Die-hard Big Brother fans would have been devastated to see Dave ‘Farmer Dave’ Graham fall victim to eviction last night. A kind soul with a huge heart, Dave was one of our favourite original housemates to enter the show’s 15th season. However, he insists it was his time to go.
“I’ve got to be honest, I’d had enough,” he tells WHO over the phone, explaining why he chose to actually vote for himself to leave.
“It was my time to go, and it was a great way to go leaving two incredible housemates on the eviction chairs and being able to get out and know that Reggie’s safe and secure.”
Dave was up for eviction alongside Reggie Sorensen (formerly Bird) who won the show in 2004, and Estelle Landy, who came in third place in 2012. The eviction was made even more upsetting by the strong bond Dave formed with Reggie, whom he refers to as his “housewife”.
“She was my housewife, I was a house-husband, and like all good house-husbands, whenever she said jump, I’m like ‘how high babe?’,” Dave laughed.
“We had a bundle of fun, every single day we’d pump each other’s tires up … we’ve both been through a lot.”
He also drew a hilarious comparison to their time in the house, where he said he felt like they were “an old couple from Iowa” in amongst all the new, young housemates.
“We were kind of like an old couple from Iowa who found themselves in Las Vegas, and everyone was gambling like crazy, like their life depended on it” he joked.
“We were just wandering around with our visors on and our fanny packs, and we’re just like ‘yep, an old couple from Iowa’.”
While Dave loved his time in the house, and especially his friendship with Reggie, he admitted to feeling relieved the experience had come to an end for him.
“I’m glad that I’ve exited … I have very strong morals and a very strong belief system,” he said.
“The game was starting to grind up against who I am as a person, and I couldn’t continue in that – the level of intensity of the game was no longer abiding by my moral code.”
He also struggled with the “all-pervasive” nature of the game, which these days is steeped in social strategy.
“That last time around, I had the public voting, so the weight of the game was off,” he explained.
“The weight of the game was there at all times… the intensity of it just grew to the point that, for me, it became undoable, and unbearable. I was challenged and then ended up wanting to get the hell out of the house.”
But Dave insists that even an intense game felt a little bit like a holiday, given the difficult career he has chosen as a youth worker.
Dave founded RuffTrack some years ago now, which is a program for troubled youth that allows them to bond with and train their own dog, while also teaching them skills in horticulture, landscaping, welding, aluminium fabrication, animal husbandry, and a number of other trades – all in order to keep them out of trouble.
Dave’s plan for any potential prize money was to go towards buying a farm in order to secure a safe place for the kids he works with, and even though he didn’t win Big Brother, he remains dedicated to the work of keeping these kids safe.
“We’re all focused on the same thing,” he says of the various programs that work with RuffTrack.
“And that is to keep kids alive, keep them out of prison, and skill them up for a secure future and break those cycles that seem to be never ending.
He continues: “For every young person that I can get on track, that’s hundreds and hundreds of victims [saved], it just never eventuates.
“So, that’s me … straight back to work and ensuring that the 26 kids in my care are kept alive.”
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