Farmer wants a date

Meet the 2009 Queensland Country Life Bush Bachelor Kyron Tunstall and Bachelorette Sarah Taylor, who were awarded their titles on the weekend at the Roma Picnic Races. More than 50 entrants threw their hats into the ring for the 2009 Bush Bachelor competition, with the final 10 selected at the start of the month, and the State set the task of voting for their favourite bachelor and bachelorette. The newly crowned Bush Bachelor and Bachelorette now get to enjoy their bounty of prizes from Carlton, Wotif.com and R.M. Williams. The finalists, entrants and their supporters converged on the Roma Picnic Races on Saturday for a day of fun, mingling and making new friends. Here are the stories from the winners.

Kyron Tunstall

I've been working in a warehouse near Kingaroy for the past two years and really enjoy the country lifestyle. It's really laid back here, no drama and everyone knows everyone. I went to a local school here and for the next few years I'm looking forward to moving up the rungs in the job I'm in now and just living comfortably. Hopefully I'll soon be able to buy a house and it will be great to get that under way. I've had a few adventures at the races prior to the Roma Picnic Races. Last year I went to the Melbourne Cup and I've travelled a fair bit around the eastern side of Australia. I'm hoping that next year I'll be able to travel overseas and catch a few of the big sporting events like the Soccer World Cup in South Africa. Being in the Bush Bachelors was quite a bit of fun getting your photo in the paper and getting to go out to the races. I managed to win the fashions of the field at Roma as well, so it turned out to be a much better day than expected. Sure beats a day at work! The races were a good day and it turned out that one of the friends of another bachelor entrant was a mate from home, so it was a good chance to catch up. It was really impressive for a country race meet and the ladies looked great. I'd certainly recommend going in the Bush Bachelors to other people, and going to the races and just having a good time out there. I'm really looking forward to enjoying the prizes, my cricket team is having a houseboat party in June, and the prize from Carlton will be going straight into that.

Sarah Taylor

I grew up in Charleville; it's great to be able to grow up in the country as you can get involved a lot in the sports. After school I attended the University of Southern Queensland, in Toowoomba and studied early education. I'm now teaching Years 4-5 in Tambo while studying for my master's in special education. Tambo is a great town. It is really social and after I finished at USQ I was ready to go back to the country. In five years' time I'd like to still be teaching and I'd really like to teach overseas somewhere like England. For now, though, I'm really enjoying living in Tambo and I've got no plans to leave in the near future. My first overseas trip will be next year when a few friends from Charleville and I head to Japan to go skiing and snowboarding for two weeks. When it was announced that I was the Bush Bachelorette I rang mum and dad first and they were just as excited as I was. Going in the competition and going to the races is great and it's a good opportunity to get out there and have some fun and catch up with old friends too. Two friends from Charleville nominated me and we'd had a friend go in it in the past so we decided to nominate. We came up to Roma on Friday night and went to the ball and here again on Saturday. The atmosphere is just great - it's all about meeting new people and catching up. On the way home on Sunday we were fuelling up at the Mitchell BP and these people came up to use and said they'd seen the Bush Bachelors competition and congratulated me on winning. So that was really nice.

Article by Kate Wilcock, Queensland Country Life