Teenager paralysed in hay bale accident still determined to farm

It was a routine job on the family farm that went terribly wrong and changed his life, but Alex Wilson is determined to be a farmer.

Just before Christmas in 2024, the 17-year-old was trying to move a hay bale when it fell on him and crushed his T9 vertebra.

"It was just a mix of tiredness and just a lapse of concentration, I suppose, and then, yeah, things just didn't go my way."

Alex was airlifted from his family farm at Dugandan, about 90 kilometres south-west of Brisbane, to a hospital in the state capital.

Life-changing accident on the family farm

Preliminary scans showed extensive spinal damage.

"But it wasn't until the next morning when the surgeon came in and said what they'd had to do," his mother Stacey Wilson said.

But the 6-foot-4 teenager quickly made it clear that a broken vertebra would not break his spirit.

"He said to us very early on in coming into the hospital, 'If you're going to cry, don't come,'" Mrs Wilson said.

He spent six months in hospital recovering and undertaking intensive rehabilitation.

For a footy-loving farm kid who grew up around cattle and horses, tractors, machinery and wide open spaces, there was no greater goal than going home to the farm.

"The gym's open most of the day and once I got into the swing of things I tried to spend as much time in there as I could because, you know … it's up to you in a way," he said.

Finishing school against the odds

Finishing his final year of high school also gave him something to strive for outside of his hospital goals.

"You know my teachers would come down and see me in hospital and help me with schoolwork," Alex said.

"They were just really, really supportive the whole time."

Less than a week after he left hospital he convinced his mother to drive him 720 kilometres to Rockhampton, to cheer on his high school football team in the grand final of a prestigious school rugby league tournament.

His McAuley College team did not take out the grand final, but it did not matter.

"It was still just an awesome, awesome thing," he said.

His attitude towards the grand final loss is like his broader approach to life; this is a young man who has made a point of looking for silver linings.

"I get annoyed, definitely," he said.

"But I don't really feel sorry for myself and I never really did because I think that there's a lot of people out there who are a lot more worse off.

"I just think, you know, I've still got to have a crack at it and just give it my all."

But recovering has not been easy on Alex or his family.

With time and support from friends, family and their small community, about Christmas last year he felt a fog start to lift.

"People have been incredibly generous and some of the things they've done for us are incredible," he said.

Adapting farm life for a wheelchair

The goal now is to help make the farm more accessible for Alex, but it is difficult to accommodate a wheelchair.

"Take gates, for example," Alex said.

His mother Stacey Wilson is proud of her son's determination.

"He spent six months in the spinal injury unit, and then came home, finished grade 12, [has] been accepted into university … he hasn't really missed a beat," she said.

Alex is now studying law and agriculture in Armidale at the University of New England.

"It's going to be a forever passion … and they say if you chase your passions and work in your passions, you never work a day in your life.

"Regardless of what state I'm in, I still want to be a part of ag."

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