The grass is greener

Rachel Ward talks to ELISABETH EASTHER about how she went from posh Brit girl to film-making Aussie regenerative farmer.

- Rachel Ward

After starring in the 1980s television adaptation of Colleen McCullough's The Thorn Birds, English-born actress Rachel Ward married her co-star Bryan Brown and moved to Australia, where they raised their three children. Over the years, Ward has moved away from acting in favour of directing, writing and activism. Most recently, she has turned her hand to agriculture, transforming her rural New South Wales property into a regenerative farm, a transition she documents in the featurelength film Rachel's Farm, playing at the upcoming Doc Edge Festival.

Your lineage goes back to Henry VIII. What was childhood like for a posh kid in the Cotswolds?

I was sent to boarding school when I was 10, which meant I became independent really quickly. Being away from my family was no problem for me, and I made close friendships, but I see it now as a weird system. I certainly didn't send my own kids away; why would you do that? That system is anathema to me, and a lot of people have been very damaged by it, especially English men.

What were your aspirations in that environment?

I just thought I would get married and look after a home. None of my friends' mothers worked. My mum didn't work. Females had no opportunities in the primogeniture system, where males inherit everything and girls are meant to marry well, ideally to somebody from the same social level who is rich enough to keep you. In that way, my upbringing was very Victorian. A world where education wasn't a priority for girls.

How did you move beyond the limitations of that system?

I relied on the "pretty ticket". I did some modelling, which led to acting, then to directing and writing. It was as if I had to run away to find the place where I belonged. One thing I knew, I didn't want to do what was expected of me, so I had to find a world that suited me. The farm has finally given me that, aged 65.