Australian Story: April 24

On Monday Australian Story revisits Kate McBride, who ABC spoke to in 2019.

From accidental activist to Parliamentary liaison, farmer Kate McBride has come a long way in four years.

In 2019, Kate alerted the world to mass fish kills in the Darling River via pictures she filmed of her distressed father holding a huge, dead Murray Cod.

“I don’t think there’s any way to put into words what seeing millions of dead fish on the river you’ve called home is like,” she told Australian Story back in 2019.

The video went viral and drew attention to an ailing river system, depleted by years of drought and the over-extraction of water.

To Kate’s surprise, she soon became the face of efforts to save the Darling River and was tipped as a future leader.

“The river’s just in strife,” she says today. “It’s got me wondering where I could have the most impact and whether that involved a move to Canberra.”

Now aged 25, Kate McBride has left her family farm near Menindee in western NSW and taken a job in Canberra with public policy think tank, The Australia Institute, where she’ll be an advocate for the bush.

And she’s caught the attention of political parties on all sides.

“I’m not going to pretend that I wouldn’t love to have Kate in the Greens, of course I would,”
says Greens Senator, Sarah Hanson-Young.

National Party leader, David Littleproud, believes she has a big future. “I’ve got great confidence that the one thing that she will do is contribute to regional Australia.”

Kate has also been dealing with a family dilemma – the issue of the succession of her family’s property. It’s been brought on by generational differences over how to best manage the land in a time of climate change.

“It definitely made me think that I needed to look elsewhere and make sure that no matter what happens in the future, I’m also looking after myself.”

8pm Monday on ABC.