Caroline Robinson

Caroline is an advocate for rural communities and the businesses, leaders and organisations within them. She is solutions focused, a creative strategic and broad thinker, bringing networks, services and information that will benefit rural communities and help them to grow.

Based on her family farm in the eastern Wheatbelt, Caroline founded the Wheatbelt Business Network which has since grown into a regional business association with impact. 

Caroline is experienced in assisting not for profit organisations to be sustainable, leverage partnerships and be strategic in their service approach.

Caroline has skills in group facilitation and also holds an Australian Institute of Company Directors qualification.

She has held board positions on State Government and current positions include the Secretary /Treasurer of the Regional Chambers of Commerce and Industry WA and Bendigo Bank Bruce Rock. 

Caroline was AgriFutures National and Western Australian Rural Woman of the Year in 2011 and is a passionate advocate for rural Australia.

Danielle England

Danielle is a recognised leader within Australian agriculture based in the South East of South Australia. Over the past 20 years, Danielle has built a strong reputation for delivering agricultural extension and change management programs that work! Danielle has been listed in the Emerald 2014 100 Women in Australian Agribusiness, and was the 2013 Western Australian RIRDC Rural Woman of the Year. Both of these awards recognise her outstanding leadership and passion for the Australian agricultural industry.

Kendall Whyte

Kendall Whyte is one of the founders of the Blue Tree Project, a project that started after she lost her brother Jayden to suicide in 2018. The first blue tree was painted by Jayden in 2014 just for fun, after his death it became a symbol for mental health awareness. Hundreds of trees have since been painted as a way to raise awareness about mental health and help encourage people to speak up when battling mental health concerns.

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Lauren Bell

Lauren Bell’s (Fb: Waste Not Food Recycling) journey from Sydney-sider, to station hand to fly-farmer, helps demonstrate that inexperience is no barrier   to a rural experience. Also, that there is a diverse range of opportunities for women to contribute to the future of farming in Australia. After completing university in Sydney, a short-term job contract in Darwin launched Lauren into a life based in northern   Australia, and eventually a career in beef cattle agriculture on remote stations spanning across northern QLD, NT and WA.

Working in agriculture Lauren developed a passion to partake in the challenge of sustainably feeding a growing global   population. It was to this sentiment that Black Soldier Fly (BSF) farming appealed. BSF farming replicates natures own nutrient recycling process, using insects to upcycle organic waste into sustainable feed and fertilizer products. Now based in Broome, Lauren is using BSF farming to develop a system of organic waste management that builds the economies of regional and remote communities in Northern Australia, not   landfills.

Jackie Jarvis

The daughter of UK & Irish immigrants Jackie Jarvis (T: @Jarvis_Jackie) (nee Mullins) grew up in in the northern Perth suburb of Wanneroo, where she spent her teenage years working on the vegetable growing “market gardens” during her school holidays. After declaring to her family, that she would “never work in agriculture again” Jackie started her career in the finance industry where she met her husband Matt while they were both working in the South West. The couple relocated back to Perth, both got jobs on St George’s Tce, bought a house in the city with no plans to ever leave. Matt called her in 1996 saying he had been offered a work transfer to Margaret River and Jackie agreed she would go for 2 years. By 1998 the couple had sold their Perth home, had their first baby, planted a vineyard; and Jackie declared she would never return to Perth.

Jackie returned to off-farm work when Ashlee started school and built new career in as an expert in Workforce Development for the Agricultural sector. Her work in the area of attracting resettled refugees to work in agriculture saw her named as the 2014 WA Rural Woman of the Year and National Runner-Up. More recently Jackie has served as a Principal Policy Adviser to the on. Alannah MacTiernan MLC Minister for Regional Development; Agriculture & Food. In November 2017 she took up the role of CEO of the Rural, Regional, Remote Woman’s Network of WA Inc. A role that allowed her to work from home on vineyard, albeit with regular long-distance trips.

And even though she’s not full time in the farm business anymore, Jackie can often be found working in the Jarvis Estate Cellar Door on weekends. She has a love of audio books, generally listened to while driving up and down the Forrest Highway.

Tanya Dupagne

Tanya Dupagne (T: @campkulin) has spent the past 15 years running camp and youth activity programs for at risk children in Australia, America, South Africa and Vietnam. She is one of the leaders in her field, and her programs have been recognised at State, National and International level.

