Suzy Barlow (right) with the Bunnaloo fitness team. Photos: Sophie Baldwin
When Suzy Barlow returned home to Thyra with her partner Peter Matera and daughter Molly, it was always about carving out a life on the much-loved family farm.
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“I had been away for 20 years but I always had a dream to return home and farm some sheep and the opportunity came up when Mum and Dad decided to move into town,” Suzy said.
With 500 Merino breeders to keep her busy, Suzy wasn’t really looking for anything else to take up her time, but sometimes you can’t outrun your past.
And with 15 years involved in the fitness industry, it seems Suzy was just what the Thyra, Bunnaloo and Caldwell communities (between Moama and Deniliquin) were looking for.
For the past eight months or so she has been running fitness classes in country halls, which are attracting a large cross section of the community — from the very young to the very old.
To change things up a bit, and bring a bit of variety to the classes, Suzy has also joined forces with yoga teacher Jo Hearn, and together the girls are whipping the community into shape and loving every minute of it.
“We have around 30 people split across the classes and usually it’s intergenerational — we might get a mum and dad turn up with their kids, sometimes mums, sometimes dads, and even visiting relatives,” Suzy said.
“It’s really cool the amount of people who have thrown their support behind this.”
And Suzy has certainly been putting the community through their paces, hosting classes that are a mixture of strength, pilates, boxing and weights.
“I am a real people person and the social aspect of this type of exercise is huge and it has really brought the community together,” she said.
“I am sure around 80 per cent of the people who turn up are here for some social interaction as well as a good workout.”
Suzy said the whole Thyra exercise idea started at the family daycare drop off.
“Some of the mums were saying how they wanted to get back into shape and get fit and it just went from there really.”
Suzy’s passion in the health industry began when she was living in the outback.
“I was working at Longreach in the livestock industry and started doing some group fitness and Les Mills classes and it just grew from there.”
In 2005, Suzy made the move to Perth and went straight into the fitness industry doing both personal training and group classes.
“I just loved the energy and the positive impact I could have on people’s lives.”
In 2014, Suzy found her way into a form of rehabilitation fitness, mentoring the Indigenous community.
“We had an eight-week flexibility, mobility and strength program which helped get them away from substance abuse,” she said.
“It was really rewarding, but at the same time exceptionally hard, especially when we had to deal with the consequences when things went wrong.”
Suzy said she was proud the mentoring program was able to make a difference in the lives of some of the participants who managed to turn their lives around permanently.
She said moving home, she was happy to just be a farmer, but she was loving the connection the fitness classes brought to her and the community.
Recently Suzy joined forces with Fat Farmers — a rural health initiative designed to inspire and encourage rural communities to improve their health and wellbeing through physical activity.
“Fat Farmers have jumped on board to help facilitate getting us a bit of extra gear and we also received some initial funding from Murrumbidgee Regional Health to kick-start us off,” Suzy said.
“What we really need though is some sort of tradies trailer to cart some stuff around because we do travel around from hall to hall, and it would be great to have all the gear in a trailer and not the back of my car.”
Suzy Barlow recently joined forces with Fat Farmers — a rural health initiative designed to inspire and encourage rural communities to improve their health and wellbeing through physical activity
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