Simmone Jade Mackinnon - ‘I WAS IN A REAL-LIFE McLEOD'S DAUGHTERS!'

The single mum upped sticks and traded acting gigs for life on the farm

- Jenny Brown.

The wide brown paddocks were parched by drought, feed was scarce and hungry cattle had to be sold, and at that point, Simmone Jade Mackinnon realised her dream job was drawing to a close.

It sounds like an episode of McLeod’s Daughters, the much-loved Aussie drama series that first screened nearly 20 years ago. Yet for the show’s former star Simmone, this was real life, labouring as a jillaroo on 2173 dusty hectares in country Queensland.

“I can’t tell you how much I loved it,” smiles the single mum, who played Drover’s Run overseer Stevie Hall. “The drought was dire and we prayed for rain every day, but I’ve never been happier. Riding, driving tractors, mustering, fencing, helping with the calves... I was living my character’s life on an actual working property!”

NOMADIC LIFE

Not even free-spirited Simmone could have predicted the incredible adventures in store when she and son Madigan, 11, hit the road like a couple of nomads back in 2019. Chance meetings and unlikely invitations not only lured them to the outback, but also to a glittering charity ball in Vienna that year, where they were feted as guests of honour.