User Profile

Stephanie
Gardiner

Four-hour car trips to give birth prompt new plan for rural maternity care

Health groups have backed a rural maternity plan after public inquiries revealed some women are travelling hours to have babies as local birth units shut down.

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Stephanie Gardiner

23 Jun 2025

Regional News

‘Crime talk’ and fear fuel punitive views in the bush

People in rural Australia want tougher penalties for criminals, with “significant” punitive views influenced by fear and a lack of trust in the justice system.

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Stephanie Gardiner

18 Jun 2025

News Extra

Estimated thousands trapped in Australian farm slavery

The fruit, vegetables and meat in Australian’s fridges are often picked or processed by migrant workers, who are highly vulnerable to modern slavery.

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Stephanie Gardiner

14 Jun 2025

News Extra

The horse listener: a life spent teaching kids to ride

Children who learn to ride and care for horses often turn into upstanding adults, according to a rural pony club legend.

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Stephanie Gardiner

09 Jun 2025

News Extra

Of mice and Macca’s: art’s new meaning in old materials

An emerging rural artist uses second-hand, found and discarded materials to vividly explore tensions between production, consumerism and the environment.

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Stephanie Gardiner

08 Jun 2025

News Extra

Bless your cotton jocks: town’s cheeky bid to retailers

A marketing campaign is highlighting the absurdity of being unable to buy a decent supply of socks and jocks in one of Australia’s leading cotton regions.

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Stephanie Gardiner

28 May 2025

News Extra

A ripper race to find Australia’s hardest-working dog

The trusting bond between a farmer and a canine is central to farm life, with a national competition set to find the nation’s top dog.

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Stephanie Gardiner

27 May 2025

News Extra

‘This is really scary’: farmers battle historic drought

While parts of Australia battle floods, farmers in the nation’s south are selling off stock, abandoning crops and pleading for help as drought deepens.

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Stephanie Gardiner

25 May 2025

News Extra

Fashion spinning new yarns from a sheep’s head to tail

Wool from the head, legs, belly and bottom of a sheep is generally considered to be of little value, but a new project is spinning it into gold.

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Stephanie Gardiner

25 May 2025

Regional News

Grandma on murder charges to use mental health defence

A woman accused of murdering her two young grandsons in their rural home has hired a new private lawyer in the middle of a brief court mention.

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Stephanie Gardiner

21 May 2025

News Extra

‘Swagging it’: tractor fanatics to trek across outback

It will take a fortnight for 10 tractor drivers to make the trip from Bourke to Birdsville going 23km/h, a long and slow journey for a good cause.

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Stephanie Gardiner

17 May 2025

Regional News

Remoteness a risk factor amid rise in domestic killings

Spouses and partners are perpetrators in half the assaults that land women in hospitals across Australia, while homicides have increased in the past five years.

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Stephanie Gardiner

15 May 2025

News Extra

‘Living week-to-week’: doctors struggle to stay rural

After the cost of daycare fees, rent, electricity and grocery bills, a young rural doctor only just gets by. “I’m full-time to make ends meet and... I am living week-to-week,“ the NSW intern, who did not want to be named, told AAP. “That’s not...

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Stephanie Gardiner

09 May 2025