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For further information contact:
Edwina Clowes, 
RIRDC Rural Women's Award National Coordinator. 
Phone: 07 5442 1401 or 
0417 727 544
clowesedwina@bigpond.com
 

One of her clients is the Yarra Valley Wine Growers Association. Her work is concentrated on sustaining existing and developing new promotional strategies to market Yarra Valley wines.

Anna is deeply concerned about her region’s future sustainability, given the dramatic expansion in grape production and resultant diminishing profit margins. In the face of intense competition from larger corporations, the majority smaller Australian wineries are now needing to develop new strategies to remain viable. And unless the Yarra Valley takes a proactive approach to promotion, it too will loose ground to other more proactive Australian wine regions.

Anna’s vision is for the Yarra Valley wine industry to be recognised as a global leader of cool climate wines, with its growers rewarded financially for grape quality. 

Her proposed activity involves the development of a marketing plan for the newly established Yarra Valley Wine Network to encourage sustained growth of the region’s wines. She plans to investigate strategies currently undertaken by international wine regions and in particular by New Zealand, while enhancing her wine marketing, viticulture and winemaking skills and building a network of international contacts.

More recently Lee and her husband, Chris, have established a business partnership ‘de Floriet’, specialising in commercial Tasmanian Wildflower production. The business has already undertaken research and development into ten previously untested Tasmanian wildflower species suitable for commercial cut flower production. 

Lee’s vision is for a sustainable and diversified system of wild and exotic flower-growing that involves plant species selection that work in harmony with natural conditions rather than relying on external resources and artificial inputs. She believes the wildflower industry in Tasmania has a huge potential, both domestically and internationally and presents valuable social and employment opportunities, for rural women and for families working smaller rural holdings. 

Lee plans to travel to New Zealand’s South Island, where flower farming systems are already well established, to assess existing programs of land capability and environmental conditions, and choose the most appropriate flower species for Tasmanian conditions. 
She also plans to travel to the Melbourne Flower Show, to improve her knowledge and establish contacts that will be critical to the development of the Tasmanian industry.

She is one of the principals of Aquabait, a company involved in the farming of marine worms for the fishing bait industry. 

Her farm is breaking new ground, both scientifically and environmentally, in the face of growing concern over the fragile intertidal ecosystem of the wild worms. Despite those who claimed a marine worm farm couldn’t be done, seven years on, Aquabait is celebrating its first production and now selling live and preserved bait into the market. 

Milada’s vision is to develop a sustainable and viable new aquaculture industry for Australia, through the development of farm grown marine worm bait, and as a direct result reduce the pressure on the environment, while creating new opportunities for rural women. 

Milada’s proposed activity involves continued research and development of marine worms, to full proof production methods. She aspires to break through existing barriers, and develop a new commercially viable aquaculture industry for Australia.

 

Her commitment to sustainable agriculture goes beyond the farm, to include work with numerous organisations, including member of the National Young Farmers Forum Steering Committee and Board Member of the SA Farmers Federation Natural Resources Subcommittee and  Mallee Sustainable Farming Project. She is also Executive Officer to the Soil Boards CARE Committee and the Murray Plains, Murray Mallee and Coorong District Soil Conservation Boards. In addition she is participating in the Murray Darling Basin Leadership Program. 

Sharon’s vision is for a dynamic and prosperous agriculture in Australia, that manages its natural resources, including land and water, vegetation and habitat, sustainably.
She believes if the major natural resource management issues, including water quality and salinity of the Murray River, are going to be addressed, it will be achieved only by community ownership and participation, which will result in major changes for communities. 

Sharon’s proposed activity involves a study tour of communities within Victoria and New South Wales, to explore new ways of assisting communities manage change, thereby developing an understanding within the SA Murray Darling Basin community of the change management processes.

Desley’s vision is to promote a public perception of agriculture as a vital sector of the community, by establishing profitable and sustainable cane farming enterprises through diversification into cultural and eco-tourism initiatives. 

Her proposed activity involves the establishment of an on-farm cultural tourism venture, the Cane Cutters Barracks, as a living museum documenting the cultural and social history of the industry, as well as promoting current sustainable agricultural practices.
Finances generated will then be invested into enriching the museum experience along with rehabilitation works and walking trails on farm, adjacent to World Heritage listed forests and wetlands. 

Desley plans to undertake a study tour of heritage and eco-tourism operations in other states, including Banrock Station in South Australia, to view first hand the development of socially and environmentally responsible investments.

She is committed to natural resource management and to the control of feral animals and has been involved in buffalo control through the Brucellosis and Tuberculosis Eradication Campaign. 

Beverley’s vision for agriculture is the utilisation of all its resources including feral animals while preserving the bio-diversity of the environment. She believes the control of feral pigs, holds the dual benefit of reducing its impact on the environment, while utilising a valuable resource. 

Her short-term goals include the collection, raising and slaughter of pigs through a local abattoir coupled with raising the profile and markets for the harvested pig meat industry. Her longer-term goals for her industry include the establishment of facilities to provide for a hygenic and coordinated approach to collection and transportation of large field shot animals for export

Erica serves as an industry representative on the Southern and Western Tuna and Billfish Fishery Management Advisory Committee, part of the national fisheries management regime, under the direction of the Australian Fisheries Management Authority.

The most pressing issue currently facing the industry’s future sustainability is the development of a management plan comprising statutory fishing rights with individual transferable quota from a total allowable catch. 

Erica’s vision is to see the fishery return a stable price to its fishers through consistent supply and guaranteed quality within a sustainable environment.

She plans to develop a quality assurance program that will provide customers with consistent quality, by guaranteeing handling methods from ocean through to sales outlet and will allow the fishery to in effect ‘brand’ its product, to maximise its financial return.