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Statement
For
further information contact:
Edwina
Clowes,
RIRDC
Rural Women's Award National Coordinator.
Phone:
07 5445 7282
Mobile:
0417 727 544
clowesedwina@bigpond.com
©
2010 RIRDC
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Winner
of the Australian RIRDC Rural Women's Award 2007 and Victorian 2007 Winner
- Deborah Bain
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2007 National Winner
and Victorian Winner - Deborah Bain “National Farm Day”
Deb Bain is a wool and lamb producer from western
Victoria and the founder of Farm Day. The vision behind Farm Day is to
foster a greater understanding of farming amongst urban Australians through
a farming family sharing their life with a city family for a day of fun,
friendship and understanding, and an insight into how the modern farmer
operates and how it affects our daily lives.
Farm Day was successfully trialed in Victoria
in 2006 and Deb used the Award and its Bursary to grow her business and
corporate governance skills to take Farm Day to all other states in 2008. On the last weekend of May 2007 Farm Day went
national and was hailed a huge success. More than 1000 families registered
to take part in the event and 600 families, connected up. for many, it
was their first time on a farm.
Farm Day’s national debut was the result of Deb
bringing together a group of people and organisations that shared a common
vision for bridging the urban-rural divide. In the process she established
a not for profit company, Farmday Ltd and appointed a board of directors.
Sponsorship for the event was provided by RIRDC and Meat and Livestock
Australia. Advice was sought from numerous sectors across Australia to
gain insight into the rural landscape in each state and an understanding
of the effects of the divide. A website was developed that simplified the
matching process and enabled participants to register on line.
In 2007 the work was managed by
Deb but 2008 saw the event grow substantially and a secretary appointed and IT
infrastructure put in place to manage the increased traffic, with five local
women employed to help with the administration. In total one thousand
families registered to participate, of which over 600 families were matched. The event has significantly improved awareness
of farmers and their commitment to environmental sustainability. 90 percent
of city respondents now have a better understanding of the role of farming
in their daily lives with 98 percent more likely to buy Australian produce
as a result. In addition 86 percent of city participants believe Australian
farmers produce the safest food in the world and are committed the enhancing
and protecting the environment, with 99 percent of city participants affirming
farmers as important members of Australian society. The work involved in achieving the success of
this event was aided greatly by the skills, and confidence gained by participating
in the AICD course and other training offered during her RIRDC year.
Deb was invited to participate in the Australia
2020 Summit, and has subsequently been appointed to the National eHealth
Transitional Authority and the National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Council. During 2008 Deb has travelled extensively and
spoken at numerous events, including the Rural Press Clubs of Victoria,
NSW and Queensland, the Rural Women’s Network and the Liebe Group of WA,
Leadership Plus in Melbourne, Ballarat Business Leadership Group and the
Loddon Murray Leadership Group, along with the Marcus Oldham Ag College
and Secondary Careers Councilors for Dookie Agricultural College.
On a personal note the Award has elevated Deb’s
profile and that of Farm Day. It has provided her with a platform to communicate
the voice of primary industries to a broader audience and to debate issues
and challenges pertinent to primary industries and its people.
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Runner-Up
of the Australian RIRDC Rural Women's Award 2007 and South Australian 2007 Winner
- Abi Spehr |
2007 National
Runner-Up and South Australian Winner - Abi Spehr
“Working Her Out:- Research into the Mother
& Daughter-in-Law dynamic and its Impact on Family Farms”
Abi Spehr is partner in a fourth generation mixed
grazing and cropping property on South Australia’s Limestone Coast and
a successful rural facilitator, coach and mediator. As a city girl moving into a very traditional
farming family, Abi is committed to understanding the dynamics of farming
families and the impact of the dynamics of relationships on the long term
sustainability of the farm business.
Abi’s Award ambition was to write a book on the
relationship between the mothers and daughters-in-law and its impact on
the farming family business to be titled “Working Her Out”. Her study sought to understand why and how mothers
and daughters-in-law negotiate their relationships, highlighting how their
experiences have impacted on the farming family business, succession and
on family relationships. Her research included case studies of numerous
individual relationships combined with workshops, interviews and correspondence.
Workshops were held in the York Peninsula, the Limestone Coast and Kangaroo
Island in South Australia and at Kukerin in Western Australia.
A critical number of women attended the workshops,
representing both the mother and daughter-in-law viewpoints, with a number
of the elder women representing both roles, so providing a richness of
insight into the dual challenges. A number of critical enabling themes evolved from
the study including:
- Over and above the challenges intrinsic in any
new mother daughter-in-law relationship, the farming industry brings with
it its own unique problems
- Power and control by the mother-in -aw in regard
to personal and professional needs, and at the exclusion to farm business
decision making, was an outstanding theme
- Traditional family roles, farming family culture
and common respect and decency all play a part
The research highlighted the complexity of Australian
rural women’s lives and more specifically the lives of mothers and daughters-in-law.
