Ruth and her family run a mixed farming operation incorporating wheat and cotton, cattle and olives. She also owns and operates her own information technology and web development business servicing a number of rural clients, including the NSW Rural Counselling Service and the stud merino outfit Haddon Rig.

Ruth’s vision is for agriculture to continue to strive to improve in farming and in business and to promote its achievements through the sharing of information and knowledge. 

Central to her proposed activity is the development of a website - Ozcotton.net - to enhance the sharing of  information, ideas and even job opportunities within the cotton industry. The site has the potential to act as a portal for those who want to reach the Australian cotton industry and to showcase Australian cotton products to the world. 

While the site is already up and running, Ruth sees its potential as a one stop information and networking shop for the whole cotton industry, its numerous organisations and growers.

Sandra and her husband own and operate a goat stud, comprising of 200 Boer full blood and cross bred goats.  They have spent the past four years building up their herd and establishing a goat meat cooperative targeting the restaurant trade. Their professionalism is evidenced by their first place position at the 2000 Sydney Royal Easter Show in the Hoof and Hook Competition.

Sandra’s vision is to improve the quality and consistency of goat meat to a standard comparable to that of the sheep and beef industries and suitable for the high value restaurant trade. Her proposed activity involves developing a training program encompassing the production of consistently high quality animals through to the effective marketing of the meat to the restaurant trade.  The project, Sandra believes, opens up huge opportunities for rural women to put to use their under- utilized skills and talents.

Beverley has been involved in the pastoral industry in the Northern Territory for close to 30 years and currently works with her husband on the family property.  She is very interested in feral animal control and has been involved in buffalo control and management through the Brucellosis and Tuberculosis Eradication Campaign.

Beverley’s vision for agriculture is to utilise all of its resources including its feral animals, while preserving the biodiversity of the environment.

She is very concerned about the feral pig problem in the Territory and the resultant destruction of the environment. She sees opportunities in the pigmeat industry for rural women.

Beverley’s proposed activity is to coordinate the Territory’s pigmeat trade by setting up the physical infrastructure to collect, grow and slaughter pigs, coupled with a major marketing campaign to secure sales for the meat.

Tracey is a partner in a mixed farming operation, specialising in coarse grains, wool and prime lamb production. She spends a significant part of her time marketing their produce through markets such as wheat futures. She is also Chair of the newly formed Fitzgerald Biosphere Marketing Association, (FBMA).

Biospheres are defined as areas of unique biological diversity, where people work in harmony with their environment. They are internationally recognised within the framework of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere program.  The FBMA was established to develop a recognised regional brand to encourage the community to responsibly produce and market edge agricultural products. Tracey, on behalf of FBMA, has been asked to present to the 5th International Fair of the Rural World, to be held in Sicily, Italy. 

Tracey’s vision is to utilise the region’s greatest asset, its biosphere status and its great produce, to ensure the future viability of the region and its farming community. She also sees marketing and value adding opportunities for women through this initiative.  She proposes to undertake study tours to two successful biospheres, the Bookmark Biosphere in South Australia and the Rhon Biosphere in Germany, to learn from their experiences, setbacks and successes. The knowledge she acquires will then be fed back through a series of regional workshops and subsequent marketing and brand promotion. 

Pamela has been an active partner in a mixed farming operation for more than thirty years, during which time she has also had a heavy involvement with rural women and rural and remote education.

Five years ago, Pamela was elected as a Councillor to the Shire of Kondinin and is now serving her second term as Deputy President. This is the first time a woman has held an Executive position in 75 years. As part of the Council role, Pamela is involved with the management of the Hyden-Karlgarin Landcare group and is inaugural President of the Shire of Kondinin Bush Heritage Committee. 

Pamela’s vision is to overcome the odds of prices, seasonal fluctuations and the major environmental challenges of salinity and ensure the continued viability of the family farm. 

Her proposed activity involves farming fish in a natural bush setting with the saline water being ponded and dried to become stock and table salt. The project she envisages could be expanded to include rural tourism opportunities and demonstration sites incorporating solar and wind energy and recycled products. 

She sees this project developing not only into an opportunity to solve one of the region’s major environmental problems, but as a major education tool, an alternate income source for rural women and the region’s farming families and as a major recreational site for those wishing to enjoy bush living at its best.

Susan and her husband own and operate the largest sheep dairy in Australia, milking around 300 sheep and producing some 16 tonnes of cheese and 34 tonnes of yogurt a year.  The company, Island Pure, is involved in the total supply chain, from managing the sheep, to milking, right through to processing, packaging and marketing sheep cheese and yogurt throughout Australia. 
Susan is Chair of Agriculture Kangaroo Island, a group committed to the future viability and sustainability of primary industries on the Island. 

Susan’s vision is to expand the sheep dairy industry and its value added potential and provide employment opportunities and an alternate enterprise for rural Australia.  Her proposed activity is to gain much needed IT computer training with the intent of developing a computer program that will work on weighting the significant influencing parameters behind milk volume.  Her activity involves the collection of data on various performance indicators from each animal, assessment of those indicators for both economic influence and genetic heritability, and the development of a computer program ranking individual animals and their economic performance.

