Skip to content. | Skip to navigation

Ph:1300 364 277
Location: Home › Relationship advice › Relationship advice topics › Rural and Remote Relationships

Rural and Remote Relationships

Relationships in rural and remote areas have particular pressures and challenges.

Men, women, children and young people living in rural and regional communities face many pressures that people from cities do not. These include the threat of drought or flooding; fluctuations in the price of rural commodities; isolation; and a lack of access to many goods and services, including relationship support services. Such financial and social pressures often cause stress, which can lead to:

  • depression
  • relationship breakdown
  • family violence
  • an increased use of alcohol, drugs and cigarettes
  • an increased risk of farm accidents
  • an increased risk of mental illness and suicide.

A lack of educational and employment opportunities in many rural and remote areas of Australia force many young people to move to metropolitan areas. This puts a further burden on those who stay behind.

People in geographically remote and isolated areas can't easily travel to get to services they need. But, like anyone else in the community, they have a need, at times, for relationship support to address pressing relationship difficulties. When help is not available, relationships often worsen as people resign themselves to putting up with a bad situation because it is so hard to get help.

Having relationship support when there are difficulties is a vital step in improving our quality of life.

Relationship Support Services

Specialist rural programs

Relationships Australia delivers a number of specialist programs aimed specifically at rural and regional areas. In some states and territories counselling and family dispute resolutions services are offered in regional and remote areas.  Click on your state to find services available and locations of Relationships Australia offices.

Some of the specialist programs include:

  • Seminars on domestic violence (Family Violence Prevention) in regional centres including: Port Hedland, Kalgoorlie, Alice Springs, Cairns, Bathurst, Launceston, Hobart and Geelong.

Western Australia

  • Support services for the Wheatbelt - free counselling, information and community education seminars in response to the extreme drought in the Wheatbelt, Western Australia.

NSW/ACT

  • Drought support program delivered in NSW, including support groups, camps and seminars in Broken Hill and Cobar.
  • Free counselling for drought-affected farmers, small business owners and community members offered by Relationships Australia Canberra & Region at centres located in Goulburn, Cootamundra, Leeton, Griffith, Hay and Balranald.  On-farm visits and counselling are provided across the Riverina and Mallee regions with strong links having been forged between service providers and other stakeholders to co-ordinate a timely and targeted response to identified needs.

Victoria

  • Drought support program in Victoria  - services provided in Gippsland including Farm Gate Outreach, Community Education and free counselling. Bushfire impacted residents are also provided with free counselling and community education under this program. Camps for impacted residents are run in partnership with other local services.
  • Programs offered to the drought affected communities of Southern Strathbogie region fostering community connectedness and resilience, including seminars and theme based workshops
  • Free counselling offered to drought affected community members by Shepparton RAV, with appointments offered in Nagambie, Euroa and Violet Town.
  • Group based programs using art based interventions offered to vulnerable communities within the Goulburn Valley, with a particular focus on Indigenous Australians and Cultural & Linguistically diverse communities.
  • State wide number (1800 817 569) for telephone counselling run by Relationships Australia Victoria through its Ballarat Centre.
  • Drought support and education programs to people in the Wimmera, Mallee and East Mallee areas of Victoria

South Australia

  • Peer support training by Relationships Australia South Australia in drought-declared areas of Central North East Pastoral District of South Australia
  • Services to rural and remote Indigenous people, run by Relationships Australia South Australia
  • Free counselling for drought-affected farmers in the Riverland and Alexandrina regions
  • Art and community projects for drought-affected farmers and fruit growers in regional South Australia
  • Workforce support and training delivered to front line workers in hospitals, councils and employment services in the  drought affected Riverland
  • Counselling for parents pre and post-diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder for their child in the Riverland

Northern Territory

  • National suicide prevention strategy, providing support to separated and divorced men at high risk of suicide in rural areas such as Alice Springs, Palmerston, Katherine and Tennant Creek.

Tasmania

  • Reconnect program, providing services to youth in danger of homelessness in Northern Tasmania
  • Aboriginal counselling and community work  across Northern Tasmania, including monthly outreach to Flinders and Cape Barren Island in Bass Strait
  • Community and relationship support to several rural communities across Tasmania.

Queensland

There are many service outlets across Queensland covering

  • Cairns and Far North Queeensland
  • Gladstone region
  • Mackay- Whitsunday region
  • Rockhampton
  • South-East Queensland
  • Central West
  • Townsville
  • Wide Bay Burnett
Personal tools
Log in