Shanna Whan remembers the story of a bloke who went to a country pub and ordered a schooner of alcohol-free beer.
“The bartender threw it at him and said, ‘I’m not charging you for that camel’s piss, get out of my pub’,” Ms Whan told AAP.
“Another very common refrain is, ‘you can't trust a man who doesn't drink’.”
This is what Ms Whan, her small team and those she is helping through her Sober in the Country charity are up against while shifting the culture around alcohol harm in the bush.
And those kinds of barbs are more than just words.
“Often it’s tongue-in-cheek but when those comments are chucked at a bloke battling chronic end-stage addiction, and if he has one beer, he’s going to have 10, and then 100 and then he will die,” Ms Whan said.
“This is what people are missing.”
It's been 11 years since Ms Whan founded the charity while overcoming her own trauma-related alcohol addiction that almost killed her, sharing a message that it’s okay to say no to booze.
Sober in the Country now supports a ‘bush tribe’ of about 1000 rural people via an online network as they quit or cut back on alcohol, and encourages country events to offer appealing non-alcoholic alternatives.
Ms Whan also works to highlight connections between alcohol harm, early deaths, poor health, domestic violence, bullying and suicide.
Despite lingering resistance in some quarters, 2025 was a tipping point for the organisation as freedom of choice around alcohol was embraced more widely.
Ringers, farmers, mothers and fathers have spoken out about how Sober in the Country has changed their lives.
Farmer Matthew Tonkin quit alcohol on Australia Day 2018 after realising binge drinking was a life-threatening crutch to deal with the stress of working on the land.
Meeting other men in agriculture who did not drink validated his decision to quit, along with support from Sober in the Country.
“I questioned it many times during my life, up until the point that I had to say ‘no, I can't do this anymore, I'm going to die if I keep on this path’,” Mr Tonkin said in a recent video for the charity.
Ms Whan said demand for the charity’s work was exceeding its capacity, sparking a month-long fundraising campaign in February called The Big Shout.
Rather than buying a mate a carton of beer or a bottle of wine, the campaign fronted by Packed to the Rafters actor Erik Thomson instead encourages “virtual shouts” in donations to expand the charity’s reach.
It speaks to anyone battling addiction in isolation but particularly to rural men, who can take as long as 20 years to seek support, Ms Whan said.
“They’re the hardest to reach, the least likely to ask for help,” she said.
“We still live in a very male-dominated, patriarchal society in the bush, so we’re fighting fire with fire.
“We’re putting those men to the foreground now.”
Lifeline 13 11 14
Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636
National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline 1800 250 015
– with AAP
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