FROM CITY SLICKER TO A LIFE ON THE LAND

Annabelle Hickson is encouraging others to ditch the big smoke and head to the country

- Brigid Auchettl

She was used to chasing deadlines, long commutes and the buzz of a busy newsroom. But seven years ago Annabelle Hickson packed up her life in Brisbane, Queensland, to move to a pecan farm in remote NSW after meeting her husband Ed.

Now she spends her days chasing chickens and tending to her garden after quitting her job to follow her heart. “I was really on track for my career, but then love changed it all,” says Annabelle, who is raising their three children, Daisy, 11, Tom, nine, and Harriet, eight, on their property in the Dumaresq Valley, 80 kilometres from the nearest town of Tenterfield on the NSW-Queensland border.

FARM LIFE

“It never crossed my mind to live a regional life but I fell in love with a farmer and that’s what bought me to the country,” she says of Ed, 46.