by Dylan Stone
Kate McBride, previously from Tolarno Station in Far West NSW, has once again featured on the ABC’s Australian Story, in a follow-up to her appearance on the program back in 2019, which focused on her activism following the 2019 Menindee mass fish kill.
Back then, she alerted the world to the impending environmental disaster playing out in Menindee just weeks out from the state election, by publishing photos she took of her father holding a dead Murray Cod, which the pair estimated to be at about 80 years old.
“Usually, Australian Story would interview an older person and look back at their life, but in my case back in 2019, they interviewed me when I was young so they could see what I was doing and where I was heading.”
At the time of that first episode, Miss McBride was on the family property, “undertaking water advocacy.” Four years later, she is working in Canberra as a parliamentary liaison for think-tank The Australia Institute.
“I engage with parliamentarians from all sides of politics, discuss public policy with them, and brief them on research the Institute produces. “My role is research based, well, when I’m not walking through Parliament House,” she laughs.
Miss McBride also took part in the 2022 Australia Rural Leadership Foundation’s Drought Resilience Leadership Program, joining other local leaders from far west and western NSW. The program culminated in a three-day conference at Mutawintji National Park last April.
“I hope my path takes me back to western NSW,” says Ms McBride. “I still have some stuff I want to achieve in the big smoke, and so working towards achieving these goals and advocating for the region will be good.
“However, I’m not entirely sure what the next step is, which is exciting in a way. While I am keeping my options open, my home will always be in the far west,” she said. “I am home on the property for one week a month, so I always feel connected to the region,” she added.
Miss McBride’s appearance on Australian Story, which aired on Monday 24th April, can be viewed online at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-24/call-of-the-river-updated-kate-mcbride/102261932
