Country women.
It feels really nice to share the news and topics that are important to me once again after the five-month pause caused by the election, followed by the silly season.
Recently I was honoured to be a guest speaker for the National Council of Women in Victoria at their 64th Pioneer Women's celebration. This annual ceremony acknowledges and celebrates pioneer women of different eras and their contributions in diverse fields.
This year's theme was 'Women in Agriculture' - acknowledging it's been only the last 30 years that the Australian Bureau of Statistics has allowed women to state their occupation as farmers on the Census.
The ceremony was held at the Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden in King's Domain, Melbourne, where I was invited to speak about primary production, women leaders and my background as a farmer at Timor West.
I spoke of being a child migrant, meeting my husband at Ag College, working around Australia, raising a family and finally ending up as a fifth-generation farmer by marriage, before being elected to Council in 2020.
What made this speaking engagement so special was that:
- I spoke alongside other inspiring women,
- the Victorian Minister for Agriculture put out a press release about the event afterwards, recognizing the critical role women play within the agriculture sector,
- this was the first speech I have given outside of my Council network.
It left me confident that we're on the right track in acknowledging women's contributions in agriculture. It was a fantastic day and I will treasure the memories.
