**By Glen Williams
Aussie icon Margaret Fulton and TV presenter Catriona Rowntree tell why Australia Day is so special to them.**
They may be generations apart, but Margaret Fulton and Catriona Rowntree share a mutual love for the country they call home. Meeting for the first time, the two women discovered they have a lot more in common than just their patriotism.
**Do you have a favourite period in Australia?
Margaret** My favourite time is now, I’m having it now. I used to think it was funny when I’d hear people like my father in their eighties say, ‘I want to live until I’m a hundred’. Now I understand. I may get things going wrong physically, these days, but I wouldn’t change a day of my life. I want to say Happy Australia Day to all Woman’s Day readers. And I hope you’re as happy about being Australian as I am. I’ll be 85 in October. Where else in the world could you be 85 and they still want to hear from you and write cook books for them?
**What’s your ideal Aussie meal?
Margaret** My daughter cooked a meal the other night. It was lovely grass-fed beef. I know that anywhere in the world, people would love it. I don’t eat a lot of beef but this was delicious. It makes a difference eating meat that hasn’t been grain fed or grazed in paddocks where pesticides and other poisons have been sprayed. For Australia Day, I would make a seafood salad because I live near the Sydney Fish Markets.
**Catriona, what was it like meeting an Australian living treasure?
Catriona** Surreal in that I feel I’ve grown up with Margaret. The moment I heard I was meeting her, I grabbed her cook book, which a dear friend gave me on my engagement, and then I quickly dropped home to grab my photo album and Mum and my Grandma were saying, ‘We’ve got all her books in the kitchen’. Mum said when she got married, she was given all the Margaret Fulton Cook Books. It’s such a pleasure to see she’s as generous and warm as the famous woman I’ve grown up with.
**Catriona, since you’ve married and moved to the country, you’ve actually been cooking for your shearers. It doesn’t get more Aussie than that.
Catriona** We treasure our shearers. A big reason why they come to our property is that the food is so good and we adore them. My mother-in-law is a gifted cook, but the last time the shearers came, her kitchen was being renovated, so the task fell to me. I flipped out, then I called on other talented country cooks and they guided me and it was a success. I chose one of the roasts from Margaret’s books and they gave me a 9½out of 10.
**What is your favourite Aussie expression?
Catriona** Fair Dinkum. I also say crikey a lot. I’m not stealing it from Steve Irwin — I genuinely say it. My country-boy husband, James, also constantly says it. And it’s genuine.
**Do you have a favourite Aussie song?
Catriona** I was on a tall ship on Sydney Harbour on the eve of 2000 and they had the most amazing mix of Ivor Davies’ Great Southern Land. Later on I met him at the Opera House. The entire Harbour was silent as that song permeated the air.
**What are your hopes for Australia?
Catriona** To try in every way to be non-judgemental of other people and other cultures. Travelling has taught me that. As our nation expands with other cultures we have to remind ourselves we are a young nation that’s building and we need to be respectful of others.
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