What Cathy did next

By Peter Sweeney
CATHY Hayes was 23 when she was told she had multiple sclerosis.
She thought it was the end of her life.
Actually, it was the beginning. Now, six years down the track, Cathy looks back thankfully. She says getting MS was “a saviour.”
Oh, sure there were the tough times. They started as soon as the Monash-based neurologist broke the gut-wrenching news to Cathy that a brain scan revealed more in her body than fatigue. Minutes after being told she had MS, and what to do and not do, Cathy broke down in the arms of husband Ben.
Then they sat down, talked, and decided to start living.
How? Well, by reducing their workload. Instead, of each working between 60 and 70 hours a week and trying to save money to buy investment properties to set themselves up, they swapped jobs and worked normal weeks.
And, instead of living on a suburban block – even though it was in the Dandenongs – they decided to buy the land they had long wished for. And, probably most importantly, Cathy and Ben Hayes decided to become super positive about life. Every day was not only worth living, it was a bonus.
Today, her nearly three-year-old daughter Sophie, a paddock and bush block with once unwanted goats, a loving husband, seven hectares (about half of which is cleared) and treatment monthly instead of needles daily, has Cathy bursting at the seams.
Recently, the couple started a farm machinery business which they bank on becoming their life. This weekend, at the popular Go Country! exhibition at Pakenham racecourse, the serious and hobby lovers of the land will see some of the Hayes wares.
There’s not much at Dewhurst, which is best known for that elephant-shaped rock (always painted and written on) on the Beaconsfield-Emerald Road.
When Cathy, 29, and Ben, 32, found it a few years back, the block of dirt they now call home, Bellbird Springs, was covered in blackberries and bracken.
A slasher and a whipper snipper controlled it … for a while.
Then Cathy remembered her work experience days at the RSPCA. She contacted the animal welfare body, and was offered a goat to care for. One goat became another one and another one and …
Today, the Hayes own 14 goats (they’ve had as many as 18), which the RSPCA has taken from cruel owners. What the couple have found is that goats are the best blackberry/bracken slashers (“they’re like lollies to them”) they could have hoped for – and the pets have been great therapy for Cathy.
“We might have given them a home, but they have helped give me a life,” Cathy said, while kidding around with Bozo, Big Ears, Cash and numerous others.
“They are part of the reason I want to live, they are so friendly and loving,” she said.
“They are never tethered and roam all around. It’s a good feeling to be involved in the care of animals, especially ones who weren’t cared for. It’s good karma.
“They are great with Sophie and look after her. She can do things with them we cannot and is our goat whisperer.”
Thirteen years ago, bayside suburbs-reared Cathy met her husband-to-be through her brother, who has the same christian name.
Ben Maxwell was navigating for a Datsun rally car driving Ben Hayes. Soon after, not only was she spending more time with friend Ben than her brother Ben was, but she was also in the navigator seat.
In 2003, Ben and Cathy were the outright winners of a Pakenham Car Club race which was a part of the Victorian club rally championship.
“The race started out on the old autocross track at Pakenham where the freeway now is,” Ben said. “I had bald tyres on the Datsun, Cathy hadn’t done much navigating and I didn’t expect to win it.”
The couple loved travelling, especially to the high country and the King Valley, rally driving, but more so camping and “getting away” from everything and everybody.
Their dreams started. Their parents had wanted to move from the suburbs to the country – but never did. Cathy and Ben didn’t want to be telling the same story late in their lives. However, if it wasn’t for the MS, they say they probably would have “stayed in suburbia.”
“Cathy getting MS made us make decisions. It made us go out and buy this property. And now we could never go back to where we were,” Ben said.
The couple, who made a living from driving coaches, (Ben still does a morning and afternoon school bus run for Cardinia Transit and some tours for elderly folk), felt there was a niche market to supply parts to the farm machinery business.
After much research – and two look and learn trips to China – their “gamble” is up and running.
It’s not a case of what they can offer, but what they don’t.
There’s slashers, grader blades, rotary tillers, post hole diggers, seats for tractors, star picket removers, post pounders, carry-alls, scoop trays, seed spreaders, harrows, cement mixers, bucket forks, gearboxes, high pressure fire-fighting pumps, saddle stands and much, much more.
“Some stock will move well, some won’t. We will see how it goes in the first year and then decide what to sell more, or less, of,” Ben said while standing beside a 42-year-old Massey Ferguson 135 he has lovingly restored to immaculate condition.
“I wouldn’t sell anything I wouldn’t buy.
“Some people may say it is risky doing what we are doing, but life’s short. It couldn’t be better for us now, but we know what can happen.”