Carol is manager of the Millicient Stock Saleyards and is the only female stock saleyard manager in Australia. Under her leadership, throughput at the saleyard has increased by 28 percent, while prices commanded are now the highest in South Australia.  Carol has achieved major milestones for the yards, including accreditation for quality assurance under the National Saleyards Quality Assurance Ltd (one of only three yards nationally to achieve this status), accreditation for SLEPP (Saudi Livestock Export Preparation Procedures) and accreditation for the European Union all but complete, with the yards now boasting a bull selling ring and nine buyers’ cattle delivery pens.  She has also been awarded the Notable Achievement for Excellence in Saleyard Management and Service, by the Livestock Transport Association of South Australia Inc. 

Carol’s vision is to motivate other women to get involved in the industry and to lift the image of saleyards as a venue for livestock exchanges. She proposes to write a book, a warts and all account, of her experiences as a Saleyard Manager, taking into account some of the momentus times for the industry and its people. The book, she hopes, will encourage other women to enter this field of work, while educating men on some of the difficulties women face in this industry.

Tracey’s career focus has been on sustainable resource management. She has facilitated and coordinated a number of natural resource management programs including Waterwatch, Junior Landcare and Coast Action. 

She owns and operates a small eco-tourism business, Moonbird Tours, which focuses on interpretation of the natural environment, indigenous culture, ecology and education. She is also a field officer for Greening Australia for the south west region of Victoria. Her vision is for all to appreciate and value the natural resource and to actively take part in its management and sustainability. 

She intends to undertake an internship at the Institute of Earth Education at Cedar Cove, Greenville in America and plans to facilitate a series of active community and industry workshops designed to enthuse, motivate and revitalise community and industry education programs. She hopes to support the delivery of catchment education programs by offering innovative styles based on integrating ‘Earth Education’ ethics and current catchment education program goals. The purchase of a mobile education trailer will assist Moonbird Tours in the facilitation of the ‘river-sea-land’ program, a program designed to integrate catchment management issues through interactive education programs, that involves bringing living ecosystems to regionally isolated communities throughout the state.

Joanne and her husband own and operate a fruit and berry farm that they have value added into an epicuran centre complete with restaurant and accommodation. 

She is a member of the Victorian Food Advisory Group and Gippsland Women in Business and is a Board member and Marketing Chairperson for Gippsland Agribusiness. 

Joanne recently established the Gippsland Epicurean Network and a dedicated website: [www.tasteofgippsland.com.au]. This followed a feasibility study that confirmed the significant opportunities for agribusiness in promoting and marketing produce through a regional network. The network and  website will promote and facilitate sales of Gippsland’s specialty agriculture produce, while achieving economies of scale for its producers.

Joanne’s vision is to realise Gippsland as a sustainable agribusiness centre offering employment and business opportunities for rural women based on a regional food brand for its raw and value added products. 

She plans to further develop the project, by identifying new agricultural producers and suppliers, stronger networking and marketing effort and investigations into new domestic and international sales outlets and markets.

Christine is the first female to complete a Degree in Surveying at the University of Tasmania, complimented by a Graduate Diploma in Surveying Practice in Queensland. Following the completion of her degree, she developed a geographical information system for the Launceston City Council, an Australian Rural Youth Study Tour to Switzerland and held the position of Chief Surveyor for North Forest Products. 

For the past two years she has been operating her own business, providing expertise on Geographical Information Systems (GIS), aerial photography and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to a variety of industries, including her passion, agriculture. 

Christine has been a very active member of Rural Youth Tasmania and has held a number of key positions at Agfest, Tasmania’s premier field day event. Her vision is for every Tasmanian farming enterprise to have access to a fully integrated land management system, that allows farmers to make informed decisions using leading edge technology. 

Her proposed activity involves developing and marketing low altitude aerial photography/computer mapping packages for agricultural enterprises, while undertaking a pilot project to demonstrate the benefits of global positioning technology to agriculture.

Christine believes this technology offers agriculture huge benefits, with accurate and relevant information allowing farmers to better embrace opportunities and increase productivity.

Sonya and her husband own and operate a permaculture and bamboo farm in northern Queensland. Her farm is in part self sufficient and fully self sustaining through access to remote area power supply water from adjacent World Heritage listed forests.

Sonya’s vision is to grow the bamboo industry into an innovative and viable long term sustainable primary industry for northern Australia.

Bamboo is an extremely versatile crop. It is unique in its production of a vigorous and annually renewable source of biomass for fibre, fuel and food applications including renewable energy, standard building materials and can also be used in bioremediation applications and carbon credits.

Sonya has already undertaken extensive research and on-farm trials of bamboo, and has established a Steering Committee to investigate the future feasibility of the industry. 

Her proposed activity focuses on information transfer of simple bamboo farming techniques and future directions for the industry through a video production. The video will equip primary producers with the knowledge they need to consider bamboo as a viable alternative and give them the practical skills to undertake their new venture. The video will be produced as a result of a study tour of the east coast from northern NSW to far north Queensland.

Suzanne has, in recent years, returned to the family farm which she has purchased and diversified from its traditional livestock and cropping enterprises into wine grapes and olives. 
Last year she signed contracts with Greening Australia and Land for Wildlife, effectively committing close to half the farm to nature conservation and integration with other land management practices.

Suzanne is currently Secretary of the Central Downs Branch of the Queensland Rural Women’s Network and an Executive Committee Member of the Queensland Vine Improvement Association.

Her vision is for a new agricultural industry, in the establishment of a wine based herbal beverage from early stage reject wine grapes.

She believes there is the opportunity to develop a whole new niche industry from what is currently regarded as a waste product of the wine industry.

Suzanne plans as a first step to develop her skills and knowledge of the wine industry and its people, and experiment further with the potential of this new beverage.