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RIRDC Rural Women's Award celebrates 10 years

5 June 2009

A gala dinner in Parliament House and two-day reunion forum has marked the 10^th year celebrations of the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) Rural Women’s Award in Canberra.

The 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 agriculture, natural resource management and rural Australia.

Winners and runners-up are also offered a chance to attend the Australian Institute of Company Directors’ course.

The 2009 national award winner was Roma Britnell, a dairy industry leader from Woolsthorpe in western Victoria and the runner-up was Barb Madden, a beef feedlotter from Proston in Queensland.

Rural, Remote and Regional (RRR) Women’s Network coordinator Kerry Regan said since the award’s inception in 2000, nearly 150 women representing every facet of primary industries had been recognised for their vision, leadership and capacity to make a difference to primary industries and rural Australia.

Ms Regan said past winners were invited to attend the reunion forum which provided a national platform to discuss issues and challenges pertinent to rural women and primary industries.

It also offered opportunities for new learning and leadership skills, and valuable networking time.

WA was represented by State winner, Kirsten Skraha, a farmer and environmental manager from Boyup Brook and runner-up Doris Parker, a pastoral manager from the Pilbara region near Onslow, together with 13 past WA award recipients.

WA’s 2005 winner Maureen Dobra said the bursary had helped her to learn more about salad growers in other parts of the world and use the information to enhance production and processing locally. 

“The award has given me the opportunity to promote the fresh vegetables of Western Australia. It has also given me the voice to encourage others to ‘just have a go,” she said.

“The forum provided an excellent range of speakers and educational sessions covering mentoring, presentation skills, web and information technology, corporate governance, and climate change.

“It was such a great chance to catch up with past RIRDC Award recipients from WA and across Australia and find out the progress they have made over the past few years.”

The Rural Women’s Award is an initiative of the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) and the Western Australian award is coordinated in partnership with the Department of Agriculture and Food.

Past WA Award recipients from back left: Pam Lincoln, Tracey Ebert, Rhonda Tonkin, Di Morrison, Angela Whittington, Maggie Edmonds, Maureen Dobra, Suzanne Woods, Anne Jennings, Wendy Newman and Audrey Bird.

Media contacts:

Kerry Regan, RRR Network co-ordinator, 9368 3182