SOME OF JOURNALIST Alex Cullen’s fondest childhood memories are of sitting on wool bales in the shearing shed, listening to old-timers tell stories. “That’s what I miss most about the country – being surrounded and entertained by that wonderful humour. I think we’re losing that a bit, which is a great shame,” Alex, 43, says. “The characters you get out there are just phenomenal. My father, uncle and grandfather could all tell fantastic yarns.”
Alex was raised on a 200-hectare wheat, cattle and sheep farm outside Coonamble in New South Wales. His father Tom’s family had deep roots in the area and, in a classic country romance, he met Alex’s mum Anne, a teacher, when she was posted there. “Mum grew up on a rice farm near Griffith. She moved [to Coonamble] straight out of Wagga Wagga Teachers’ College, met my dad and the rest is history,” says Alex. “They got married in early 1980 and I was