Sue Armstrong, 77, knows all about change and the seasons of life.  

Sue and her husband Brian were the subject of a documentary “Warrawong – The Windy Place on a Hill” which captured the aesthetic and fragility of life on the 4000-acre cattle and sheep station on the foothills of Warrumbungles National Park.  

It showed how the couple dealt with mouse plagues, 1.5 hour trips to the GP, and life and death on the farm.  

On October 10 last year, Brian Armstrong aged 73 passed away after a long battle with Ideopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.  

Mrs Armstrong nursed her husband right up until his final hours. After his death, she was determined to continue farming on her own. She learnt to drive the tractor, round up livestock, fix fences and broken pipes. But it made her realise she was 77 not 27 and she made the very difficult decision to sell. 

Mrs Armstrong said selling the farm machinery was quite heart breaking, especially the things that Brian loved like his tractor and ATV. 

“Selling the prime livestock, the heifers that were in calf, the cows with calves at foot, even the bulls that he bred, it was quite hard to see them go on a truck - that was very difficult. I cried as the trucks drove away.  

“Brian absolutely loved the Warrumbungles and in particular, Warrawong. This is where his heart was,” she said.  

“When some people heard that I was selling the farm, they said ‘I hope you’re going into a nice retirement village’ and I thought, you’ve got to be joking”.   

Image: Gilgandra Film Festival. 

Ms Armstrong not only pioneered the Gilgandra Film Festival, she has extensive involvement with JAS – Justice Advocacy for people who have cognitive disabilities and need assistance in court, at a police station – even in jail. She can assist a person in court in say, a domestic violence situation. Sue was a state committee member for the NSW Country Women’s Association and a volunteer with Lifeline.  

She says she doesn’t feel old and while she went through a period where she couldn’t stop crying, she has “always been of the belief that when the going gets tough, the tough get going.”  

“I’m coping” she said. “In a few years I’ll be 80. How ridiculous is that? I can’t believe it.” 

Ms Armstrong has now moved to Dubbo where she is still getting used to being able to go down the street to get milk, rather than bulk freezing it. “I can say yoo hoo over the fence to the neighbours instead of driving miles. Isn’t that amazing?” 

It’s the prospect of international travel that really gets Ms Armstrong going.  

In a few months she is going travelling with a friend in the United States, starting in Utah, going all the way up Canada’s west coast to Alaska.  

“I’m hoping my friend’s dog keeps me warm,” she said of the expected cooler temperatures.

“Brian and I used to travel a lot. Just because I’ve got older it doesn’t mean I should give up on those things. I think he would be proud of me. Maybe Japan next year?”  

I had one friend say to me “y’know I see a few people in the nursing home, younger than you. They just sit there and watch the fan go round, waiting to die.”  

Ms Armstrong says she hopes her decision to leave the farm is an inspiration to others to put succession planning in place, and know that life can be good after retiring from the farm to town. 

She says “I have a lot of living to do yet”.