The study also provided insights into the actions and transfigurations
of individuals when dealing with farm businesses. Most importantly analysis of these women’s stories
has emphasized the need to recognize the unique discourse of the mother
and daughter-in-law relationship and its impact on the farming family business. Abi’s research document has received strong interest
from Primary Industries and Resources South Australia to use the paper
for the purposes of policy and planning. The paper has been released to
PIRSA, the South Australian Farmers Federation, the Rural Industries Research
and Development Corporation and Landmark.
Abi has been in strong demand to speak on the
topic and in July attended the Social Science Conference in Tuscany where
the paper was accepted for presentation and debate within the program.
She believes the paper, soon to be published, has contributed in a progressive
way to public discussion and debate on a very significant farming family
conversation. On a personal level Abi believes the research has had a deep
and direct impact on her relationships within her extended family
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Tasmania -
Rachael Treasure |
2007 Tasmanian
Winner - Rachael Treasure “Working Dog Training e-Book”
Rachael Treasure is a sheep producer, working
dog breeder and trainer and an internationally acclaimed author. Her novels,
Jillaroo, The Stockman and The Rouseabout have been written to inspire
the next generation into agriculture and to educate the mainstream on farming,
and are now being published and sold into the United States, the United
Kingdom and Europe.
The focus of Rachael’s Award activity was to write
a working dog training book to educate people in the livestock industry
on how to handle their dogs and their livestock with more empathy and enjoyment,
not just for the business bottom line, but for the benefit and enrichment
of their lives.
Her desire to have the information available to
the public in a more efficient and cost effective way, saw her project
evolve from a traditional to an e-book publication to be rolled out in
stages. The first stage has been the publication of a series of electronic
dog training books available cheaply via the internet. In developing the
book Rachael had to document the entire process of training up a pup that
is engaging a pup in training process and then recording it. The second
stage of the process will be downloadable dog training video clips, available
in two minute segments on You Tube that will provide visual documentation
of training a pup from start to finish.
Rachael believes the final stage involving taking
the dogs out to the yards and recording their actions onto iPod, will be
the most powerful, allowing others to utilise the clips in their own yard
while training up their own young dogs.
Rachael believes this information is one of the
first of its kind .to be available is this format to cater specifically
to the rural community.
She has now officially launched her e-book titled
‘Working Women and Hot Dogs” at Agfest-Tasmania’s premier field day event
and has conducted training workshops at the recent Tasmanian Rural Women’s
Gathering.
The information will also be available in a printed
book format and a DVD format once an appropriate publisher has been confirmed.
Rachael believes having the information available
in a number of different mediums will maximise its reach, with the benefits
way beyond dog trainers and rural communities.
On a personal level the Award has provided Rachael
with the funding to attend a Low Stress Livestock Handling course which
she found immensely valuable and the Award she says has extended her skills
and knowledge base to now include competencies in e-book publishing and
in film production
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New South
Wales -
Eleanor Cook |
2007 New South Wales
Winner - Eleanor Cook “ A Community Foundation”
Eleanor Cook is an organic beef cattle producer
and a strong community advocate for the Coolah district and for regional
communities. She was instrumental in securing $1.5 million worth of community
development funds for Coolah which provided for the Heritage Restoration
Program, the Community Technology Centre and the Healthy Living Program.
Eleanor’s Award ambition was to establish a Community
Foundation, to minimize the fund raising effort required by smaller rural
communities, and provide a system where individuals, families and businesses
could bequeath or donate funds to their chosen rural community or to a
specific project within a community. Eleanor undertook research into a number of different
models, including the Macro Melbourne, the Buderim Border Trust and Tomorrow
Today Benalla in Victoria and the de Le Hunte Shire model in South
Australia. She also used the Bursary to attend the 2007 Philanthropy
Australia Conference in Albury, the annual conference of executives of
philanthropy foundations from across Australia.
Eleanor found the task of establishing a community
foundation to be significantly more complex than first anticipated, in
particular
the intricacies of tax laws and the importance of setting up the correct
structure initially for the long term success of the entity. She has concluded that a feasibility study and
a lot more research will be required to compare the structures and objectives
of existing foundations; to determine which best fits the needs of isolated
rural and regional communities.
On a personal level Eleanor has been accepted
as a participant into the Australian Rural Leadership Program, which she
has found immensely challenging. The Award has created the opportunity
for her to work with the Graingrowers Association to engage more
women in the grain industry. In addition the media and public speaking
opportunities she believes have been valuable to her personal and professional
development and to the profile of the Award.
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Northern
Territory - Tracey Leo |
2007 Northern
Territory Winner - Tracey Leo
Tracey Leo has been intrinsically involved in
the Northern Territory horticultural industry for the past 20 years, from
mango farms, to tourism bus operator, to tropical fruit and flower marketer
to human resources manager. Throughout her seasonal employment in primary
industries Tracey has continued to develop her own business.
Tracey is currently employed as Principal Officer
of the Northern Territory Horticultural Association with her primary responsibility
being employment and human resource issues including labour shortages. She believes that the Northern Territory is still
in its early stages of economic development, and that primary industries
and the rural communities it supports, will be critical to the general
economy reaching its full potential, and that they must be nurtured and
supported. She also believes that with labour costs representing
over 50 percent of total production costs for many rural industries, understanding
labour requirements and developing strategies to address shortages will
be critical to the territory’s rural industries future and success.
