Passionate farmer explores a new take on the world she knows

Leila and her husband, Sean, own and operate a 1620-hectare farm in Ararat, in western Victoria, running 1000 head of beef cattle and 9000 sheep, plus a bit of cropping to feed the stock.

The couple have two children and are farmers through and through.

Leila grew up on a farm in Walcha, NSW.

She still has family in Walcha. She often spends holidays with her nan, Eunice Mudford, in Newcastle.

Her nan and pop (Vince Mudford) used to live in Merewether and run a trawler in Merewether before they moved to Walcha, then moved back to Newcastle.

Leila, age 35, has been a leader in her rural community for a long time. She's an entrepreneur of sorts, an award-winning designer of her wool clothing range from wool from their farm, and has been an influential advocate for Women in Agriculture.

She has long taken pride in promoting, supporting and celebrating the farming life.

She's also been a schoolteacher - last teaching at a small high school with 28 students at Lake Bolac in Victoria.

A decade ago, McDougall founded the not-for-profit organisation Live Rural, with its annual event Mellow in the Yellow taking place amongst a flowering canola crop.

Since its inception, the endeavour has raised over $60,000 for initiatives that strengthen the health and well-being of farmers and their farming communities.

In 2020, amidst the challenges of COVID-19, Leila, and Sean conceived the idea of Just a Farmer, a movie to carry the message of rural resilience in tough times.

Despite dyslexia, Leila produced her own script, creating a story that would resonate around the country, if not the world.

She's lived rurally all of her life, and seen family crises of her own. She knows the story she's telling.

"When you're connected to something personally, you're more passionate about it," she says.

That small seed became a movie, still called Just A Farmer, that will premiere on March 14 in Melbourne and then show at as many cinemas as they can get to screen it.

The McDougalls invested $500,000 in the $1.7-million project. Filmed over seven weeks on their property, it tells the story of a young farm wife surviving the suicide of her farmer husband.

That investment, that "skin in the game", is not something the McDougalls took lightly.

"It's like anything. Unless you've got skin in the game, are you really giving everything to something," Leila says.

"You can never expect someone to work as hard as you if they don't have skin in the game - a lot of mentors have told me that when I get frustrated with working - not working hard, or caring about things.

"They said you can't expect people to work as hard as you when they don't have skin in the game. When you have skin in the game you have everything to lose.

"I guess that's what pushes me even more.

"I need it to work."

Even more amazingly, Leila is in the cast, as the farmer's wife.

The primary cast members are professional actors - Robert Taylor as the father-in-law, Damian Walshe-Howling as a close friend, and Joel Jackson as the husband.

The director is well-known actor Simon Lyndon.

Make no mistake, the McDougalls want the film to have an impact.

As the film's promotion states: "The film explores generational trauma, love, loss, and the undeniable resilience of a farming community in the face of tragedy.

"Leila sees this film as a catalyst for conversation and change.

"It captures the essence of Australian farming, addresses mental health gaps in remote regions and aims to save lives by elevating awareness and fostering dialogue."

The mission: "To use the power of storytelling to illuminate the silent struggles within Australian farming communities, raising awareness of mental health issues and the lack of comprehensive medical support in rural areas, fostering empathy, and driving conversation around mental health."

McDougall, in a telephone chat, admits it's been one hell of a journey over the last two years to not only get the film made, but take on the role of executive producer, and act in the film, her first-ever feature movie.

"Sometimes I pinch myself, it's so surreal...," she says.

"I've learned a lot along the way.

"I've made mistakes, I've fallen flat on my face and had to fix it. The next time, hopefully, I don't make the same mistakes again."

The movie, made with no government funding whatsoever, features lots of locals in the cast - at footy practice, in the pub, on the farm.

It's a stunning backdrop, all natural.

The rhythm of the film incorporates many of the daily tasks on a farm, but all members of the family.

And perhaps the most natural of them all is Leila McDougall, just doing things she's been doing her whole life.

"A week out from starting the film, I had a panic attack," she says.

"'I can't do this Simon. We can get a real actress to do this.'

"He was like, 'No, even if I was casting a real actress I'd cast you'. I was like, 'Oh, I don't know'.

"And he was like, 'No, I don't have to teach you or expect you to learn how to be on the farm. You just know how to do it naturally. And that's what you need to do'."

She made one short film over two days to get the hang of being in a movie (she's credited as director on the short film, Some Are Clingers), but laughs that it didn't prepare her for seven weeks of filming.

"I thought I'd make a test run before I made a feature film to see if I could handle a movie set," she said.

"It's a big learning curve."

But she's a doer.

She pays full credit to Simon Lyndon and Damien Walshe-Howling for making her an actor.

"I learned a lot from Damien and Simon. They guided me through it."

Of course, she wrote the story, so she had a pretty good idea of who this Alison character was, since she created her.

"I was writing as myself," Leila says.

" 'If this was me, how would I be?' 'If this was my story,' and I guess writers have their own process, I envisioned everything down to the props when I was writing.

"Everything I was writing was a thing I knew had to be in the film.

"So I wrote it as myself. When Simon [Lyndon] read it, he was like, 'No one can do it. You have to do it'."

Her own daughter, Vivian, plays her daughter, Sally, in the movie.

The role of her son, Eric, is played by a first-time actor, Oliver Overton.

"The boy that plays my son, he's not an actor either," she says.

"He's a farmer's son.

"[Acting coach] Miranda Harcourt's been a mentor throughout the process.

"I said how are we going to find a kid that knows how to be on a farm, and she said, 'No, you're not finding an actor, you're finding that boy in real life, and we're going to teach him how to act.

"There's a lot of people in the film who've never acted before, and done an exceptional job."

The entire experience has taken a couple of years out of Leila's life.

She's been 'bunkered' down, not working at schools or seeing as much of her friends, due to the demands of the project.

And now she's committed to getting the film seen around the country, with hopes of a streaming deal for it down the track.

After the dust settles, what's next for Leila McDougall?

"I have no idea," she says.

"I'm a schoolteacher. I haven't taught for two years.

"I always say to my kids, 'I'm 35 and still don't know what I want to be when I grow up'.

"I have enjoyed it. I think I have the bug.

"The next time I'd do it a little bit differently. Have good support people. Build a bigger team."

For certain, she will tell this story again.

The world is too big and time too short to do the same thing again.

"I don't think I would tell this story again," she says.

"I think there's a great need to tell good Australian stories about people who've achieved amazing things.

"There are so many amazing people in this country, from all types of backgrounds.

"We are so multicultural. We've got such a vast landscape.

"There are so many amazing stories to be told about amazing people. Why do we keep concentrating on the criminals of this country?

"I want my kids to grow up watching shows on TV that inspire them to be amazing people.

"I think, if I ever made something else, I'd find a story that tells an amazing story about someone who's gone out and made the world a better place."

Leila McDougall is already doing her share to make the world a better place.