Meet Countryman’s new reporter Melissa Pedelty

If you had told my eight-year-old self I would one day write about agriculture in a newspaper, I doubt she would have been surprised.

She was used to running around on friends’ farms and listening to her dad wax poetic about the agriculture industry he had spent — and continues to spend — his life committed to.

I grew up as a townie in Wickepin, familiar with farming and was used to looking out our front window and seeing the odd emu and paddock full of sheep.

Unsurprisingly, this has not helped at all with the wool round but has certainly given me an appreciation for the industry that is the backbone of our country.

We moved away from the Wheatbelt when I was nine, doing a short stint in South Australia and year-long caravan tour of the country before moving back to Perth.

I completed a degree in professional writing and publishing at Curtin University and started my first job as a journalist when my husband and I moved to Manjimup in 2022.

There I was lucky enough to land a journalist role at the Countryman’s sister paper the Manjimup-Bridgetown Times, where I stayed for more than two years.

I loved writing for the local paper and am so incredibly grateful for how the community embraced me while I was there.

Not only did my husband and I leave town with a whole bunch of treasured memories, but an addition to our family — our daughter, who is now almost 20 months old.

So far, I am loving every minute of my time at the Countryman.

During the past few weeks, I’ve been covering the wool and dairy rounds, and also helping to write about grain, politics and general news.

For all of the industry professionals I have spoken to so far — from farmers to politicians — thank you!

I have never felt so welcome.

I’m looking forward to meeting and chatting with more of you as I continue my journey at the Countryman, which has been the “voice of the bush since 1885”.

I’ll do my best to live up to the standard.