Before becoming Albany’s 7News Regional reporter, Rachel Boothman graced Australia’s screens and airwaves on The Farmer Wants A Wife and her podcast Times Two, hosted with her twin sister Chelsea.
Originally from Perth, the 24-year-old signed up for the reality television show in October 2022 and filmed for two months in November and December in regional Victoria.
“I had just graduated from my undergrad and I didn’t have a job lined up — I didn’t really know what I wanted to do,” Ms Boothman said.
“And then the applications for Farmer Wants A Wife came out.
“My sister Chelsea came home one day and told me that she had applied and that she got an interview and was on to the next stage.
“So I said to my sister, ‘Don’t tell me who you applied for and I’ll have a look at the farmers, and if we end up applying for the same guy then I just won’t apply but if we like different ones, I’ll apply as well for the sake of it’.”
Five minutes after submitting her application, she got a call from producers.
“I was so nervous,” she said.
“We had multiple Zoom calls because we were from WA and they were over east, we didn’t get to do like an in-person audition, so all of ours were done via Zoom, and it kind of just starting rolling from there.”
Within a week Boothman was flown to Sydney, separated from her twin sister, and placed on a farm in Gippsland in Victoria.
“It was a very daunting process but I think doing it with Chelsea was probably the best thing that I could have done — I couldn’t imagine doing it by myself,” she said.
Describing her first date with farmer Brenton Kuch as the “most awkward first date” of her life, Ms Boothman said it was an experience to have it aired on national television.
“It’s on national TV so everyone can go back and watch it — we laugh about it now, but it kickstarted the journey of meeting the farmer,” she said.
Boothman said the show not only allowed her a chance to find love but to also grow as her own person away from her twin sister who she has a close relationship with.
“I don’t think we realised how dependent on each other we were,” she said.
“I think us being forcibly separated in different States was probably the best thing for us to grow individually as people, and I still credit that to the show to this day — where most of my personal growth came from was that show and just being so far out of my comfort zone and having to just go for it and not having any other choice but to just do it.”
After the reality show, Boothman returned to WA and began Times Two, a fortnightly podcast of the two sisters navigating their 20s.
“Chelsea and I always loved the idea of starting a podcast and it had been in the works for so long, and one day we sat down with a producer and we were like ‘let’s do it’,” she said.
“It’s probably the best thing that has ever happened to us.
“We’re able to connect with a wider audience, and we always said that if our podcast can at least help one person listening, then we’ve done our job and we’re happy.”
The idea of the podcast stemmed from the twin sisters’ nightly catch-ups about their days.
“We would come home every night and just tell each other stories of what had happened in the day — I feel like so many funny things were always happening to us,” Boothman said.
“We were like; ‘why don’t we just start a podcast and start sharing stories’?”
Boothman also enrolled in a postgraduate broadcasting course at Edith Cowan University which led her to “some of the hardest days” she had endured but eventually brought her to her current role in Albany.
“I will be forever grateful for it, but it is very intense and it did take over my life,” she said.
“But I got to meet so many amazing people on the way and do so many amazing things.”
Moving from Perth to Albany was tough for Boothman — not only was she moving out of home for the first time but she would be moving to a regional town away from her sister and family.
“Being from a big family and always being around people and moving regionally by yourself can be very daunting, and when I got into the office everyone made me feel so welcome,” she said.
“Being in this job has opened my eyes to a lot of different issues and things that I never would have experienced if I wasn’t here.
“It’s made me meet so many people that I never would have thought that I would meet, and cover stories that I never would have thought that I could cover.
“I love human impact stories, the ones that really matter to people, and I love being able to share people’s stories that don’t necessarily have a voice — that’s why I do it, and that’s why I love the job.”