Echuca local and Hollywood star Travis Fimmel found time at the Echuca Hotel to promote awareness of farmer wellbeing through Farm Angels, while pouring his own brand of beer.
In advocating for Australian farmers’ wellbeing, Travis Fimmel is as forthright as he is well-read and experienced on the subject.
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No stranger to the challenges of farming, and on a home trip to Echuca, he eschews any attention towards his 23-year career as an actor — featuring notably as Ragnar Lothbrok in the successful series Vikings — and in fact wants to drill down solely on the reason for founding the ‘Flanno For A Farmer’ campaign.
“The campaign is not about us but is to show appreciation of farmers,” Travis said.
“And it should be a celebration as well.”
Travis sat down with Country News during a break from pouring schooners of his own brand of lager at the Echuca Hotel.
In the background, acclaimed indie pop artist Tones and I was thrilling a crowd of more than 300 with her set of songs.
Flanno For A Farmer is Travis’s brainchild that he and his team at travla beer (with no capital ‘T’) is confident will grow in the future.
The goal of Flanno For A Farmer is to raise money for food producers who get into ‘real trouble’, and the wearing of flannelette shirts last Friday was designed to raise awareness.
In its first year, the nationwide campaign has raised money for Farm Angels, the Queensland-based rural wellbeing charity that has been supporting farmers across Australia for more than a decade.
Shepparton’s Aussie Hotel featured travla beer on tap on Friday night with $5 from each $10 pint being donated to Farm Angels, with similar deals in hotels around the country.
travla beer’s Simon Holmes and Tina Rankins joined forces with Travis Fimmel and former Carlton player Andrew Walker to celebrate Flanno For A Farmer.
Travis’s experiences at the forefront of farming are personal.
“I have got the same mentality of all these farmers — I have seen a lot of friends and family go through stresses of farming and it feels like one of the hardest things to do is being a farmer in Australia,” he said.
“Sometimes you feel that what country people — including the farmers in part — have forgotten about, is that they are the real core of Australia in a lot of ways.
“Our whole country was built on agriculture, and we still are dependent on it, and I want people to be aware of the struggles farmers go through.”
His analogy of the contrast between country and city life is the stuff of philosophers.
“The water is still clear here and — when it comes to humans — the closer that river gets to the city, it gets more muddied up by other ...”
He finds the right word: “... other persuasions”.
“Whereas country people are so down-to-earth — the farmers work so hard — there are great family values, they are all about taking care of their kids and providing a life for them.
“But a lot of farms are getting bought out by bigger companies and so a lot of kids miss out on a childhood.
“Country people are still good old Australians with Australian values.”
Travis doesn’t just beat the same-old-same-old drum on farming economics, but reminds us that recent events have exacerbated things which in turn affect human lives even more, with his brother losing an entire lucerne crop to flooding.
“The price of things and how hard it is to farm, sure, but things such as the floods, that really makes it further difficult for farmers to survive, yet it’s a whole lifestyle that people choose to live.
“Unfortunately, there are so many physical and emotional difficulties that they go through.”
Travis Fimmel and Tina Rankins found no end of customers as they manned the bar to sell Travis’s 'travla' beer. Several GV hotels donated funds raised on Friday to Farm Angels.
He said more awareness and appreciation of farmers would be welcomed from the city.
“Just to make farmers smile and just make people think about you and appreciate what you do and that all your struggles are worth it, instead of just going to a grocery store and being unthankful — a lot of work goes into (food production).
“Farmers are not the ones who have got the price up on the food, obviously; they work so hard, and they don’t get paid very much at all.”
Travis currently runs Angus cattle on his local property but limits his US ranch to just horses.
“When I went over there, I just couldn’t live in the city. I have got horses there — I ride, yeah, very badly.
“I did have some Longhorn, just for my cowboy films — they are great.”
Travis Fimmel as Ragnar Lothbrok in the Vikings series. (AAP Image/SBS, Bernard Walsh)
And when he flies in from the US, is there any trace of Hollywood that needs to be dusted off when his boots hit the dirt?
“Not at all. This has always been home — I am always back and forth, especially for the first 10 years, when I’d always be here on the farm for six months.”
His self-deprecating answer is genuine and cannot be published in full, but it downplays any ego.
With respect to how he regards himself both in the US and at home, one choice of word rhymes with ‘banker’.
This guy is earthed.
“I love the country — you can never get it out of me — I wish there were more jobs here without having to go overseas and take money off the Americans.”
He then gets back on point.
“It’s a pretty simple message — it’s very hard work to be a farmer.
“Every day is a struggle.”
Tones and I between hits during her performance at the Echuca Hotel on Tuesday, August 20.
Tones and I get on board
The festivities at the Echuca Hotel on Tuesday, August 20 welcomed the indie pop sensation Tones and I, who also took to wearing a flannelette shirt to help talk up the farmer awareness campaign.
travla beer regional sales manager Simon Holmes said the gig had attracted a ‘good demographic’ of locals.
“From five or six years through to 86 — it has been supported well,” Simon said.
“Tones has jumped onto the Flanno For A Farmer as well.”
Travis Fimmel and Tones spent the afternoon on one of Echuca’s paddle steamers.
Tina Rankins from travla beer said Tones and I visiting Echuca was ‘amazing’ for the community.
“She has really helped all Australian locals along with Trav,” Tina said.
“It will only make the community grow bigger and better. I really hope all Australians can really back Australian-owned.”
Travis and his traveller called ‘travla’
Travis Fimmel took it upon himself to produce his own brand of what he likes to call ‘a normal lager’.
Marrying his name with the commonly-used ‘traveller’ to describe someone’s last drink before leaving a venue, Travis launched ‘travla’ beer in 2022 and this year brought out the brand’s own lager.
Travis said the dearth of Australian beers in the US brought about the idea.
“I always miss Aussie beers in America; there’s just not many of them over there,” he said.
“I love a normal beer; I am not a fruity guy — it’s not for me.
“We got in contact with a great little brewer, just up on Jetty Road actually — Blake Bowden — and I said I wanted a beer that tasted like a normal lager.
“It didn’t take him long; he’s a great little brewer.”
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