a grassroots rural health initiative

Last night Channel 7 aired a documentary called ‘Ben Cousins: Coming Clean’ – and I speak on behalf of plenty of us on the addictions frontline when I say it...

IMAGE: Farmer Leeanne Oldfield and her dog Jett at her farm in Wandandian, New South Wales, Australia. (Photographer: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg) New visitors ...

Oh heeey, In anticipation, here you are: those pesky, same-same often-asked questions answered .... before you've even gotta' ask them. And: to educate the p...

Good morning, rural Australia, Well, er, um …. shizzle, things are kind of going ballistic. Which is amazing. THANK YOU! As the old analogy goes, you don’t p...

G’day there, Shan here; founder and creator of the online discussion Sober in the Country. A place where we are simply encouraging mates in the bush to make ...

Okay, so if I had a dollar for every time an A.A fanatic reached out and had a crack at me, challenged me, or asked me why I am 'reinventing' the wheel ... w...

My first alcoholic drink was a shandy of beer and lemonade when I was 17 at the local pub with a girlfriend. I didn’t like the taste, but with enough lemonad...

- a poem by Anne Bell. In a worn out, wrinkled flannel shirt She tours the country end-to-end The stranger in the little town Very soon a struggler’s friend ...

Images & words: Shanna Whan (Sober in the Country founder) LACHLAN CAMERON – or Lach as he’s known to mates – is a down to earth Narrabri local who can be fo...

I can’t speak for anyone else’s experience of beating their alcohol addiction. In my case, there was this tiny, seemingly inconsequential moment – the kind t...

Last Friday, I turned ‘four’ in my sobriety journey. That’s 1,460 days of living completely sober in the country.. which is pretty mind-blowing to me when I ...

A CALL TO ALL AUSTRALIANS'' - a poem by Shanna Whan It’s modern day Australia, two-thousand-and-nineteen The nation should be booming - not the worst it’s ev...

WELL, I’m not sure about you, but these past few months in the space of Australian politics and one-sided media have left me standing bewildered and frankly ...

I have taken the liberty of summarising a lengthy and interesting discussion that happened late last night on Nightlife by ABC radio for you all xx For the f...

I started off drinking when I was young at country parties. It was inevitable that I would overdo things - but I was actually quite proud of my "stamina". Th...

This is a blog about motherhood. Or, the lack of it. And how that can impact a life. How infertility and the inability to have the family I dreamed of for so...

I met a great bloke in my recent travels to Tasmania. Sam is CEO of the Australian & New Zealand Mental Health Association (ANZMH) who hosted the 10th Austra...

Anomymously sumbitted by a south-east Queensland rural professional. (Curated by Shanna Whan - Founder, Sober in the Country.) I would call myself a pretty t...

One of our earliest #SITC family members and supporters, Sarah, turns 36 today. I personally want to wish her a beautiful day, and also - I want to thank her...

As you all know, I am shamelessly very specific about speaking directly in the space of rural Australian that includes my peers, professionals, executives, c...