Nicole Trunfio on being a self-confessed “bush girl”, bringing her kids home and moving back to WA

As Nicole Trunfio shivers her way through the brisk air in Bunbury she’s repeating a mantra, over and over again. As if the four words will bring the warmth back to her bones.

“I’m a bush girl,” she thinks while posing in freezing water wearing little more than a sheer cover-up. “I’m a bush girl,” she reminds herself as she roars through dirt in a leather dress atop a motocross bike. It’s running through her mind as she ducks behind a farm shed to change between looks for a special STM photoshoot.

Despite the internal pep talk there is no denying Trunfio is in her element. She may have spent decades jetting between Texas and New York, but the supermodel is an Aussie country girl at heart — happiest with dirt under her boots and wide-open space around her.

The mother of three has been home for three weeks, soaking up every minute of sharing her homeland with kids Zion, Gia and Ella.

You can imagine STM’s surprise and delight at Trunfio’s willingness to dedicate her final day in Western Australia to shooting on the soil she grew up on, children in tow. She’s also reuniting with a creative team she worked with as an aspiring model in her teens, including make-up artist Hendra Widjaja, stylist and Claremont Quarter fashion director Teagan Sewell and photographer Chantel Concei.

“I’m the exact same as I was back then, aren’t I Hendra?” Trunfio jokes, before taking a seat in the glam chair to let Widjaja work his magic.

Though Trunfio tries to return home as often as she can, raising kids with musician husband Gary Clark Jr on their Texan ranch and running a multimillion-dollar fashion brand, Bumpsuit, can make it difficult.

This time round feels different.

“I think there’s been a shift,” says Trunfio. “I was saying to my little brother, I haven’t spent time with him in this way because he was 13 when I left home (for New York), so to experience my family in this adult period is beautiful.”

“Although I used to come back every August, I haven’t been able to as much since I had my kids. This is the first time I’ve been home where it hasn’t been a dramatic event like a death in the family. I don’t have family in the States and coming back home is like a grounding. This is my foundation. I know who I am, I know my family, I know my people, that hasn’t changed and never will.”

As she reflects on the last three weeks, it’s been watching her American-born kids embrace their Australian side and take part in family traditions passed through generations.

The most notable? The annual “Trunfio Sausage Weekend” extravaganza.

“It’s been happening since before I was born,” Trunfio beams.

It’s a weekend of food, love and laughter — not to mention some thrills and spills — as the Italian side of her family get together to make salami from scratch, while the kids ride dirt bikes and go-karts at her nonna’s farm in Merredin.

“For me, it was something that we looked forward to more than Easter and Christmas,” Trunfio says. “It’s just the most fun weekend. We gatekeep it — you’re only invited if you’re engaged to be married into the family, or if you’re married into the family.”

Trunfio had deliberately waited until her children were old enough to appreciate the occasion.

“They just had a blast,” she laughs. “I just saw their eyes wide open in amazement. And for them, getting to meet all their cousins, really having ownership of the Australian side of our family . . . we haven’t historically spent enough time here, in my opinion.”

The power of the experience was so meaningful Trunfio took to Instagram to reflect on the values that have shaped her family.

In an emotional post, she paid tribute to her Italian immigrant relatives, describing them as “hardworking, self-made tradesmen” and “dedicated family men” who have remained fiercely loyal to one another through life’s greatest joys and deepest losses.

“These are the family who showed up for me when my dad passed away, when my brother passed away, and who have worked to help fill that void while keeping their memories alive,” she wrote.

It is this unwavering sense of strong family bonds, she says, that she is determined to pass on to her own children.

During the STM shoot, the ties to home are never far away. The motocross bike she effortlessly tears across the paddock on isn’t a prop borrowed for the day — it belonged to her late brother.

It’s a quiet reminder that, for Trunfio, this trip has been about more than revisiting the places she grew up. It’s been about reconnecting with the people, traditions and memories that continue to shape who she is.

“Everyone was wearing the T-shirts we made for my brother’s funeral at the sausage weekend, so he was there in spirit,” she says. “It sucks not having my kids meet my brother and get to hang out with my dad, but I feel like my uncles are replicas of my dad.”

Trunfio’s father Joe, who was her “favourite person in the whole world”, passed away in 2016 after a long battle with cancer.

It’s the kind, compassionate qualities of her dad and brother Trunfio hopes her own children inherit.

“I think just how capable my dad and mum raised us to be,” she says. “We cooked our own food, we understood how to make things and fix things. I come from a family of tradesmen.”

Beyond practical skills, she wants them to experience the freedom of the childhood she was fortunate enough to have in regional WA.

“I think just being really self-sufficient . . . and being a nature junkie,” she laughs. “It doesn’t cost money to go out in your backyard and climb a tree, or go on a hike, or go fishing, or go to the beach. That is such a gift.”

Returning to the South West has also reaffirmed something she had long suspected — that WA remains one of the most beautiful places in the world.

“I always knew we lived in the best place in the world,” she says. “Now I find myself driving around saying to the kids, ‘look at the light, look at the landscape. It looks like a painting!’”

So much so that Trunfio admits she’s already imagining a future where she grew up. As a bush girl.

“My dream is to get a farm here somewhere down south in the rolling green hills,” she says. “Maybe a flower farm.”

For now Texas remains home, but after this trip, Australia is no longer just the place she grew up — it’s becoming an increasingly important part of her children’s story too.

“I really want my kids to have Australia be a part of their life more,” she says. “It’s time.”

The sentiment is poignant coming from a woman who conquered fashion’s most talked-about runways, appeared on magazine covers and nurtured thriving businesses.

When she considers the meaning of success, now, with the engine of her late brother’s bike still warm and her kids getting their hands dirty in the soil of her youth, the answer is simple.

“It’s having a successful partnership, having a successful family, having successful friendships and relationships, and really being present with your day,” she says.