Mums Gone Troppo

Clare Martin is the first female AND Labor Chief Minister of the Northern Territory One of ten children born in Sydney’s north, she made her way to Darwin for a six month stint working for the ABC, making her way from radio to TV and back again. Meeting her other half on the tennis courts at Mindil Beach, she soon became a mum to a pigeon pair - her son and daughter. Clare talks bout the trials and tribulations of being a mum while working in the biggest job in politics but also how hard it was to wind down when that chapter came to an end. But no matter what she ends up doing, she’s always calling the Territory home.

Michelle Coleman is a former television journalist who came to Darwin for what she thought would be just one year. Meeting her now husband - publican Justin Coleman, while on the job at a story, Michelle still had the urge to explore her career in a big city. In no surprise, big city life wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, and just one year into her new job in Melbourne Michelle packed her bags and came home. Now a published children’s author, Michelle’s life was turned upside down when a Long Covid diagnosis left her with chest pains and unable to walk up a flight of stairs. But instead of relying on medication, Michelle has turned to health and fitness which sees her now on the brink of a full recovery.

Molly's travel woes continue, and she's got a lot to say about unreliable and price-gouging airlines. With her entire family stranded in QLD, she's a bit lost and quite furious. In other news: Three Maas and a RaRa are once again fundraising for Autism NT. Catch their episode from earlier last year, or have a look at their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/3MaasNaRara Darwin's Mother's Day Classic is right around the corner, and if you've listened to Amanda and Jess's episode, you can see why this event is so important. We do encourage you to head down for the run, and if you'd like to register, head here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552626434509 This week's guest is Taneille Brann, who had dreams of organising the Olympics, but for now, her legacy stays in Kununurra and Darwin, having played a major part in both the Arafura Games and the Lake Argyle Swim, which was started by her and now sells out in a matter of minutes. Now a mum of two, Taneille’s parenting journey had a rocky start, when HELLP syndrome hospitalised her at 32 weeks pregnant. Her first son was born via emergency cesarean and Taneille woke up in the ICU. Her son then spent a further six weeks in the NICU. Now embedded in the Top End, Taneille and her family have year-round stories of mango madness including an annual mango cup which brings together their chosen Darwin family in a battle for the esteemed title. If you'd like to support Taneille's marathon efforts, go to https://melbmara2024.grassrootz.com/running-for-premature-babies/taneille-brann?tab=updates&fbclid=IwAR1CuMTKtcepy2onpF4YGUUgdXwZtJH9vP2mM8R7zeAPjf1BGoA3bo2Am_g

Molly had wild weekend with cancelled flights and wrong trains trying to get to and from the Gold Coast in two days. She's so tired, and can barely get the brain working after two red eyes in as many days. Meanwhile, Sally's decided she wants to go to the markets at 4am, a true sign she's a real Territory girl. Our guest this week is Laetitia Lemke. She's had a baby in every decade of her life, is an esteemed journalist born in Sydney and raised in Papua New Guinea to an Australian father and a Tongan mother. Laetitia and her family relocated to Australia before settling in Darwin as a child. Despite a small stint in Sydney, she’s been here ever since. Having just come out the other end of a breast cancer diagnosis, Laetitia touches on everything from teenage pregnancy to being married to a movie star. Although she keeps things real for husband Rob, who is filming with mega stars like Mark Wahlberg. From kids accidentally eating hallucinogenic mushrooms to a sassy five-year-old, Laetitia shares some excellent mango madness stories in one of our favorite interviews that will make you laugh and cry.

The juggle is real for Kathleen, who during this episode had a work computer, a podcast computer, a work phone and a solo toddler all at once. She's solo parenting while Steve surprised us by going fishing (it's the run off don't you know). It's been a week for Molly, who can't even string a sentence together but somehow manages a thrilling conversation about toilet training. Enter this week's guest - Mary Chalmers, the 51st most powerful person in the Northern Territory. An absolute boss in the court room, she’s one of the Territory’s most high profile barristers, but you wouldn’t even know she dropped out of high school to start training as a hairdresser. After a very close call with a cut throat razor and a client's ear, it was very clear it wasn’t the career path for her. Having found her way into law, she’s now a mum of two teenagers, calling on her own experiences as a headstrong teen and knowing when to pick your battles.