Tracey’s proposed activity is to develop a profile
of the Northern Territory’s horticultural industry’s future labour requirements
and the capacity for industry to manage those requirements. She plans to travel to horticultural regions across
the Territory, to interview growers and stakeholders first hand and learn
from their experiences and challenges of securing labour. The trip will
also include the National Harvest Labour Information Service in Mildura
to review strategies already employed by more mature horticultural regions.
Tracey believes that by conducting the review
with strong input from its growers and stakeholders, the industry will
be able develop a comprehensive understanding of future labour requirements
and the capacity for industry to meet those requirements. She believes
that only through substantiated data will industry be able to develop successful
future harvest labour strategies.
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Queensland -
Sonya Maley |
2007 Queensland
Winner - Sonya Maley “Sugar Cane Separation Technology”
Sonya Maley is Managing Director of Resis Australia,
a company she established to commercialize the technology of Cane Separation.
Sonya’s Award ambition was to improve the sugar
industry’s future and the rural communities which depend on it, through
the commercialization of this new value adding technology.
Cane separation technology allows for each part
of the cane plant to be cleanly separated into wax, rind fibre, pith fibre
and high purity juice for further value adding.
Sonya used the Bursary to undertake a study tour
of the United States, the birth place of the technology, where she met
with the technology’s developers and food processing companies to assess
the technical constraints to its commercialization. She found the tour
invaluable in identifying the knowledge gaps and new areas of research
and alliances required for the technology’s commercialization.
A collaborative research program has now been
forged with the James Cook University focusing on processing sugar cane
juice through specialized membrane filtration technology. A master collaborative
agreement with the Queensland Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries
with their Innovative Food Technologies Unit in Brisbane will develop new
healthy food products from cane utilizing the separation technology as
the primary front end processing equipment. In addition Federal Government
funding has been secured through the AusIndustry Commercial Ready Plus
Program, to develop new processing technologies for separated cane and
to independently verify the health science behind cane juice and dietary
fibres.
Early indications of price improvements point
to a three fold increase based on the juice product alone, and does not
include the potential opportunities from the fibre and wax products. Results
already suggest the antioxidant content of the juice products to be higher
than that found in freshly squeezed apple juice, presenting major opportunities
to substitute imported apple & grape juice concentrate as the major
sweetening base for health and fruit drinks. The impact of the project Sonya believes is best
measured by the rapid increase in the technology’s development since its
completion in July 2007, with early stage commercial production anticipated
in 2009 in collaboration with small and large Australian owned food and
beverage manufacturers and the first large scale processing plant expected
to be established in 2010.
On a personal level the skills and information
learned through the Australian Institute of Company Directors course has
proved extremely valuable to the development of Sonya’s company while the
media platform, public speaking engagements and networks provided through
the Award have proved invaluable to the pursuit of her vision of commercialization
of cane technology.
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Westerm
Australia -
Pamela Lincloln |
2007 Western
Australian Winner - Pamela Lincoln
“ROSS Markets:- Good, clean and fair
food direct from paddock to plate”
Pamela Lincoln is a boutique winemaker producing
the Oranje Tractor label and a passionate and proactive advocate for the
Great Southern region and its primary produce. Pam was responsible for
establishing the highly successful weekly Albany farmers markets some five
years ago. The success of those markets has meant they have been ‘full’
for the past three years, equating to lost opportunities for new producers
and for the smaller satellite towns surrounding Albany.
Pam’s Award ambition was to establish a series
of ROSS markets at wineries within the region on a weekly rotational basis.
The original plan was that weekly markets be established along the regional,
organic or sustainable and seasonal principles at wineries in at least
three towns in the Great Southern region. The principle aim of the markets was to provide
fledging agricultural businesses and established food producers with new
opportunities to direct market their goods, thereby maximising profits,
minimising food miles and ensuring sustainability of their business and
increased food security for the region.
The process of initiating a new series of markets
proved exhaustive, from planning and conducting information workshops,
canvassing producers and stakeholders, establishing a management committee,
incorporating a body to plan and manage the project, to applying for additional
funding from local government and philanthropic organisations, developing
a market charter, business plan, marketing plan and venue agreement, through
to the appointment of a market manager and market coordinator.
The first ROSS market was successfully conducted
at Plantagenet Winery at Mt Barker, and was attended by several hundred
people who bought all six stallholders out of produce.
The ROSS markets were officially launched at Oranje
Tractor Winery during the Taste of Great Southern Festival, with all markets
to date having completed at least two trades in each location. While it is too early to measure the benefit of
the markets to the region, all participating producers have access to new
markets and demand for their product and all have as a result reported
increased turnover.
On a personal level the Award has provided Pam
with
further training and development, particularly through participating in
the Australian Institute of Company Directors course, and has afforded
her the opportunity to see her vision become a reality.
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