If you were asked to describe the average dairy farmer, Pauley and Coral probably would not come to mind.

The pair is not only openly gay, but Pauley is transgender, and together they are raising three children in the heart of south-west Victoria.

Despite the reputation often associated with small country towns, the couple has received widespread support after they were featured in the marriage equality campaign, The In Bed Project.

The project is the brainchild of Melbourne artist Lisa White, who has spent the past two years photographing gay couples from across Australia.

"It's not every day that a dairy farmer comes out as transgender, but that's what I did early in 2016 with the support of my wife Coral," Pauley wrote in a blog post published on the project's website.

"We were warned that perhaps we should move to a large regional town before coming out publicly, as maybe our small community in the heart of the south-west Victorian dairy region might not be ready to accept a trans person.

"We were concerned for the wellbeing of our three young children who all attend the local primary school with 80 other local children.

"It is one thing for myself to not be accepted, but it is altogether another thing for my children to receive hostile treatment at school because they have a trans parent."

They said despite their fears, the community support had been overwhelming.

"A local parent said she was glad to have a trans person in the community as it's only a matter of time before a young person in the community realises they are LGBTI," Pauley wrote.

"Dairy regions are full of families who work extremely long hours, and these families still find time in their lives to consider the right for people to live true to their sexuality and/or gender."

Farmer does not want a wife

Simpson dairy famer Jason Smith (L), with his partner Kyle, says acceptance is growing in the farming community. ( Supplied: Jason Smith )

Growing up as a gay man in rural Victoria, Jason Smith struggled to reconcile his sexuality with the hyper-masculine stereotype of country men.

A fifth generation dairy farmer from Gunbower in northern Victoria, with a population of just over 500 people, Mr Smith was an active member of the local football and cricket team.

It was not until he moved to Melbourne to study agriculture that he began to explore his sexuality.

"Back home was such a monoculture. Anyone who was a little bit different was certainly a news item, [so] I came home from uni at different times and the rumours were starting to get around," he said.

"Sadly I didn't continue playing football or cricket. I ended up having a photo of me defamed.

"I was and am the only gay person they've ever known, so I can't begrudge them, they just didn't know any different.

"Since then, a lot of my friends have related to me that that was a turning point, that I was no different, I'm just the same old farmer I've always been."

Mr Smith now runs a dairy farm in Simpson, west of Colac, and is working to break down stereotypes within the gay and farming community.

"I had an online dating profile and I put my farming photos up. Everyone said, 'You look too straight to be gay'. That frustrates the hell out of me. Gay people aren't just hairdressers and nurses," he said.

Thanks to the advent of social media, Mr Smith has been able to connect with other LGBTI farmers online, and said the increased visibility of gay people within the agricultural sector had seen a gradual shift in attitudes.

He accepts some within the farming community will not change, but said things had improved.

"My dad, he's a very strict Catholic farming man, so for a few years he wouldn't speak to my partner," Mr Smith said.

"One day my partner was sick and I was upset, and Dad looked me in the eye and said, 'Look, you need to go and be with him.'

"He realised he was important to me, and thus, he was important."

More 'modern families' moving to the country

Baby Olive at three months old with (from left) Michael Coate, Nathan Toovey, Alison Coate-Kibeiks and Bianca Prziovska-Kibeiks. ( Supplied: Alison Coate-Kibeiks )

As perceptions of LGBTI Australians shift, more and more gay couples have found themselves leaving the hustle and bustle of city life behind.

Alison Coate-Kibeiks and her partner Bianca Prziovska-Kibeiks, originally from Melbourne, were living in Panmure, a town in Victoria's dairy belt with a population of less than 500 people, when Ms Prziovska-Kibeiks became pregnant.

"Announcing Bianca's pregnancy was kind of the thing that was going to make us decide whether we stayed here or went back to Melbourne," Ms Coate-Kibeiks said.

Together, the couple is raising their daughter Olive, with Olive's biological father Michael Coate and partner Nathan Toovey.

"[The community] has been completely accepting and were so excited about Olive's arrival," Ms Coate-Kibeiks said.

"In Melbourne you don't even know who your neighbours are, but here we know everyone on the street."

Olive is now one year old, and the couple is part of a community parenting group leading the push to challenge the stereotypes of rural Victoria and spark a broader debate about what it means to be a family.

"When we first moved here, when it came to employment, neither of us told colleagues that we were a couple ... people said, 'I wouldn't, it's just easier'," Ms Coate-Kibeiks said.

"[But] attitudes are changing; it's about redefining the nature of what a family is."