Long before The Feel Good Family, our paths crossed at Australia Zoo.
We were incredibly privileged to work alongside the late Steve Irwin and the Irwin family. Katie worked as an Executive Assistant to the Irwin family, while Paul was one of Bindi’s all-singing, all-dancing Crocmen two very different roles that gave us a front-row seat to an extraordinary chapter of our lives.
What stayed with us wasn't a job title. It was Steve's passion and sense of purpose.
He had an energy for life that was impossible to ignore. When he believed in something, he was all in completely, unapologetically and wholeheartedly. And behind that passion was a mission bigger than himself: to make a difference and add value to the world through conservation.
Can we add value?
That question became our compass. From the videos we create and the stories we tell, to the resources we build and the partnerships we choose, it has signposted so much of what TFGF has become.
We didn’t know it at the time, but those early lessons in passion, purpose and adding value would eventually become part of the foundation on which The Feel Good Family was built.
Our story starts long before we drove out of the driveway.
After a 4 year IVF journey to become parents, having Jasper changed the way we thought about time how precious it was, how quickly it passed, and how we wanted to spend it.
Then, in 2017, driving home from a family holiday.
Paul was struggling with the thought of going back to work and missing more time with Jasper. It was the kind of quiet, ordinary moment that turns out to change everything.
Katie asked a blue-sky question
“If money wasn’t an issue, what would you want to do?”
Paul didn’t hesitate
“Travel Australia with you and Jasper - and document it so we have a time capsule to look back on.”
Katie’s answer
“Let’s do it.”
We drove straight to Officeworks and bought a huge whiteboard.
We put it in front of the television and turned off the news. Across the top we wrote three words that shaped the next 18 months reverse engineering everything that needed to happen to turn a conversation in the car into our real life.
Can we add value?
We created The Feel Good Family. We started filming. We bought our first caravan. We packed up the life we knew.
The three of us drove out of our driveway to travel Australia.
The plan was to go for two years.
We’re still going.
“If money wasn't an issue, what would you want to do?” One conversation on the drive home from a family holiday set 18 months of planning, dreaming and hard work in motion.
We bought our first caravan, filmed our first YouTube video and on 1 September drove out of the driveway to travel Australia for two years. Or so we thought.
While COVID kept us in Tasmania for three months, thousands of Aussies in lockdown chose to travel Australia with us through our YouTube episodes - and somewhere in those strange months, our community found us. That year, YouTube also recognised The Feel Good Family as a Creator on the Rise, while our Travel Australia Podcast was named one of Feedspot's Top 10 Australian Travel & Culture Podcasts.
C31 invited The Feel Good Family to broadcast on community television, opening another way for audiences to discover our adventures. Our episodes were now reaching people across different screens and platforms, while our community continued to grow.
The Feel Good Family received the Australian Community Television Antenna Award for Best Outdoor Recreation Program - an incredible recognition of the series, the stories we shared and the community around them.
Years after writing “Produce a TV show” on our vision board, we co-produced Feel Good Road Trips, a six-part network television series with Channel 7 for 7TWO and 7+. It was a new format, a new creative challenge and another way to share our love of Australian road travel.
Our YouTube community passed 100,000 subscribers, earning us the YouTube Silver Creator Award. We also received our second Antenna Award, this time for Outstanding Digital Engagement by a Program.
On 1 September we celebrated seven years full-time on the road — more than 200,000 kilometres, 300+ long-form episodes, 250+ podcast episodes and a community spanning 120+ countries. Our show also became the #1 most watched program on the CTV+ streaming platform - another incredible chapter in a journey that was only ever meant to last two years.
What began as a two-year adventure became our life.
Seven years of travelling Australia makes for plenty of spectacular photographs. But there have been moments we'd rather not repeat.
We've rolled a LandCruiser.
We had a massive tyre blowout while towing on the Stuart Highway.
Paul has broken his ankle, twice, and had a health scare in Darwin that landed him in hospital.
We've dealt with first-aid situations involving Jasper hundreds of kilometres from the familiarity of home.
There have been breakdowns, wrong turns, hard days and moments when things definitely haven't gone to plan.
And maybe that’s part of what the road has taught us.
Living intentionally isn’t about creating a perfect life.
It’s about knowing what matters enough to keep choosing it even when the road gets rough.
Presenter. Creative. Writer.
The words, ideas and creative heart behind much of The Feel Good Family. Katie loves a beautiful destination, a great story and the conversations that happen when families make space for more connection and adventure.
Producer. Presenter. Storyteller.
Usually behind a camera, in front of one, flying a drone or figuring out how to turn an idea into a story. Paul leads TFGF production and has an uncanny ability to make an adventure out of almost anything.
Presenter. Creator. Adventurer.
Raised on the road and growing up with Australia as his classroom, Jasper has spent most of his life exploring, learning, presenting and creating - and now has adventures of his own to share.
Meet JasperooThe road is where our story began. It isn’t where it ends.
Travel will always be part of The Feel Good Family. But somewhere along the way, we realised this story was never really just about caravans, kilometres or the places we visited.
It was about time.
Time together. Time doing things that make us feel alive. Time spent deliberately instead of waiting for “one day”.
And through everything we create, one question from that original whiteboard is still there in the background:
Can we add value?
Today, The Feel Good Family is built around three simple ideas.
Road trips, destinations, the outdoors and experiences that make you want to see what's out there.
Real family life, growing up on the road and making space for the moments that bring us closer.
Choosing what matters, living intentionally and having the courage to build a life of your own.
And that’s the point.
We don’t believe everyone needs to sell almost everything they own, buy a caravan and travel Australia. That was our answer.
The question is: what's yours?
Maybe it’s taking the road trip you’ve talked about for years, spending more time with your kids, starting something new, getting outside, changing direction or simply becoming more intentional about how you spend the days you’ve been given.
If our story does anything, we hope it reminds you that you don’t always have to wait for the perfect time. Sometimes you just need to ask a better question.
And be brave enough to do something with the answer.
