mcv.e-p.net.au/features/farmer-dave-hits-the-big-smoke-3727.html
You may remember David Graham as “Farmer Dave”, the gay sheep farmer from Goondiwindi, who won many a heart in 2006 as a contestant on Big Brother. Iain Clacher finds out the Queenslander has made a surprise relocation to suburban Melbourne.
The 28 year-old, who came third in the series, recently made the move to Melbourne’s Yarraville, which he says, “has more in common with Goondiwindi than you could poke a stick at”.
You’re kidding, right, Dave? What on earth could a dusty, outback Queensland town have in common with an increasingly-urbane, increasingly-gay suburb in Melbourne?
“Yarraville is a funny little place ‘cos it’s bounded by the Westgate Freeway on one side, industrial areas on two sides and the Yarra on the other,” Dave says.
“It’s got its own little village, literally, a wonderful little community that acts just like Goondiwindi. The people are awesome. I walk the streets every day and I’m meeting everyone in the neighbourhood.”
And just like on his farm, in Yarraville Dave is also surrounded by four-legged friends. To stop going “stir-crazy” in the big smoke, Dave found work at a Yarraville doggie daycare centre.
“It is, without question, the best job I could have fallen into,” Dave told MCV over the chaotic din of barking hounds.
“It started as a way to stop from going stir crazy as I’ve lived in cities before and did go stir crazy. I had to go out every week doing horse-riding, kayaking or rock climbing.
“Much as I do miss life on the farm, the need to make contact with animals and feel part of the group dynamic between man and animal that you get on a farm, I now get from working the dogs here. And there’s lots of kelpies and border collies which helps,” he adds.
“I’m doing all the training, and absolutely love it. I didn’t realise I had so many talents as a dog handler.”
He also gets to meet lots of gay and lesbian “parents” who send their “four-legged children” to doggie daycare.
“We call the owners’ ‘Mum’ and ‘Dad’ or Coco’s ‘Mum’ and ‘Second Mum’. I‘d say a very large proportion of our dogs are literally four-legged children, and many are children of gay parents, so I’m surrounded by everything I love: stable gay couples and well-loved animals.”
Dave says he moved to Melbourne to expand his ethical lamb business into Victoria.
“To keep my farm afloat, I have lamb that I produce and sell direct to public, and that’s going very well in Queensland. We do 17 different farmers markets, as well as restaurants and the people we deliver to direct. We’re now expanding into Sydney and Melbourne.
“I still have my farm, so I get back there each month and my family is looking after it. It’s automated to a high degree. The sheep are bred to survive drought conditions, and I don’t crop any more – there’s not enough rainfall to grow crops.”
While Reality-TV fame has helped Dave’s business, he says it hasn’t helped his love life.
“The biggest issue [with fame] was learning to be alone, because it is sometimes lonely, especially in the love life department. I was warned about that straight after Big Brother. Gay celebrities said, ‘Welcome to the end of your dating life’.”
Though he admits he doesn’t know exactly why love has eluded him since the break-up of his last, very publicly-celebrated relationship in December 2006, he has his suspicions.
“I suppose people have perceptions that if they’re seen with you people will think they’re only interested in you because you’re well known.”
He’s had no such trouble attracting women: straight ladies who want to get into his jeans and lesbians who want to get his genes into them.
“I got a lot of requests to father a lot of lesbians’ children,” he says. “There’s nothing more amusing than getting emails from people you don’t know asking you to impregnate them. It’s one of those bizarre situations.
“And with the lamb thing, I’ve been to a lot of ladies’ lunches. They sometimes have male strippers and things get out of control. They do get friendly, and often when I’m there selling my meat at these lunches I feel like I am a piece of meat, even if I am in a suit.”
Other people are not always so friendly, he says.
“There’s always people out there to denigrate what you stand for and what you believe in, and you get those detractors. But they’re 0.01 per cent of comments, and you just try to ignore them.
David says he has no regrets about his season on Big Brother, which many say helped to challenge mainstream Australians’ stereotypes about gay men and also humanise issues of same-sex discrimination.
He was also able to challenge entrenched anti-gay attitudes of the Queensland National Party through his advocacy within the party of gay rights, including gay marriage.
“To me, equal rights mean equal rights – plain and simple,” he says.
“If 14 Australians want to exercise their right to marry as same-sex couples, those 14 people should have that right. I don’t see that numbers should be an issue. It’s a place we should already be at.”
Does it bother him to still be known as “that gay farmer from Big Brother?”
“I am gay and I’m proud of it. I’m a farmer and I’m extraordinarily proud of that. And I’m proud of being part of one the greatest TV shows in this country. So if people see me as that, that’s fine.
“I love what Big Brother did. It helped Australians get to know each other in a way we never had before.”