Four years ago, Tanya moved to Kulin in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia to start the Camp Kulin program. She saw it as an opportunity to do something beneficial with the Shire of Kulin’s under-utilised recreational and community resources.

Today, Camp Kulin contributes not only to the wellbeing of young people from regional and metropolitan Western Australia but also to the local economy, with around 1,000 participants and 200 volunteers annually. A natural leader and problem-solver, Tanya has also created a mentoring program to support children at two local high schools, providing mental health support in the absence of a school chaplain.

Tanya’s project idea is to create and run a subsidised ladies camp program to support women from regional Western Australia. The program will help develop essential life skills such as leadership, trust, self-confidence, self-esteem, perseverance and ambition that the women can use in their day to day lives. It will involve an intense three-day camp where ladies can experience all the activities the Camp Kulin program offers. Support groups will be created via social media so participants can keep in touch, with alumni events to be held each year.

Simone’s passion for regional Australia sparked a colourful quest to raise the profile of farmers by opening children’s eyes to agriculture through the character ‘George the Farmer’.

Inspired by her three farm-obsessed sons, Simone realised the importance of addressing the food production knowledge gap in a fun and educational way. She put her graphic design skills to work and developed the quintessentially Australian children’s character with business partner Ben Hood.

George (named after Simone’s eldest son) is also a champion of women in agriculture, and his wife, Ruby, who features prominently in the overall branding, is a talented agronomist. The duo has a strong following on social media, and star in a popular app, books, songs and live performances. George the Farmer’s free supplementary teacher resources and videos have been downloaded more than 3000 times in the past six months, educating an estimated 40,000 children in the classroom about agriculture.

Sandra, from the Riverina town of Booligal in NSW, has a keen interest in developing pathways for younger generations to gain a start in primary industries.

Throughout her career Sandra recognised that young people had limited opportunities to gain the basic hands-on training and bush skills to make them employable, resulting in diminishing numbers of young people entering or staying in agriculturally dependent communities and townships like Hay.

To address this challenge, in 2014 Sandra co-developed the Hay Inc. Rural Education Program to give young people the skills, education and experience they need to pursue a career in agriculture. The program provides hands-on training modules that cover all the necessary skills of stockmanship in sheep, cattle and farming skills, ongoing mentoring, and access to rural networks and landholders, which young people can use as a spring board to a career in agriculture.

With no farming background, Rebecca has built her Big River Highland Beef enterprise up to be the most successful Scottish Highland beef producer nationwide.

She is the owner and operator of Big River Highland Beef, which produces Scottish Highland beef for local restaurants and consumers and is the only commercial producer of Scottish Highland beef in Tasmania.  Rebecca developed the business without the ties of traditional agricultural practices – requiring research into farming techniques, innovation, marketing opportunities and land management.  In 2014, Rebecca was Awarded a Sprout Producer Program scholarship, a one year accreditation for small and start-up Tasmanian producers that involves educational units, field days and mentoring.

Rebecca is a co-founder of her local growers’ market, Big River Growers’ Market, aimed at getting local produce out of people’s backyards and into the community.  Rebecca has been a guest speaker at the Slow Food Hobart AGM and has organised and hosted educational farm tours in the Derwent Valley.  Recently, Rebecca was accepted into the national e-Leaders program delivered by the National Rural Women’s Coalition.

Kate is a passionate advocate for the Northern Territory having been born and raised in Darwin’s rural area. In her role as CEO of Regional Development Australia Northern Territory (RDA NT) she works with a broad range of organisations to support the sustainable development of the region.

Among other roles Kate is a NT Farmers’ Board Director and a member of two water advisory committees.  Kate’s interest in groundwater management has grown from her association with irrigators and her involvement in many water allocation planning processes.  She believes effective water management is now the single biggest factor underpinning the sustainable development of the Territory.

Kate’s project centres around the promotion of local water stewardship and the development of stakeholder-endorsed communications and strategies to foster sustainable water use across the Darwin region.

Jacqui is the Global Innovations Manager at McCormick and Chairperson of the Food and Agribusiness Network (FAN), a not-for-profit food network that she co-founded in 2015. Jacqui has dedicated her 20-year career to developing food and wine brands in Australia and overseas.

In 2009 she returned to the Sunshine Coast to raise a family and lead the innovation and marketing team at Botanical Food Company. Within this role she was instrumental in launching the company’s innovative and highly successful Gourmet Garden range of herb and spice tubes and dried spices.

Jacqui’s international career has led to her interest in ‘Design Thinking’, a customer-focused mindset of bringing to market new ideas, products, services or business models that solve complex problems and delight customers. She is confident the adoption of Design Thinking could greatly benefit Queensland primary industries, by encouraging innovations that will add value, increase food security and build resilience in rural and regional communities.

Ecologist and social scientist Kirsten Abernethy has worked in fishing communities for over a decade in Cornwall, Timor Leste and the Solomon Islands, but says she has found her calling in the fishing communities of Victoria.

Kirsten is proud of her state’s seafood industry, but believes there is one resource the industry isn’t utilising well – the women who work in it. Women make up fifty-five per cent of fisheries workers in Victoria, but hold less than five per cent of the industry’s executive positions. Kirsten says women make a significant contribution, but are largely invisible in the fishing industry.

Kirsten wants to change that. She wants to give women the confidence and skills they need so they can tell politicians, the media and funding bodies about the industry they love. She believes women in the fishing industry have different perspectives to offer, and wants them to be as much a voice for the industry as men are.