Male Escort Melbourne – May 26, 2025
This is a story that really needs to be told. I was invited by a friend to attend the initial screening of this film, though I was busy, and I hadn’t watched it until now. It also took me a while to be ready to watch it, to be in the right headspace. As the film deals with mental health, and suicide, which of course can be hard to deal with. Though so many of us, from rural and regional, as well as suburban and city upbringings alike, have to deal with this on a daily basis.
An Australian movie, Just a Farmer was filmed in western Victoria, not too far from where I call home.
I watched Just a Farmer last night. I thought I was sitting down for a quiet evening movie… but what I got was something so real, so raw, so emotional, it stayed with me long after the screen faded to black.
This isn’t your usual film. It doesn’t sugar-coat things, and it doesn’t dress up the truth. Just a Farmer is a story about the weight so many of us carry — silently, daily — and how heavy it can become when no one really sees you.
For those who don’t know, I’m a farmer too. As well as being your professional male escort of more than sixteen years — busy pretty much 8 days per week, all across Melbourne, rural and regional Victoria, and interstate — I live at home on the farm, in beautiful southwest Victoria, inbetween.
I know what it’s like to work from before the sun rises to well after it sets. I know what it’s like to have a strong body but a tired mind. I know the pressure — the financial uncertainty, the isolation, the unrelenting responsibility to keep going no matter what. Because animals need food, water, and maintenance; plants need nutrients, water, and maintenance, and the seasons don’t pause, and feelings… well, they can very often get buried like fence posts, driven deep into the ground.
That’s why this movie hit so hard.
My family farm is a horticulture business, with agriculture as well. I have been raised to work hard. My parents work hard, and there’s not really much time when I’m not working. It is important to keep a balance between working and resting, and I make sure to get enough rest as well — but at the same time, work never really stops on a farm.
I was reminded to watch his movie when I was listening a few weeks ago, to Australia All Over, on Sunday mornings on ABC radio. They were talking about the drought that we’ve been experiencing in many parts of Victoria, South Australia, and southern New South Wales. A lot of people don’t realise there’s been a drought, until the rain we’ve finally had today, which may or may not have ended the drought. It’s been called, in parts of Victoria and South Australia, and southern New South Wales, a ‘green drought’ – to the average person it may not look like a drought, as the paddocks still look green. But we have been getting just enough rain to make the grass start to grow, and then it dries out again, before the grass can properly grow. It’s just enough water to keep in green, and that’s only in parts. Many parts of the country aren’t green at all.
Farmers are having to sell their animals, as they have no feed. On the bright side, the animals are currently being sold to farmers in Northern New South Wales and Queensland, where farmers have had floods, that have destroyed their farms, but now the farmers that have survived need to replenish their farms. It can so often be a struggle, and can feel so unfair.
As the lady who phoned up Macca on Australia All Over, and reminded me to watch this movie, commented, (I forgot who she was quoting): “It’s been said that You might need a lawyer once in your lifetime. You might need a doctor three times a year. But you need a farmer three times a day.”
Every time we eat, many people have put their live’s work into bringing that food to us.
Just a Farmer shines a light on something we don’t talk about enough — mental health in the farming community. The silent battles. The emotional exhaustion. The expectations we carry, to be tough, reliable, unshakable. But the truth is, farmers are human. We bleed. We break. And sometimes, we don’t know how to ask for help — or who would listen if we did.
Watching this film, I saw myself. I saw my family. My friends. I saw my neighbours. I saw every man and woman out there who gets up each day and carries the load with pride but sometimes, with pain too. And I wished more people understood just how much goes unseen behind a simple pair of work boots or a dirt-stained shirt.
If you’ve never lived on the land, this movie will open your eyes. And if you have, it’ll reach into your chest and remind you that you’re not alone.
I want everyone reading this to know — I care. Not just because I live this life, but because I see the people who live it too. The farmers who go without rest so others can eat. The ones who laugh off their pain until it becomes too much. The ones who look strong, but are quietly drowning.
Mental health matters. Rural lives matter. And Just a Farmer reminds us all that behind every harvest is a human soul doing their best to hold it together.
Watch this film, if you’re ready. Share it. Talk about it. Let it be a reason to check in on someone you love — even the ones who seem fine.
We’re not just farmers.
We’re people. And we need each other more than we let on.
An Australian-first study of farmer suicide rates, based on ten years of national coronial data, revealed that an Australian farmer dies by suicide every ten days.
This is an alarming trend that we need to turn around. If you know anyone who is a farmer, please reach out to them. Ask how they’re doing, and show that we care. Together, we can help create a better future for everyone.
You can watch the movie directly from the producer’s website, as I did, for just $10, by clicking here. Or it is currently available for streaming on Apple TV+.
Together, we can help to make a difference.
