From Battling Anorexia to Leading in the Kimberley: Camille Camp Inspires at 2025 Women’s Leadership Forum

Anorexia in the bush. The disease, characterised by a fear of gaining weight, is often linked to unrealistic body images promoted in magazines, and not the remote countryside. However, Camille Camp battled the disorder as a teenager in the vast solitude of her family-run Kalyeeda Station, a 122,000 hectare expanse of Kimberley wilderness, located 200 kilometres south-east of Derby. The fourth-generation stockwoman told the 2025 Women’s Leadership Forum hosted by Broome Chamber in March that her development of anorexia nervosa at 14 was triggered by a series of changes in her life. “My brother had recently battled leukemia, which saw my mum relocate to Perth for treatment,” Ms Camp said. “Meanwhile, my family purchased a second cattle station, and my parents’ work became twice as busy and stressful. “Having an eating disorder while living on a station is incredibly isolating. Eating disorders thrive on secrecy and lies. “I really began to feel the distance from services when I tried to get treatment. ” Ms Camp and her parents faced long drives to Broome, then a two hour flight to Perth and admission to Princess Margaret Hospital. “I found the admissions to Perth to be lonely and cold,” Ms Camp said. Like many people suffering from eating disorders, she found herself caught in a cycle of hospital admissions, discharges, relapses, and re-admissions. In between admissions, when she was back at Kalyeeda Station, her illness robbed her of the pleasures of country life. “I wasn’t allowed to ride horses because doctors said my bones had become too brittle and feared they would break if I had a fall,” Ms Camp said. “I was no longer physically strong enough to withstand a day in the cattle yards. And because my mind wasn’t a safe space, the wide-open bush no longer brought me joy.” At 18, after a particularly long and challenging hospital admission, Ms Camp vowed to herself she would never be admitted to hospital again for an eating disorder. “Thankfully, I was able to keep my promise,” she told the crowd. Helen Keller once said, “Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible”. Ms Camp’s recovery from anorexia underscores the event’s theme of hope, showing how overcoming dark times embodies true leadership. Speaker after speaker took to the stage, sharing how hope had guided them to greater success in their careers and personal lives. Fellow speaker Rosanna Angus, owner of Oolin Tours at One Arm Point, shared how her hope and vision for expanding Indigenous tourism in the Kimberley motivated her into starting her own business. “In 2021, during COVID, I took a leap of faith and founded Oolin Sunday Island Cultural Tours, even when the tourism industry was at a standstill,” Ms Angus said. “I created the business to share the history of my ancestors and the story of Sunday Island Mission.” Executive director of WA Country Health Service (WACHS), Lisa Smith, another speaker at the forum, credited her belief to saying yes to daunting career opportunities would lead to personal and professional growth. “It’s about saying yes to opportunities.” Women laughed cried, and cheered listening to the stories across the Kimberley about women in different fields and how their success could inspire others. For Camille Camp, life now bears little resemblance to the enclosed existence of the hospital admissions she endured as a teenager. In 2019 she was the on-board stockwoman on cargo boats carrying cattle for export during the wet season. Her first voyage involved looking after 14,000 cattle on a ship for 21 days, which was travelling from Townsville to Vietnam. After spending years as a station manager on multiple Kimberley properties — traditionally a male-dominated role — Ms Camp now serves as the assistant station manager of the 200,000ha Nerrima Station in the west Kimberley. In January 2023, she survived the devastating Fitzroy Floods, where her station homestead was surrounded by rising waters. She, her husband Jack, and their two-year-old son were rescued by an emergency helicopter. From overcoming anorexia in isolation to leading in a male-dominated industry, Camille Camp’s journey highlighted the forum’s message: hope drives leadership and resilience, no matter how great the challenge.