Meet the Queensland farmers looking for love on national television

Dean Blanckensee, a 25-year-old cattle producer from Kandanga and Bert Harris, a 30-year-old pineapple and dragon fruit grower from Wamuran spoke to Queensland Country Life about farming and how they wound up on a reality television show in their quest to find true love.

Mr Harris was looking for someone to share his life on the land with, and said although FWAW was a wild ride, it's one he hasn't regretted for a second.

He was nominated by his friends and discussed the offer to be on the show with family before making his decision.

"I have some lovely friends who live out Bribie way, who threw my hat in the ring, and I then got a call from FWAW," he said.

"I was with my dad at the time when they called, we had a bit of chat and my dad said 'why not, what do you have to lose?...worst case scenario, when you are 90 years old, it's something to talk about in the retirement village'."

He said he was also lucky to have his mum, Karen, as one of his biggest supporters and that taking the leap to be on the show was something way out of left field for someone like him, who was typically quite reserved.

"All my friends would joke about it for many years, but to finally go ahead and do it was definitely well out of my comfort zone," he said.

"I suppose if you are always comfortable you aren't really learning anything new about yourself."

One of the highlights of being part of the show for Bert, was meeting like minded people that were in the same position as him in the industry.

"The other farmers were all great, they are young guys really trying to give it a crack in the industry, which for the most part is quite dominated by older generations," he said.

"It's very difficult to get into it at the moment, prices are insanely high, so having the other farmers there to talk to about that stuff, and also the experience you are going through, was great.

"Each and every one of the girls was also amazing and I couldn't be more thankful.

"They gave up time in their lives to come out and meet me and give everything a crack, it was a lot of fun, they are all beautiful, I really enjoyed all the time I had with them."

Mr Harris grows pineapples and dragon fruit on his property in Wamuran, 60 kilometres north of Brisbane.

Throughout the filming of FWAW, Mr Harris said it had been a challenging time trying to juggle filming and making sure things were running smoothly back at his farm.

"I like to do a lot of the important jobs myself so I can't push the blame onto anyone else, if it doesn't go the way I want it to," he said.

"I would typically wrap up filming and go straight to work, or be up early harvesting until show call time.

"A lot of the time it was very late at nights, into the morning of spraying and calling in favours from my brother (Henry) and obviously dad helped out, while I couldn't be there.

"It wasn't the easiest thing in the world but I got it done."

Mr Harris spent most of his younger years on the farm that his dad Robert and uncles, Mark and Colin, ran.

"It's a beautiful little spot in the world," he said.

"I lived there for most of my younger years, then moved away for a little while to experience the rest of the world and other things, before spending the rest of my life on the farm.

"I came back to the farm five or six years ago now and gradually started taking over as my dad and uncles were retiring."

Mr Harris said he had help to run the 120 hectare property, including a full time worker as well as hiring backpackers for seasonal work.

He said pineapple and dragon fruit picking were currently underway on his farm.

"Once we get into May, the dragon fruit starts to trickle off and they are dormant until we start seeing some red dragon fruits in December. They take a six month break before they fruit again.

"The commercially grown ones are the white and red fleck varieties that you typically see in the grocery stores or markets.

"We do have quite a lot of hybrid varieties like yellow and quite vibrant purple flesh coloured ones, that typically only get to the size of a kiwi (fruit)."

In terms of the future, Bert said he was is happy to keep working on his farm and keep going for as long as possible.

"I can't tell you what the future holds but it's what I want to do for the rest of my life and I love it."

Easy-going farmer Dean Blanckensee was looking for someone like minded that he could have a laugh with and said he tried to 'just be himself' throughout the show.

"The whole experience was very eye opening, it is something I'll remember for my whole life that's for sure," he said.

"Something to tell my grand-kids one day.

"It was very strange having beautiful ladies, I was thinking, holy hell this is real.

"Obviously there was a bit of drama, the girls are trying to fight for the one guy, it didn't really deter me."

A highlight for the farmer were the friendships that were forged with the other farmers on the show.

"I don't have a bad word to say about any of the farmers from the show, they are absolute legends," he said.

"I get along with them so well, I have made mates for life.

"We all keep in touch, we talk every week, we are all going through the same experience now."

Mr Blanckensee said his path to ending up on the show, started when about 15 of his mates tagged him in multiple FWAW social media posts.

"One of my mates went ahead and applied on my behalf and I didn't think anything of it at the time," he said.

"I thought there would have been heaps of farmers applying and didn't think this little fella from Kandanga would get through, but a couple of days later the phone was ringing and that's where it all began."

The third generation cattle producer runs a Droughmaster stud in Kandanga, 120 kilometres north-west of Brisbane.

Mr Blanckensee said he took over the stud from his nan and pop, Col and Joyce Blanckensee.

Dean's mum and dad, Brett and Brenda Blanckensee are still heavily involved and run the commercial side of the business.

They run around 400 breeders on 700 acres (283ha) and Dean runs around 50 as stud cows.

He said his family played a big part in keeping the farm going while he was filming.

"My brother Shane came and helped out on the farm while I was filming, along with my mum and dad, who still do a lot," he said.

There was a drought during the filming that Dean said took a toll on him. He said it was difficult for him to film whilst he was concerned about what was happening back at the farm.

"It was pretty stressful at the time, you are filming and you have to focus on that, but obviously you have to think of your livelihood too," he said.

Filming for the show wrapped up at the end of 2023 and Dean said the reality of it all had kicked in, now the dust had settled.

"It's all getting pretty real, I guess I could say I'm pretty excited and nervous at the same time to see how it all comes out," he said.

"I'll see how I go in the first episode and see what happens from there, It is a bit different seeing yourself on national tv".

Whilst he couldn't give much away about the show, Mr Blanckensee said he had plans to grow his cattle stud and that family and kids would play a big part in his future.

"I'd like to get my kids involved with the stud, that is a pretty big goal for me," he said.

"The start of a fourth generation on the farm would be pretty amazing."