When Sallie Jones lost her father to suicide in 2016 she decided to channel her grief into improving mental health outcomes in her farming community.
Michael Bowen, a dairy pioneer in Victoria's east Gippsland, had been her role model.
"It (her father's death) really took the wind out of me and I felt so kicked in the stomach, he was awesome," she said.
Mr Bowen had built a factory on the family dairy farm at Lakes Entrance in the mid-1980s to provide a much needed boost to profits by turning his Jersey milk into ice-cream.
His Riviera brand ice-cream soon became popular and he was dubbed "the Ice Cream King".
Ms Jones said her father had looked forward to one day retiring from dairying and manufacturing but when the opportunity came to sell the ice cream business and lease his farm it was the catalyst that sent him spiraling into depression.
"The day Dad sold those cows and handed over the keys to the factory is the day he lost his identity," she said.
He sank into a three-year depression and the family couldn't find any mental health services to help him.
Ms Jones said her father wasn't the type of person who would seek help from professionals in "suits".
"A lot of farmers don't respect people in suits, they want (to speak to people with) lived experiences."
Only weeks after her father's death local dairy farmers were hit by extremely low milk prices and Ms Jones began listening to their stories of hardship and anger.
Since then, Ms Jones has been on a life-altering journey.
She and business partner, Steve Ronalds, a dairy farmer from Jindivick in west Gippsland, have re-opened her father's dairy factory where they are producing milk, butter and other dairy products under their Gippsland Jersey brand.
Initially they were getting their milk processed by a contractor with the idea they would one day have their own factory.
But in their second year the contractor pulled the pin and gave them four weeks notice.
They raised $110,000 in three weeks on crowd funding by asking people to pre-pay for bottles of milk to get her father's factory up and running again.
But just before the factory was due to open the January bushfires hit the region. Then COVID-19 knocked sales to the hospitality and foodservice sectors.
Gipplsand Jersey has survived and has just signed up its third Jersey milk producer.
Ms Jones said the Gippsland Jersey brand was built on three pillars.
Firstly, to sell as much milk as possible so farmers received a fair price, secondly, to play a key role in improving mental health and suicide prevention and, thirdly, to encourage people to be kind to one another.
Ms Jones said her openness in telling her father's story had encouraged other farmers, both men and women, to talk to her.
"I think at the end of day the best thing we can do is be kind, it doesn't take much time to make a couple of phone calls to find out how people are going.
"It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that some times.
"Don't be the typical Aussie who gets uncomfortable when conversations start getting awkward.
"You have to be brave, it could save a life," she said.
She now wishes she had been "braver" with her father.
- Farmsafe Australia is supporting the fight to improve mental health awareness and outcomes in rural Australia.
