A winner has been chosen from each of Australia’s States and the Northern Territory, and this year, for the first time ever, a RIRDC Australian Rural Woman of the Year will be selected from their number.

The RIRDC Australian Rural Woman of the Year will be announced at a ceremony to be held in Canberra on 23 May 2006, along with the first-ever national reunion of past recipients of the awards.

Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) Managing Director Dr Peter O’Brien said that deciding on a national winner for the RIRDC Rural Women’s Award would raise the profile of the contribution women make to agriculture and to rural Australia. But the choice would not be an easy one.

“Given the diversity of women that make up the 2006 Award winners, their leadership qualities and potential future contribution to their industries, the selection process to single out one winner over the others will be a great challenge,” Dr O’Brien said.

The RIRDC Rural Women’s Awards recognise the vital contribution women make, but more importantly encourages their greater capacity by providing them with the support and resources to further develop their skills and abilities.

“Each of the State and Territory winners has an inspiring vision for their industry, and the skills development that this program offers will increase their capacity to make a difference. The seven State and Territory winners are involved in a diverse range of innovative activities, from investigating bio-diesel production as a sustainable fuel source for farming communities, to resolving the horticultural industries seasonal labour shortage crisis, to improving the production efficiency of the tropical cut flower industry,” Dr O’Brien said.

The RIRDC Rural Women’s Award provides a Bursary of $10,000 for each of the seven State and Territory winners, to help them achieve their vision for their industry, and enhance their skills and capacity to contribute to rural Australia. Each of the State and Territory winners and runners are also given the opportunity for up to attend the Australian Institute of Company Directors course.

The announcement of the inaugural RIRDC Australian Rural Woman of the Year will be made at the RIRDC Rural Women’s Awards’ National Celebratory Dinner, proudly presented by the Australian Women’s Weekly, to be held at the Hyatt Hotel-Canberra on the night of Tuesday-23rd May 2006.

The Awards will be made in conjunction with a National Forum, extended to include all past recipients of the Rural Women’s Award, spanning the seven years since its inception.

The Award is an initiative of the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation in partnership with State Government Departments of Agriculture/Primary Industries. The RIRDC Rural Women’s Award 2006 has three major sponsors – the Australian Women’s Weekly, Rural Press and ABC Radio.

ENDS

Media inquiries:
RIRDC Rural Women’s Award 2006 National Coordinator Edwina Clowes 0417 727 544 or email: clowesedwina@bigpond.com

RIRDC Rural Women’s Award 2006 Winners: Briefs

RIRDC Rural Women’s Award 2006 South Australian Winner:- Heather Baldock-Kimba
Heather is a broad acre farmer, who with her husband, crops 3,500 hectares of mainly wheat, with some sheep, in marginal country outside Kimba in the Eyre Peninsula. The Baldock’s have been no-till farmers for the past nine years and some of their best yields have been achieved through direct drill into dry land. Heather believes that one of the most crucial decisions currently facing the Australian agricultural community is that of GM technology and she believes that there has been inadequate factual information on which farmers can make informed decisions. She proposes to use the Bursary to gain the necessary skills to conduct a series of GM forums across farming communities within the state.

RIRDC Rural Women’s Award 2006 Tasmanian Winner:- Heather Chong-Richmond
Heather is currently Chief Executive Officer of QEW Orchards, a 48,000 tree apricot orchard outside Richmond in southern Tasmania, which produces around 1,000 tonnes of fruit each year. She is also Chair of Summerfruit Australia, the peak industry body for summerfruit growers in Australia. She believes a shortage of seasonal labour is reaching critical levels within the horticultural industry nationally and to the point of impinging on industry’s continued prosperity. She plans to use the Bursary to undertake a study tour to Canada and Ireland to investigate ways their industries are combating the same problem, and travel to the Swan region in Victoria and northern Tasmania to investigate the impact this shortage is having on other horticultural regions, with the expectation of applying some of her new learning’s from overseas on the domestic industry.

RIRDC Rural Women’s Award 2006 Northern Territory Winner:- Janette Hintze-Darwin
Janette Hintze is one of the Territory’s pioneers of the cut flower industry. She was instrumental in establishing the Northern Territory Horticultural Association’s Cut Flower Group, of which she became President in 1999 and represents flower growers on the Association’s Council where she has been Vice President since 2001. Janette believes the future viability of the cut flower industry in the Territory will depend on increased production efficiency and in industry gaining access to new and improved varieties. Her proposed activity involves a study tour of the East Coast industry to learn from their production and post harvest, packaging and marketing practices. She also plans to attend the 4th International Symposium on the Zingiberaceae (ginger) family to be held in Singapore later this year as a unique opportunity to meet with growers & access material from across the globe for the benefit of the NT industry.

RIRDC Rural Women’s Award 2006 Victorian Winner-Yvonne Jennings-Swan Hill
Yvonne runs a farm machinery business - Murray Mallee Machinery - with her husband Barry. They started the business w over two decades ago, when drought forced the closure of their farms. Yvonne is currently President of Swan Hill Business and Professional Women and newly-elected Councilor to the Swan Hill Rural City Council. She has served as Chair of Swan Hill and District Rural Women for a period of ten years, during which time she convened a number of major workshops and initiatives for rural women. Her proposed activity involves the development and pilot of an action learning project intended specifically to provide rural women with the support and skills to grow their capacity and contribution from a local to state to national level and beyond.

RIRDC Rural Women’s Award 2006 Western Australian Winner:- Bev Logue-Geraldton
Bev, with her husband, runs a family broad acre share cropping business comprising of 8,000 hectares north of Geraldton. They are licensed bio-diesel manufacturers and have been successful running farm machinery on canola based bio-diesel blends for the past three seasons. Bev is currently involved in establishing a cooperative canola milling facility for the Northern Agricultural Region, in conjunction with a proof of concept project for bio-diesel production for the farming community of Binnu. She firmly believes that biodiesel offers Australian farmers and rural communities an economic and environmentally friendly alternative and independent fuel source. Her proposed activity involves further professional skills, specifically in business management, communication and negotiation skills, and an interstate study tour to better understand bio-diesel production and its uses.

RIRDC Rural Women’s Award 2006 New South Wales Winner:- Kate Schwager-Wee Waa
Kate is currently coordinator of WinCott, Australia’s largest Network of Women in Cotton, and, with her husband, she runs a successful cotton and wheat share farming enterprise near Wee Waa in northern NSW. Kate was instrumental in establishing the www.weewaa.com website in 1998 to help promote the region’s agriculture and tourism. The success of the website led Kate to developing the Rural Towns Package, a cost effective web development program that builds on small town websites. Kate plans to use the Bursary to take the Package to other towns across Australia and to deliver support and training in web development to rural women, who can use the program as a home based business opportunity and alternate source of income.

RIRDC Rural Women’s Award 2006 Queensland Winner:-Martha Shepherd-Eumundi
Martha Shepherd’s 35 years experience in the food industry, in particular, her work as Director of International Operations with Mrs Fields Famous Brands in the US, including overseeing the company’s international franchise network in 37 countries, laid a strong foundation for her venture into her rural venture. Martha established Galeru some eight years ago with partner David Haviland, a value added rural enterprise which produces a range of gourmet products from native rainforest fruits. The fruits come from the 3,000 plus native trees purpose grown as a high value niche crop on their small farm on the Sunshine Coast. Martha plans to use the Bursary to develop a viable value chain management model whereby smaller producers can collaborate with regional processors to produce the quantity and quality of provide to ensure their economic and environmental viability.