Please note, this episode discusses postpartum depression and anxiety. If you think you or someone you know needs help, please call Panda on 1300 726 306 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636. If you live in the Northern Territory, NT Health has some resources to support new parents. Please visit https://nt.gov.au/wellbeing/pregnancy-birthing-and-child-health/support-new-parents Molly’s had a week with a husband and child both on antibiotics for different reasons, and Sally proves she’s one of the cutest toddlers out there, so well behaved as the mum juggle continues. Kathleen enters into a week of solo parenting, so more on that next week! This week’s guest…Born in high-fashion Milan, Francesca Allen never felt like it was home. Instead, she traveled the world, finding a particular soft spot for Australia, and an even bigger one for Darwin, moving her life from the UK back to Darwin when the hot weather and laidback lifestyle came calling. The mum of two, who now has her own photography business in Darwin, discusses how postpartum depression robbed her of the early months with her first baby, and how crippling anxiety in the early days meant a trip to hospital and countless hours with the maternity mental health team and in councilling. But getting the help she needed Francesca lives her best Territory life, capturing those special moments for not just herself but other Darwin families.

Molly is sick of the wet season, but not before she has a decent whinge about an infected blister on her foot. Molly's TikTok algorithm is serving some weird stuff, and what's the name of that person who cooks for a living again? This week's guest is Elena Madden who owns True North, a strategic communications and PR firm in Darwin. While she’s Darwin’s PR queen, she’s a long way from Roxy Jacenko, living on five acres in Darwin’s rural area, a life full of camping, fishing the outdoors, and one giant German pointer with a taste for the neighbour's chickens. She’s also a mum of two, deciding early on that the adoption route was the best option for them. Now parents of two - Jesse and Harriet from South Korea, Elena shares the wild ride of adoption at a time when the entire globe was locked down, what it’s like being the parent of a child with high medical needs, and raising Territory kids without forgetting where they’re from.

Please note, this episode discusses suicide. If you or anyone you know, needs help, please contact lifeline on 13 11 14. First up, Molly and Kathleen talk about how important it is to fill your own cup, after Molly returned from Melbourne refreshed and ready to head back to normality and routine. Even a few blisters couldn't dull the feeling of being home in her own bed. Our guest this week is Adriana Dent. She's worked for some of the biggest fashion names in the country, including Country Road and Sportsgirl but it was a trip to the Top End where she met the love of her life and became besotted with the Territory. Adriana is a mum of two, and runs her own couture business, making high-end clothing from fabric printed in communities around the Territory. But her journey hasn’t been all smooth sailing. For a long time, she had to put her own dreams on hold after her husband was involved in a terrible accident. While there are still struggles, it was the strength of the family unit that has kept them together and got them through.

Our next guest is a good friend of Molly’s, with a sense of community spirit only found in the Top End. A mum of four, Storm Young talks about everything from haunted houses and bonding with your husband over sage, why Darwin is the best place for raising kids, and why it’s so important to give back to your community. She also talks about the journey into foster care, and how two days notice for a newborn arriving in their home was life changing in the best way possible, while also reinforcing Molly’s belief that spring rolls are the best hangover cure you can have.

As many Darwinites know, there is a very strong and proud Greek community in the Top End and this week’s guest plays a crucial role in showcasing this - just don’t ask her to cook. Angela Tomazos is a born and bred Territorian. Born here just a couple of years before Cyclone Tracy, and after her family migrated here. She is one of the very lucky few who has her entire direct family just living nearby. Angela embodies the idea of aging gracefully and accepts everything that comes with it, including the greys, and is keen to break the taboo around what women suffer through in menopause. But she also touches on the regrets and worries some women have when deciding between a career or a family, and when the outside pressures become very loud.

Welcome back to Mums Gone Troppo!! And our first episode of 2024. Kathleen reckons that New Year resolutions aren't all that, but Molly's given up her Coke (Coca Cola) habit and attempts to save her finger nails from being bitten to the core by destroying them with SNS. Kathleen's pride for Sally's proper use of the word 'shit' shines through, and Molly keeps an appointment for probably the first time in her life. Our first episode's interview is with Nicole Manison - the NT's second-longest Deputy Chief Minister. In fact, she's the longest continuous deputy. Having just announced her retirement, she's is now looking to what the future might hold, while discussing getting married in Vegas, having babies in the chamber, and a funny story about how door knocking can sometimes go so wrong. So after more than a decade in the wedding cake on Mitchell Street, Mano is living her best life and is excited for what’s to come.

