uncles and father going on to grow the family business to include diesel mechanics and a fleet of green and gold Kenworth trucks located in South Grafton, living on the hill with the workshop opposite the saleyards.
My Dad Barry, taking on the farm and family business when Dar passed in 1992.
The Yager name is well known within the farming and trucking industries due to helping establish them long ago. Many local families worked with ours to help build an industry that still contributes to our local economy today.
I am happy to say I still have the privilege of knowing most of these old families. It was the true definition of an old-fashioned business. Everyone mattered.
When Dad passed in 2016, I had a few “dads” to keep an eye on me.
That is what community is.
Everyone matters.
Myself, I was born in Coffs Harbour in 1984 and became a resident of South Grafton at just 2 years old. I spent my younger years in truck cabs, “thinking” I was helping on the farm, getting under the feet of the workshop boys while they worked away on busses and trucks, and sneaking off to climb around in the saleyards which were far more fun empty.
Mum always cranky with Dad because I’d come home black, grease stained and smelling like a cattle crate!
I did my schooling through each of the southside schools just as my father had. His ratbag reputation preceding me. As a teenager I spent a lot of time with friends, sheep poo fights out Tucabia, camping in the bush out Coutts Crossing, riding bikes around southside, swimming in the Wooli River with Mum, four-wheel driving brooms head and Sandon with Dad, if we weren't way out Fineflower checking cattle.
I was like a lot of Clarence Valley teens, I wanted out. I wanted to see what was beyond our region and I did.
Overseas, every state of Australia bar Tassie -I’ll get there- mining towns and a few years in a very hot dry, outback town of QLD with just a population of 120! (and yes it still had a pub.)
I learnt two things.
Australia is the best country in the world, we are incredibly privileged to live here, we should remember that.
AND….
The clarence valley is my home.
I settled in Ulmarra, I run a business in South Grafton. I don't ask for anything and I don't want much, just a happy life for my kids with genuine memories to hold precious when I'm old.
You’ll find me visiting our amazing national parks, nature reserves taking photos or at one of our many beaches with my kids. And that's when I'm not home in my veggie patch trying to keep chooks and cows out of it!
There was no better place to raise my family.
The Clarence valley isn't just where I live.
It is where I belong.
It is my home and I want to protect it.
I want my children and grandchildren to have a future here.
To live, work and play in the valley long after I am gone.
I feel passionate about leaving our productive rural lands, beaches, villages, and towns in a way that has shown respect, preserving their character and qualities for generations to come.
I'd be more than honoured to have the opportunity to become a protector of our home, to speak up for the residents on issues that concern them, and I aim to inspire the generations ahead to do the same.
This land is not ours; we have borrowed it from many and we need to respect it for those who are next in line.
I will always look back to the wisdom of my Clarence valley ancestors for guidance. They were well respected, trusted, and hardworking people who made contributions to our valley while in service of others and I would take pride in carrying that on.
I’d like to do my heritage and my children proud, looking forward to a future that is sensible and sustainable for our people while not sacrificing our most precious resources.
This is OUR responsibility.
And someone, sometimes must kindly remind others of it.
