Pivoting from a career as a dancer to a dairy farmer, isn't the most linear path. But it's landed one young woman in a place where she feels right at home. Celina Pellett suffered a debilitating injury - a broken back – and it caused a rethink. She's now thriving working among the cows in the NSW Gloucester region.
Celina is happiest among the calves in her new job, "I'm a sucker for little babies. That's a special part of it, being around all the calves," she shares. Little did she know at the time, but her love for these beautiful animals is in her blood. It turns out, her great grandparents had a dairy in New Zealand.
Dreams of dancing
Growing up though, her passion was dance, competing in Australia, and overseas in Los Angeles as a ballerina. That all came to an end after a shocking accident on a family holiday.
"I decided to do one of the activities that I grew up doing as a kid. So, we went mountain biking for the day. On the last run of the day, I was doing something I'd done 50 000 times growing up. But forgot about the blind jump at the bottom and ended up landing on the back of my neck with the bike on top of me," she recalls.
I found out I had three compression fractures in my lower back and a cerebral spinal fluid leak in the back of my neck."
That was the end of competitive dancing for Celina. She faced a tough time in her life where she was no longer dancing professionally, it was Covid, and her parents wanted to move to the country. Celina didn't want to spend lockdown alone in the city, so she joined her family in their new venture, owning the Hidden Haven Retreat at Barrington Tops, north of Sydney.
"I was making beds for a few months with that. That was not going so well. I was not enjoying it at all. It wasn't for me."
I ended up going into town and asking around for a job. One of the local dairy farmers was willing to give me a go. Cows were not on my radar at all."
Thankfully they took a chance on Celina because she really found her feet, and for someone who had never been around cows before, it wasn't easy.
"I was terrified of cows for the first few days!"
Celina describes herself as having an 'understanding' of cows now, rather than feeling at 'ease' around them. Her work has stood out among her peers with Celina named as Hunter and Central Coast Trainee of the Year and NSW Women in Trades recipient for 2023.
Celina's roles have included milking, looking after the calves, as well as drenching and vaccinating.
"No two days are the same," she says. When she's not out on the farm, Celina loves working as a role model for other young people who might be considering a move into the sector. She has spoken at high schools, including her own, about her career change.
"If you like something, you can just go and do it. If you want to change careers because you don't like the one you're in, you've got that option."
Celina now laughs that she used to think all you could do on a dairy was milk cows.
"I thought it would probably get a bit boring! But there's such a variety of jobs. You don't have to be a milker. We need tractors, farmhands, mechanics."
Celina hopes to one day soon board a plane and visit dairies in Europe to learn how they operate over there. Turns out a career in dairy could be as international as one in dance.
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