The final episode of 2023! Vicki O’Halloran is the former Administrator of the Northern Territory. Stylish and sophisticated is an understatement for a woman who worked her way up the ranks from early education to being the long-standing CEO of Somerville Community Services. She has sat on multiple boards, working towards making the Northern Territory the best place it can possibly be. She’s met the Queen. She’s married to her childhood sweetheart. She's got a green thumb with a plot in the Darwin Botanic Gardens. But her biggest job of all is being a mum - sharing a beautiful bond with her daughter Coco. _ As 2023 comes to an end, we'd love to thank everyone who tunes in each week, including our wonderful guests who generously share their stories. This year has certainly been a whirlwind, and we didn't expect it to end this way it has on such a high. We can't wait for 2024, but in the meantime - Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Jess Herraman was excited to spread her wings after school finished, but like so many Territory kids - there’s simply no place like home. A mum of three girls, a former flight attendant who travelled the world, and now a successful businesswoman, Jess sits down with us to discuss how the picture motherhood in your head usually doesn’t often live up to reality, especially when it comes to the Christmas tree. She also shares the impact of recently losing her dad, and how the major goal of completing an Olympic length triathlon in the months after he passed kept her grounded, and helped keep the pieces together when grief threatened to swallow her whole. And this is all while also recovering from major heart surgery.

Find us a person more excited to develop women’s rugby league in the NT than Shari Togo. A mum of two who lives on 30 acres with cows, pigs, chooks, and anything else you can think of, Shari’s parenting mantra is teamwork and a healthy dose of ‘she’ll be right’. She’s just returned from PNG coaching the Australian women’s Prime Minister's side, but no matter how high she climbs - the Litchfield Bears is still her club. Unapologetically herself, Shari can work a room like it’s no one’s business, all in the interest of furthering her own opportunities for someone loving and living in the NT.

Jess Smith and Amanda Jarrett have embraced everything Darwin has offered, and more. Jess owns Pasarella Models, and Amanda owns Moo Media and Married by Moo, along with years of experience working in local media around Darwin. Jess, a mum of one, and Amanda, who just finished her second round of IVF, share the lasting impact of losing their mum to cancer, who they describe as their best friend. Amanda opens up about her IVF journey to eliminate the cancer gene she carries, talking openly about the difficult path she's on, and how far it is to fall when things don’t go to plan. The sisters have well and truly made the most of the opportunities Darwin presents, and look forward to a future filled with family in the place they love the most, even if it's on the back of a quad at Wagait. Please note, this episode discusses IVF and fertility in great depth.

Sarah Mackey is a mum of three, an emergency department doctor and and the deputy medical director at CareFlight, who came to Darwin on a six-week elective as a medical student but never really left. Her husband is a pilot with his own flight school business, who swiped right on her Tinder profile - the rest is history. She’s traveled the globe doing some of the world’s most treacherous tracks, including making it to Everest Base Camp in the name of fun, and she almost didn’t make it as a doctor, coming close to choosing a career in the performing arts. But despite hectic nature of her life, the Territory is the calming force she needs.

Jo Hersey reckons she’s had two jobs her entire life, and she’s loved them equally. She’s a hairdresser by trade, having trained in one of Adelaide’s biggest salons before moving north for love and owning her own salons in the decades that followed. She’s also currently the Member for Katherine, and you’d be hard pressed finding someone who loves the Top End town more than her. But she’s also a mum of three, hates mango, believes in manifesting, and is still, 25 years on, emotionally moved by the events of the Katherine Flood in 1998.

First and foremost - this episode needs a tissues warning! It gets emotional. Susannah Ritchie is a born and bred Territorian who left Darwin for uni with zero intentions of coming back. But like so many of us, the allure, familiarity and ease of the NT drew her home - having a husband and a new little baby certainly factored in. Head of English at Haileybury Rendall School, she's also a proud boy mum, pushing back on the societal expectations of women wanting a daughter, and being disappointed if they didn't have one. In this episode, we also touch on the cruelty of losing a parent - especially a mum - at a time when you’re trying to navigate the crazy and frightening world of mumming .. and doing it so without her. Trigger warning - it gets emotional. But Susannah has a beautiful perspective that truly warms your heart. We also had some small technical difficulties during this episode, and apologise for the issues with one mic in particular.

Gella Catis owns Stomp Shoes in Darwin’s CBD. She’s from a big Greek family, and she's a mum of three - at one stage with three under the age of one, falling pregnant with twins when her eldest daughter was just four-months-old. Darwin born and bred, she moved to Melbourne to persue a career in fashion, before the call of home, her friends, and family came loud and clear after the birth of her eldest daughter. What was meant to be a two-year stint in the Top End, is now more than a decade in, and with a business, a Greek dance school, and a beautiful life in Darwin, she’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

In the depths of Covid lockdowns, Kaila Handcock, her husband and two little girls packed their life away for the trip of a lifetime around Australia. Running from lockdowns, they made it around Australia in one year and back home to Echuca, but something was missing. Only weeks after arriving home, they knew it was Darwin that stole their heart, so they packed up their life again and came back to Darwin. Kaila, a hairdresser by trade, talks about life in a caravan with two kids, why they chose Darwin over any other spot in Australia, and the true impacts of Covid lockdowns. Follow Kaila's travels on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/two.tiny.trekkers/