2010 National Winner and Western Australian Winner – Sue Middleton

Creating a more environmentally sustainable pork industry

Sue Middleton, RIRDC Rural Women’s Award winner in Western Australia, doesn’t regard piggery waste as a worthless resource.  Instead, she believes it has enormous potential to be used more positively to generate energy. Sue and her husband manage a diverse range of farming operations, including 210 hectare citrus orchard and  a 13 thousand acre grain enterprise, They have diversified into the pork industry through the purchase of a PIC multiplier herd unit and are leasing and managing the Pig Skills Centre Breeding Unit at Muresk in WA.

Sue’s Award ambition is to pursue the commercialisation of biogas as a business opportunity.  She sees the award as the perfect platform to progress her research and to educate others on enormous opportunities associated with biogas. Sue firmly believes that the Rural Women’s Award plays an important role in recognising and encouraging greater contributions from women in rural Australia.

“It’s about recognising women who are stepping up into leadership positions and hopefully giving other women permission to achieve,” Sue says.

Preliminary research undertaken by the pork industry has demonstrated that using piggery waste to generate electricity is a viable proposition for most piggeries.  The research comes as a time when the agriculture industry is looking for ways to play a more positive environmental role and reduce its carbon emissions.

Her contribution to rural leadership has included sitting on the inaugural Regional Women’s Advisory Council advising government on issues impacting on rural women and rural communities, serving on the National Rural Advisory Council responsible for national drought policy and sitting on the Regional Solutions Board.

Sue will use the Bursary to travel to New Zealand and Europe to investigate some of the world’s most outstanding food waste processing and biogas production facilities. 

2010 National Runner-Up and Victorian Winner – Alana Johnson

Growing stronger agriculture through philanthropy

RIRDC Victorian Rural Women’s Award winner, Alana Johnson, believes it’s time to establish a philanthropic foundation for agriculture to enable people to put something back into rural Australia.

“When you look at it, there are philanthropic funds for heath, the arts, sport and education, but not for agriculture,” Alana says.

Alana is hoping to fill this void, and is working to establish the Australian Agriculture Future Foundation that will provide an avenue for people on the land to create a legacy to rural Australia by investing their wealth back into agriculture.

“The award gives me a platform for others to recognise the time is right for a philanthropic fund for agriculture,” Alana says.

For the past 28 years, Alana has been involved in cattle production, farm forestry and landscape renovation with her husband and sons on their property outside Benalla in Victoria.
In this time, she has also played a lead role in the development of rural women’s leadership and capacity building.  She was a founding member of Australian Women in Agriculture, past President of the Foundation for Australian Agricultural Women and she holds the rural portfolio on the Board of the Victorian Women’s Trust.

As a rural consultant Alana is recognised nationally and internationally for her work on farm succession planning, change management in the rural sector and leadership training for rural women. She is a graduate of the Australian Rural Leadership Program and is currently conducting research for a PhD on the history of the rural women’s movement in Australia.

 

2010 New South Wales Winner – Lana Mitchell

Harnessing the power of flowers

Lana Mitchell started her commercial cut-flower venture five years ago, specialising in the Australian native flannel flower. She now sells throughout Australia and exports to the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom and Japan.  She has been innovative in the use of hydroponics, resulting in some of the tallest and largest blooms on the market, which have been very popular both in Australia and also overseas. Lana owns the plant breeders rights on a specific variety of flannel flower called ‘White Romance’ and there is an ongoing commercialisation plan for this plant, with domestic and international growers being licensed to cultivate this flower for the cut-flower industry.

Lana is actively involved in the industry, not just as a grower but at a strategic and leadership level.She is a board member of Wildflowers Australia, a member of RIRDC’s Wildflowers and Native Plants Advisory Committee and a member of the New Rural Industries Australia Interim Management Committee. She is also Editor of the ‘Australian Flower Industry’ magazine, the quarterly trade magazine for the cut-flower industry in Australia with a readership of over 3000.

 Lana has instigated and implemented a number of projects to build the industry, both in terms of size and sales, including; a project to ensure Australian wildflowers are included on the TAFE floristry curriculums; a yearly national floristry competition to all Australian TAFEs and professional floristry schools; as well as a campaign to educate florists and consumers nationally on the availability and use of wildflowers. In doing these projects she works with and coordinates with people at all levels of the supply chain, working to create cohesion and unity within the industry. She is also actively involved in organising national conferences and getting new people into the business of growing wildflowers commercially. 

Lana’s Award ambition is to support the Australian wildflower industry move beyond an emerging industry and through effective marketing, promotion and the establishment of sustainable floriculture practices, move into mainstream use for florists and consumers.  She plans to use the Award bursary to undertake an international study tour to Europe and the United Kingdom to research the successes of their flower industry associations in building and growing market share.