At the time of the Award, Megan lived in the western division of New South Wales, where she and her husband ran the family property ‘Etiwanda Station’ outside Cobar.

Megan’s vision is for agriculture and its people to better balance profitability with the environment and their lifestyles by embracing Holistic Management and is committed to developing ‘Etiwanda Station’ holistically and into a learning site for other producers and the betterment of the Western Division.

Holistic Management is defined as a decision making process which provides a practical and total approach to economically, environmentally and socially managing the property.

Megan put her $5,000 bursary towards a project to aid in the controlled grazing and resting of country on the station. The project provided for better control of a large area of the station to begin the process of regeneration.

Megan believed that the project delivered a number of notable and obvious benefits including increased plant coverage, health and diversity, reduced worm burden, increased stock health, increased weaning percentages from younger stock, regeneration of edible scrub species and a reduction in bare unprofitable ground.

Kaye’s focus has always been about promoting partnerships and supporting communities, as the means of ensuring future and sustainable rural industries.  At the time of the Award, she was a woolgrower from Victoria’s western division and Manager of the Community Partnerships Program at the RMIT University’s Hamilton campus.  Kaye, with the support of her bursary, set out to develop a community of practice along the wool pipeline, with the objective of building a culture of responsibility on the ecological impact of wool on our environment.

She worked with focus groups and developed and launched a website, www.envirowool.com to continue discussion and debate on the issue and to make discussion accessible to all.

The website continued for 12 months, and during that period additional and relevant papers were added to it to further the debate. Kaye had a group of farmers looking to set up a network of producers supporting ecologically sound practices and was working with a respected fashion designer in an effort to bring their perspective to the debate. That perspective was considered vitally important because of predicted consumer trends towards environmentally sound products, and the move towards product responsibility.

In 2003 Mammino Gourmet Icecreams took out the Queensland Primary Industries Award for Product Marketing along with the Central Queensland Southern Reef Tourism Awards for Retailing.

They also took out the four gold awards for their ice cream at the Royal Queensland Dairy Produce Awards (EDKKA) and Teena was named the Bundaberg Business Manager of the Year.  Her vision was to continue to grow the business, both domestically and, in the long term, overseas, and to provide alternate value added rural business and employment opportunities to the region.

Her $5,000 bursary allowed Teena to attend the Ice-Cream Essentials Course at Griffith University in Melbourne in May 2002. This is the only course of its kind in teaching the fundamentals of ice cream manufacturing and is held only once a year.

Teena claimed the media coverage, community ownership, and profile the Award generated was nothing short of incredible. She presented at 32 events over the 12 month tenure. She also claimed a 20% increase in profit from the business over the following 18 months, as a direct result of her increased exposure. At the time of the Award, Mammino Gourmet Ice cream was stocked in over 50 outlets throughout Queensland and they were negotiating with Queensland Rail with a view to having their product sold on Queensland Rail.

Heather has worked in the livestock transport industry since the early 1970’s, operating with her husband a very successful livestock carrying business – Argyle Transport Pty Ltd – and has been an active member across numerous industry associations.

She was instrumental in developing Truckcare, the quality management system for livestock transporters and for the six years prior to the Award had been Promotions Officer for Truckcare on behalf of the Australian Livestock Transporters Association. Truckcare aims to raise awareness and assist its members improve their individual businesses, their animal welfare practices and customer relations.

Heather put her $5,000 bursary towards the publication of a Booklet titled ‘Together Everyone Achieves More’ (TEAM).  The booklet highlights the roles and responsibilities of each party in the livestock supply chain, in ensuring best practice in animal welfare and livestock loading, while promoting a collaborative approach across the chain.  10,000 copies of the book were printed and distributed throughout saleyard venues, transport operators, stock and station agents and farmers organizations offices and relevant conferences.

For Suzanne Woods the Award brought her face to face with potential new customers and potential new markets for her specialty flour. Her farm produces its own line of soft wheat flour, Emdavale Farm Flour, which is sold both domestically in Western Australia and overseas.  Suzanne’s vision for agriculture is to offer alternate and value adding opportunities to grain growers to allow them to diversify their economic base from traditional farming.

She put her $5,000 bursary towards travel both to the eastern states and overseas. The study tour of the eastern states covered Melbourne, Canberra, Young, Parkes, and Narromine, meeting with flour millers and the food service sector and growing her knowledge and contacts within the industry.

The Singapore trip centred on exhibiting her flour product at the Food Hotel Asia expo. Singapore was previously identified by Austrade as one of the most likely export markets for her flour. As a result of the trip, new contacts were made and product samples delivered, with the prospect of new customers.

Christine is the first female to graduate with a Degree in Surveying from the University of Tasmania, complemented with a Graduate Diploma in Surveying Practice in Queensland.

At the time of the Award she operated her own business, providing expertise on Geographical Information Systems (GIS), aerial photography and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to a variety of industries, including her passion, agriculture and has worked on the use of aerial photography and GPS’ s as management tools for rural enterprises.

She directed her bursary towards developing and marketing low altitude aerial photography/computer mapping packages for agricultural enterprises and undertaking a pilot project to demonstrate the benefits of global positioning and mapping technology in agricultural enterprises.

She also completed a number of training courses relevant to her project, including a Certificate 1V Assessment & Workplace Training (TAFE Tasmania) and a Small Business Management Course (TAFE Tasmania). Christine says the $5,000 bursary allowed her to undertake training that she would otherwise have found difficult to justify and to purchase equipment to progress her vision.