Farmer Wants a Wollongong Visit before the big moment

Has Wollongong's Olivia Benic already won a Farmer, one who Wants a Wife?

Is the trip down to the Gong actually a victory lap or her favourite haunts?

Ahead of the show's first finale - which includes a visit to her hometown - on Sunday, it certainly seemed that way. But what lies lie ahead?

Recap: Matt's not a farmer, Olivia's looking like she has this one in the bag

"If I were to lose you now it would break me," her beau, Former Farmer Matt Young, told her at the end of last episode.

After that, Olivia's competition, the increasingly punishing Annabelle, got sick of twirling her name tag through her fingers and walked out of the Darling Harbour restaurant and kept on walking.

No-one seemed to see her go. Either a boat was waiting to spirit her away, or she ducked up to the casino to make the most of her losing mood. Clearly she was gone, and Olivia was in. Right?

Aha, perhaps not - this is reality TV after all, and it seems few things that seem like something are as they seem to seem. This "finale" will show Matt and an apple grower, David, making their choice, and a week later two cattle farmers will choose.

The previous episode revealed "Farmer" Matt had actually taken a job with the agriculture department in Canberra, which, you know, kinda makes the whole premise of the show a ... er ... not-really-true thing.

So if Matt's a Former, not a Farmer, what does it mean for Olivia? Leaving Wollongong for farm life, we can understand. Leaving Wollongong for big city living, I've done it too. But leaving Wollongong for Canberra is an altogether worse proposition.

What other lies await? With the "farmer" bit gone, all that remains is "wants a wife". Will that be blown up next?

No, we have faith in the Wollongong episode. It's an honest city, for a start. Never had any scandals involving a city council, nor previous mayors, Labor party interests, or developers.

Whoever has been the minister or secretary for the Illawarra has never gotten into a spot of bother, from Paul McLeay to Captain Underpants, Greg Pearce and Gareth Ward.

It's a squeaky clean kind of place - just don't dig too deep beneath the topsoil in some suburbs, never know what's down there.

We can't wait for Olivia to show her beau around town. A nice autumn swim, perhaps down to Kenny St for a massage, then midnight karaoke at the Harp and a kebab on the way to your place or mine. Who hasn't fallen in love like that?

Just joking. Wollongong will look resplendent and Australia's favourite agriculture-related dating show will take its place among the big budget elites who film on the Sea Cliff Bridge.

Over his'n'hers schnitzel burgers at Chicko's Matt will make Olivia his own. Leave this interesting, diverse city with its beautiful beaches and proximity to everywhere, he implores her, and come to the suburbs of Canberra with me. Olivia wants to make him happy and doesn't consider declining.

Seven's streaming platform has since posted some unscreened footage from the show, including a deleted scene where Olivia was dealing with the news of Matt leaving the farm for the city.

She set up on a swing and put on heavy babytalk while reading him a letter she wrote about how she's grateful for this journey together and proud and he's special etc.

Turns out it wasn't the first. "All your little notes really does mean so much to me and every time I get a little note ..." Matt says and he's gone and blown it. Every other note has been edited out of the show. Cut!

Other deleted scenes involve some of David's girls going in to "town" shopping for some baby clothes, the ladies running the farm down at Matt's place, while bringing up some mysterious holidays he goes on.

"I hope Matt remembers how to be a farmer when he gets back ... from his 'holiday'," they say, pronouncing the quote marks around holiday. "I miss Matt when he's not here."

Where has he been? Who's actually doing the farm work? Are his "holidays" spent in an office in Canberra? Or does he have another life in Manilla, up near Tamworth, or the other Manila, like that Queensland politician who got paid out $105,000 after he lost the election?

No pay for the losers on Farmer Wants a Wife. Not even a cab ride home. Although for the winners, there's also a life of unpaid work ahead - the ones who actually live on farms, that is.

Former Matt, remember, left home for an agricultural project researching the sowing of wild oats.

If you think Matt is more suited to the Sydney to Hobart kind of Wild Oats than the type planted from a seed drill, well that's unfair. He's returned to the farm at the tender age of 23 saying the only thing missing in his life is a wifey type.

That's not a lot of time on the oats. And the Former hasn't moved far from home. From Bookham to university at Charles Sturt is only four days on a horse, hour and a half in the ute. And it's only an hour to Canberra whenever he felt like the moderate excitement of the medium-sized city.

He'd exhausted all his prospects with the ladies of Gundagai, Jugiong and the other towns along the way, and with Charles Sturt doing so many of its film and theatre courses online now there were less creative types hanging around Main St in Wagga Wagga.

But surely calling him a farmer is a bit of a stretch. An ag student who grew up farming, we'll buy that. But an ag public servant? Do this show's producers know what the farmers around Canberra think of the public servants in the city?

Last time time I checked the only things farmed in Canberra were hydroponic buds, parliamentary pensions and turf grass over at that place with the funny billboards south of the airport.

We've been had. But Olivia (or whoever) has chosen freely. Sure, they only found out on the second-last episode of Farmer Wants a Wife that there is no farmer, after packing up their lives to live our bush for months and have all their most fearful moments televised.

Sure, they've survived cull after cull and always had to face the cameras the next day, while actually living with their competitors.

Sure, to leave now would mean they're condemned for wanting the farm more than the love interest on it. But still a choice, riiiiiight?

But let's look on the bright side. Matt may be a Former, not a Farmer, but the life of a celebrity awaits his bride. This affair has made Matt the most famous public servant since high-flyers Godwin Grech (remember Utegate?) and the wonderfully compassionate, though flawed in the memory, secretary for Robodebt, Kathryn Campbell.

As Canberra celebrities, they may get invited to cut a ribbon at the Floriade festival. They could become "ambassadors" for the National Archives, or even get free entry to that big museum that was designed by a kid.

There's lots of things to do in Canberra. There's even a website to tell you what they are. And once you've done them all, you could start doing them again.

Canberra's also nice and close to Batemans Bay, which is close to Narooma or Pebbly Beach, which are nicer.

And if it still stinks, there's a daily Murrays which will take you from the nation's capital straight to within a few blocks of Chicko's.

Farmer Wants a Wife screens on Seven at 7pm Sunday and streams on 7Plus.