What does it mean to be a mum of the hills?

Author: Belinda Young

Reflections on Community, Chaos, and the Quiet Power of Showing Up

To me, being a Mum of the Hills means being resourceful, resilient, and deeply connected - to nature, to your neighbours, and to the kind of community that shows up when it matters most.

It’s pulling together a last-minute Book Week costume with a glue gun, scraps of fabric, and a wild imagination, because the character parade is tomorrow. It’s signing up for the canteen shift at the local footy club even when you’re running on fumes. It’s clearing a tree from your driveway with whatever tools you can find just so you can get the kids to school on time.

And sometimes, it’s the quieter, grittier things too. Like heading into the city for work, dressed like everyone else, but knowing that you’ve just survived 21 days without power, boiling water on a gas stove and charging your phone in the car. Your colleagues say, “How about that wind?” with no idea that wind ripped trees from roots and split fences in half. You smile, nod, and carry on, because that’s what we do up here.

But being a Mum of the Hills is more than survival. It’s about belonging.

It’s knowing you can throw a question out into the void of a Facebook group and someone will respond. It’s being able to say, “I’m not okay,” and finding a chorus of voices ready to hold you through it. It’s dinners dropped off when a baby is born, offers of hand-me-down clothes, or just someone who’ll show up with coffee after a bad week. No fanfare. No judgment. Just... here.

Because life in the hills doesn't work without each other. It demands interdependence, not out of sentimentality, but necessity. The weather is wild. The roads are winding. Distance is real. But so is the connection. A Mum of the Hills learns early that no one can do it alone. And, thankfully, no one has to.

Over the last ten years, I’ve seen that identity take shape in thousands of small ways — in the way someone leaves a tin of formula on a stranger’s doorstep, shares a business contact, offers advice on nits, nap routines, or bushfire plans. In the way we’ve rallied behind families in crisis, or quietly made room for each other’s grief and joy.

Being a Mum of the Hills isn’t about having it all together. It’s about showing up anyway, messy, real, human. It’s about knowing someone else gets it, because they’ve been there too.

So what does it mean to be a Mum of the Hills?
It means being part of something bigger than yourself.
It means being known. And needed. And loved, just as you are.