Ballerina, rouseabout or jillaroo: Poppy can do it all

At 20 years old, she has gone almost full circle - or pirouette - back in the world of agriculture, working on a cattle station in northern Qld, after the pandemic bought her dancing aspirations to a halt.

"I grew up on a potato and livestock property called Greenbanks, out of Mil Lel, and it was a cool community, but I honestly couldn't have cared less about farming," she said.

With ag very much taking a back seat, it wasn't long before Poppy was dancing five nights a week in Mount Gambier with teacher Kate English, and when her family moved to the Adelaide Hills when she was 12, the bar had been set high to find a new dance school.

"Lots of the students at the school I ended up choosing were there as a hobby, which was fine, but I was that annoying person in class who wanted to do an exercise five times to make sure I got it right," she said.

The following few years involved summer schools to the eastern states, including a workshop at the Australian Conservatoire of Ballet, in Melbourne, which was a trip to remember for all the wrong reasons.

"I did two weeks there and hated ballet, all the girls were tiny with no personality, but I realised that these were the kind of people I'd be dancing with for the rest of my life," she said.

After stopping ballet altogether for a little while and delving into contemporary dance - a genre incorporating aspects of movement from several other genres such as jazz, modern and ballet - Poppy set her sights on the New Zealand School of Dance, which she described as the "go to place" for aspiring contemporary dancers.

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Poppy auditioned at ages 16, 17, and 18 to no avail, but a fourth attempt, just shy of turning 19, was successful, and she moved to Wellington, NZ, at the end of 2019.

"It was the most amazing thing," she said. "I was living like I was a professional dancer - I felt like I'd make a dream come true."

The ideal lifestyle was shortlived though, with COVID-19 hitting New Zealand just five months after she arrived.

Not being a permanent resident of NZ, Poppy had no choice but to leave the country and return to the family home in Mylor.

"It all changed on a Tuesday night and I was on a flight out on Wednesday, but I packed basically nothing because I thought I'd be back in a month or so," she said.

"We did zoom classes, and I set up a piece of carpet in the garage, had the door open and the gumtrees behind to try to get the inspiration flowing, but it just wasn't for me anymore," she said.

"I was hating something I had done and loved my whole life and that didn't sit well with me."

A chance trip up north with father Nic - who is a director at Resource Consulting Services - proved pivotal for Poppy, who found herself enjoying outback life.

"We stopped in at every station Dad knew, and I sat and listened. Seeing the country through there and realising I had that ag background I'd never really thought about was pretty cool," she said.

Being offered countless jobs along the way, Poppy said she was ready to give the rural life a go.

"At the start I didn't think for a second I'd be able to (work on the stations) but by the end of the trip, I realised I could," she said,

As September of 2020 came around, Nic suggested Poppy work in the shearing sheds, and while it wasn't necessarily the McLeod's Daughters lifestyle she had envisioned, she was up for the challenge, taking a job as a rouseabout with Doug Millhouse, Millhouse Shearing, Lucindale.

"Doug was the classer and taught me everything about wool," he said.

"He didn't turn his nose up at any question I asked. They all looked after me well, and I became more sure of myself, and I loved it."

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Poppy travelled round the South East and western districts of Vic rouseabouting, still with a return to New Zealand at the back of her mind. But as COVID-19 dragged on, the pull to head north to further her ag knowledge became stronger.

After completing two brief stints in Tamworth, NSW, and Mitchell, Qld, Poppy rang "every company under the sun" that her mentors had recommended to try to head further north, and not long after landed a station hand job with Paraway Pastoral Company at Clonagh Station, via Julia Creek, Qld.

One year on, she is moving to AACo-run Dalgonally Station - basically right next door.

"The region is so social, it's just unreal, and I'm only moving to get another network of people," Poppy said.

"Ag is in my blood just as much dancing is now. I'm learning so much from so many amazing mentors."

Fortunately, Poppy doesn't feel the need to categorise herself as a ballerina or a jillaroo, and instead loves having a foot in each field.

"I'm a dancer fixing fences," she said.

"I will always be a dancer. I'd done a career in itself by age 18 and I'd love to dance around Europe and I probably will one day.

"But you have to do what makes you feel good, and if it doesn't make you feel good, why are you doing it? When I was dancing and it was stagnant, I wasn't learning.

"I have realised I always need to be stimulated with something going on."

And for change-agile Poppy, hearing COVID-related excuses for life paths just doesn't cut it.

"So many people have told me the pandemic has ruined my life, well it ruined my career to an extent, but I just changed the plan, and who says you can't you change your plan?" she said.

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