My Country Childhood

MATINA JEWELL HAD an idyllic rural childhood at Red Haven, a four-hectare farm near Alstonville in northern New South Wales, where she grew up surrounded by horses, cattle and an orchard, only 10 minutes from the ocean. “My brother and I would come home from school, dump our bags and get straight on a horse. It was exciting and liberating to be able to explore and the only rules were to look after each other and be home before dark. We had that opportunity to get out in nature and work things out ourselves,” 43-year-old Matina recalls.

Ever goal-oriented, Matina excelled at sport, following in the footsteps of her brother Mark, 45. Weekends were spent at competitions or horse events with their father Roger, a school teacher,