It's not everyday you meet someone like Remi Wilton.
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She is a 27-year-old league obsessed, former mine worker, ex-station hand and adoptive mum to two brahman poddies.
Remi has just left for York, England, where she has earned herself a place in the women's super league playing for York Valkyrie.
It's a one season contract that will see Remi living in York - her first time living overseas.
Remi is used to "firsts" though. She has made a habit of jumping in feet first to any challenge that looks interesting, and has no qualms about stepping outside her comfort zone.
When she was 14, Remi left home to board at Yanco Agricultural High School in the Riverina. An "ag based school and heavy on their sport" is how she describes it.
Born in Narooma, and living in town with her parents and brother Gus, Remi's grandparents owned a property where she spent a good deal of time as a child. This is where she developed a love of all things agricutural.
"Grandma and Grandpa had, and still have, about 100 acres just outside of town that probably ignited that in me...exposed me to it and I never really stopped liking it.
When Remi found out about Yanco she said it was a "no-brainer".
Remi had also discovered league, having played since she was four years old.
"I played until under 12's, then you're not allowed to play with the boys anymore after that," she said.
"Because the comp finished there and it was only league tag, there wasn't any pathways like there are now for my age...so that's when I transitioned to union when I went to boarding school."
Post HSC, Remi started chasing her football dreams, playing for the Canberra Raiders prior to the formation of the NRL Women's Premiership, and the ACT Brumbies, playing for both codes.
But the pull of the country was still strong. In 2020, an opportunity to move to Emerald, Qld, presented itself, and Remi jumped.
Here she worked as an operator on dump trucks, graders and with the blast crew in the mines.
At a time in life when many of Remi's friends back home were settling into careers, getting married and having kids, Remi has continued to build on her bank of experiences.
Two years in the mines, opportunity knocked again and Remi found herself working as a station hand in Isisford, Qld, 90 minutes from Longreach.
Surprisingly, Remi did not grow up horse riding. Unsurprisingly, she was pretty handy on a motorbike.
"A lot of it was done on bikes, mustering wise, out there," Remi said.
"But then we did start using a few horses .. i suppose I've only really started riding the last couple of years or so."
It was here that Remi started to hand-feed two Brahman cows. She was so attached to them she asked to bring them back to Narooma with her. Amazingly she was allowed.
"I joke that I love them so much and miss being up there so much. I had to bring them 3000 kilometres home...build a cage on the back of my ute and have that little part of the country life back here," she said.
York Valkyrie are the reigning premiers of the England Womens' Super League. The league sits on the same tier as Australia's NRLW.
In a life split between working on the land and football, Remi has taken the contract for the season with the top team.
Remi is completely unpretentious in recalling her last 10 years, extraordinary as they have been. But says when she reflects on it properly, it does catch her by surprise.
"It's pretty cool to have done all of that," she said
"Usually I look at it and don't think to much about it, but when you talk about it, not too many people get to experience that, let alone all of it - yeah it's pretty special when you look back on it."
