IN remote north-western New South Wales, on a half a million acre cattle station, Kyla Catherine Dolen practices yoga balanced atop the tyre of her bush plane.
Health and wellness might not often be considered synonymous with station life, but Ms Dolen, a seasoned adventurer and advocate for healthy living, is part of a wave of young station folk bringing wellness practices to the rugged landscape of Corner Country.
“It’s a really amazing little community in the fact that everyone is tapping into the tourism thing and everyone is becoming really into health and wellness,” she said.
Originally from a farm in central Alberta, Canada, Ms Dolen is no stranger to remote living.
She’s worked as a hunting guide in the Canadian Rockies and as a jillaroo in Australia’s Outback.
Now, she’s combining her passion for the bush with her love of yoga, offering classes to locals and travellers alike.
She’s already held sessions at the iconic Cameron Corner Store, where South Australia, New South Wales, and Queensland meet, and plans to expand into retreats and wellness events.
“I wanted to expand my yoga knowledge for myself and then I thought, oh I might as well teach,” she said.
Ms Dolen is just one of many locals contributing to a broader vision of the outback as a destination for rejuvenation.
She’s teaming up with others in the region to create unique experiences for visitors, like digital detoxes, outback retreats, and even luxury stays.
“Rachel [Hill, of The Nest Golden Egg Cafe] has opened the coffee van, and she wants to offer retreats. I want to teach yoga. We’re also thinking about opening up a really fancy Airbnb on the hill, that will be like a digital detox, and have no WiFi,” she said.
“And the neighbour has a flowing bore, it’s a hot spring basically, so he’s thinking about having some baths set up.”
Though life in the Corner Country is isolated by most standards, Ms Dolen says it wasn’t a tough adjustment after her upbringing in rural Canada.
“Where I grew up in central Alberta, we used to drive an hour and a half to our major city and I remember thinking that’s so far,” she said.
“Now it’s four and a half hours to Broken Hill and it seems like nothing. I was living remotely by Canadian standards but was a lot closer to everything.”
Ms Dolen worked for three months of the year as a hunting guide in Canada, travelling into the mountains by horseback and taking hunters into the wildness to find the animal they were hoping to shoot.
She came to outback Australia 14 years ago to work as a jillaroo, which is when she first met her now husband Fred.
“My husband is the reason I ended up coming here,” she said.
“I met him 14 years ago, but then we didn’t connect back together. I came out here as a jillaroo to work at a station, and then after 11 years I happened to message Fred because I was coming back to Australia to fly planes. I got my license and thought I should message Fred and see if he knows anyone looking for a station pilot.”
Now, the couple are preparing to take over management of Fred’s family property, which has been in the family for generations.
But Ms Dolen’s vision stretches far beyond cattle work.
She hopes to launch a scenic flight business, giving visitors the chance to experience the outback from above.
“I’m hoping to open a joy flight company,” she said.
“When people come out, we can take off for an hour, fly across three states, and land back at the coffee van.”
Ms Dolen currently shares yoga teachings from different locations around the station on her instagram account @findyourfrequency555
