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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
© 2008 RIRDC
Maggie Edmonds is a pioneer of the protea flower and olive industry in Western Australia. She instigated the first protea growers association within the State and later became President of the International Protea Association. She established the Gingin Regional Olive Growers Association and has recently stepped down from the Board of the Australian Olive Association.
Maggie was actively involved in establishing the Wanneroo Farmers Markets and the Gingin markets.
She has a solid knowledge and expertise in value adding and niche marketing of agricultural produce and a passion for sharing her learning’s with producers across the region
Her project is to establish an information centre and retail outlet, to provide small to medium producers with practical advice on product development and marketing. She plans to travel to South Africa to learn from their strong tradition of farm stalls and small group marketing before establishing the framework for her information centre.
Jeanette Fisher is President of the Professional Calf Rearer’s Association of Australia and a dairy heifer management consultant based at Sheffield with ten years experience in calf rearing and the dairy industry.
Jeanette established her consulting business Heifermax in an effort to encourage dairy farmers to adopt more up to date, financially profitable and animal welfare friendly calf and heifer management practices.
Her ambition is to raise industry awareness of the economic importance of good heifer management, from birth right through to first calving, and to provide learning opportunities for calf rearer's to become heifer managers thereby acquiring the skills to take heifers from birth right through to first calving.
Jeanette’s project involved attending the US Dairy Calf and Heifer Association’s Annual Conference, held in April and meeting with internationally recognised calf rearing specialists to update her industry skills and knowledge.
She believes the knowledge that she acquires and will impart to her industry will significantly improve the practices and financial profitability of calf and heifer management, and will upgrade the skills of the women and in turn their status within the industry.
Norma Higgins boasts some 30 years experience in the Northern Territory pastoral and horticultural industries and currently owns and operates with her husband two large horticultural blocks, outside Katherine, specialising in mangoes and timber production.
Norma is very active within her industry, having been involved in the Katherine Horticultural Association since its inception, along with the Primary Industry Training Advisory Council and NT Women in Agriculture.
She is passionate about the future viability of the region’s farmers and the welfare of the town of Katherine and its community. She plans to establish Katherine’s first weekly producers markets, as a venue for showcasing and selling the region’s produce and products, while providing an opportunity local indigenous communities to market their arts and crafts, and an opportunity to reinvigorate the township of Katherine.
He project involves a study tour of markets in other states to better understand the mechanics of establishing and operating a farmer’s markets, along with the development of a business plan and website to support the markets and profile the region.
Tracey Knowland and her husband have established the Bangalow Wholesale Nursery in Byron Bay’s hinterland, specialising in the production of premium advance Australian native trees and shrubs.
They are both actively involved in the nursery industry with Tracey an active member of the Nursery Industry Association and coordinator of the Bangalow Business Women’s Group.
Tracey’s passion is breeding superior selections of Australian temperate and subtropical rainforest and coastal tolerant trees and shrubs, for not only the landscape and development industry but as a beautiful and sustainable alternative in Australian gardens and backyards.
Her project involves attending the 2008 National Nursery and Garden Industry Association National Conference in Adelaide to be followed by a study tour of Victoria’s largest wholesale nurseries, She hopes to share new information about sustainable growing methods and the breeding of more sustainable species to industry.
Domenica Latorre has close to two decades experience
in horticultural and agribusiness management and over 14 years experience
working in rural counseling and training.
She sits on the Regional Advisory Board to the
SA Multicultural and Ethnic Affairs Commission, on the National Association
of Rural Counseling Services and on the Rural Financial Counseling Service
SA.
Domenica specialises in working with people from diverse cultural backgrounds and has undertaken a number of research projects to raise awareness of rural and regional workforce development issues.
She is concerned with the significant shortage of skilled workers in rural and regional communities, with the CALD group being the worst affected. Her ambition is to focus on exploring educational programs and practices that will benefit rural women, particularly those from CALD backgrounds, their communities and agriculture in general.
Her project involves travel both within Australia and to Europe, to research successful rural business training models. She hopes her research will result in training programs that best meet the needs of rural women, and that will contribute to the future profitability of their businesses and agriculture.
Lisa Mahon and her partner own and operate Bromley Organics, a certified organic herb farm, specialising in the production of value added dried herbs. Bromley Organics produces six dried herb crops and is one of the largest producers of dried processed stinging nettle in Australia.
In 2006 Bromley Organics won the Most Outstanding Dedication and Innovation in Production Management Grower Award from Southern Light Herbs, against a field of 80 other commercially certified organic herb farmers.
Lisa’s vision is to strengthen the certified organic dried herb industry through the sharing of new information and innovation and the development of a network of growers. She believes the greatest improvements for small to medium scale herb growers will come from the development and implementation of new labor saving technology and in particular improved harvesting equipment.
While there is harvesting equipment available in Australia, it is aimed at the larger scale growers, with the five machines produced commercially in New Zealand currently unavailable in Australia.
Lisa proposes to use the Bursary to undertake a study tour of New Zealand to investigate their harvesting equipment and to see their machines in operation. She also proposes a study tour within Australia of certified organic herb growers to look at other harvesting methods and to extend her network of growers.
Ros Smerdon is an avocado, macadamia and custard apple grower from the Glasshouse Mountains and is part of the new generation of horticultural industry leaders.
She is Chairman of Nature’s Fruit Company, a grower owned co-operative, Vice President of the Australian Custard Apple Growers Association and President of the Jadefruit Marketing Group.
Ros is passionate about growers working cooperatively to ensure that the market has consistent lines of quality fruit and that growers retain some market power.
She believes the avocado industry has to become more innovative in product development and marketing, and sees enormous potential in product innovations such as fresh cut snap frozen product and new opportunities in pharmaceutical, food oil and cosmetic production.
Ros’s project involves undertaking a study tour of South Africa to benchmark the Westfalia avocado operations and its value adding processing plant against the Australian industry.