A COUNTRY AFFAIR

You can take the girl out of the country, but not the country out of the girl. When Bella Ballinger married Mitchell Cameron there was no hesitation that the event should be held in her home district of Muttaburra in Central Western Queensland. Bella says the wedding was always going to be a home-grown affair and about 80 guests packed in the tiny church for the historic event – it was the first wedding in the church for almost three decades.

Bella and Mitchell wanted their wedding to be a celebration of all things country. She spent her primary school years on Stockholm, her parents’ property in the Muttaburra district, while Mitch grep up on his family’s cattle station near Goondiwindi. Bella is a pharmacist and Mitch studied commerce before assuming responsibility for the Queensland arm of his family’s cattle trading business. They are now living north of Moonie.

The reception was held in a marquee pitched beside a dam dubbed Lake Como. Local caterers Katie Webb and Lou Brown did an amazing job from a makeshift kitchen and the bar was run by Muttaburra storekeeper Fiona Turnball. Guests who came from far and wide to celebrate the nuptuals caught up over drinks on the homestead lawn. Recent rains added a green tinge to the all-too-often dry landscape.

The complete story was originally published in Australian Country issue 20.1. Click here to subscribe to our magazine.

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Photography Sally Stacey