Tanya has worked with over 130,000 children across the world. She is the founder of the Dance 4 Africa and Kwinana Children’s Choir programs, developed the Koorliny Arts Centre Boys & Girls Clubs, and in 2009, became the youngest female Councillor ever elected to the City of Kwinana Council. She was GM/CEO of charity Global Good Foundation for 2 years, leading large scale program expansion. She has travelled to 24 countries, and attends numerous events as a motivational/keynote speaker.

https://tanyadupagne.com/

Jo Ashworth

Jo co-manager at Kalannie Community Resource Centre who works passionately on community building, farms in the Goodlands area with her family and trained as a mechanical engineer. She has led the Growing Kalannie Project which offers and promotes inclusive, wide scope opportunities to community members to complete traineeships and apprenticeships. This recognised training helps youth and potential new community members to consider remaining in or returning to Kalannie. Jo’s project is to formulate a successful program that has wider application across regional WA.

Lucy Anderton

Lucy farms in partnership with her husband in a broad acre mixed farming enterprise. As an agriculture economist she recognised the need for an easy-to-use whole-of-farm business analysis tool to assist with building resilience in the industry.  Working with agricultural stakeholders, Lucy designed FARMSMART®. Using their own data farmers can explore alternative scenarios, enterprise mix and seasonal conditions. Lucy’s project will deliver business development workshops using FARMSMART® with a focus on understanding risk and financial outcomes in a complex environment.

Belinda Lay

Belinda is based on a mixed grain and sheep farming enterprise. Her project is based around the Internet of Things, a trial of sheep collars and how the data collected can be used. Her aspirations are to change the way livestock and technology is viewed, which has mainly concentrated around manual handling. Humans have adopted ‘fitbits’ to monitor bodies in real time – could the same be done for livestock?

Born in Albany in the late 70s, Belinda is the eldest of 4 children. Belinda grew up as a “townie” in Beverley with her siblings and her mother. Small rural town living as the child of a single parent wasn’t particularly easy but she found solace in the regular visits to her Grandparents farm which led her to fall in love with life on the land and decide to pursue a future in this Industry.

Belinda recalls fondly her grandfather who played a big role in her life “he didn’t see gender, he just saw willing and able people. It was her grandfather who taught her she could and she never imagined women would be treated any differently in Agriculture until she was much older and already hooked.

Belinda credits corporate farming for taking a chance on a town girl in beginning stages of her farming journey, being only one of a few in the district in the mid 90s to work on SK Kidman property ‘Neds Corner’ as a jillaroo. It was during this time she learnt basic stockwork, water, fencing and remembers sending golden coloured sheep across the hills after shearing and backlining with Eureka Gold.

A second job with the McVays on their cattle property including a feedlot included early morning musters, doughy brown eyes and wet noses of calves, tractor driving and more fencing followed by chaser bin driving one harvest for another Esperance Family.

It wasn’t until her relationship with now husband Deon that Belinda really hit her stride achieving personal goals such as learning to crutch in a cradle and the ‘piece de resistance’ driving a harvester.

Belindas’ roles have constantly evolved over the last 22 years to accommodate the changes that having a family brings. Belinda is responsible for the partnerships paperwork including all grain marketing but she also loves being in the sheep yards.

As a farmer, she constantly battles to reduce the mortality rates, particularly in lambing ewes and weaners. Adopting best practice management tools to prevent mortality has helped improve these rates, however there is still room for further improvement.

Belinda believes the industry is facing a number of challenges as society’s attitudes and perceptions evolve in regards to animal farming and need to accept a certain of responsibility to change with it. Opportunities in using sensors and movement technologies could be the next management tool to take welfare and lamb survival to the next level.

As her youngest children have become more independent Belinda decided to take on a challenge not only to herself but to the wider industry, which led to her winning the WA Agrifutures Rural Woman of the Year Award for her innovative project implementing a new network system and importing tracking collars that give real time data on her sheep anytime of the day from any location via her mobile phone.

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Cara Peek

Cara Peek is a Yawuru/Bunuba woman and founder of Saltwater Country Inc. A lawyer by profession, having worked primarily in Native Title Law, Cara now focuses her skills as a community relations practitioner as co-founder and executive director of Yum Yum & Delicious Pty Ltd. She has worked in regional communities in Australia, Canada and the USA, specializing in stakeholder liaison and engagement, relationship management, corporate social responsibility, program development & project management. Cara is an active member of her community, currently Deputy Chairperson of Nyamba Buru Yawuru Ltd and a director for Nagula Jarndu Yawuru.

Cara’s project vision and direct management experience place her well to lead this groundbreaking organization from the red dirt into a sustainable future. Her creativity coupled with her corporate and community relations experience will ensure that Saltwater Country Inc. and its associated events are managed in line with its key objectives focusing on positive social outcomes.

Cara understands the significance of providing the opportunity for community involvement in order to foster sustainable outcomes. In doing so she is experienced in developing on-ground strategies and approaches utilized by frontline team members, thereby creating a safe and mutually respectful working culture. She possesses a unique perspective from both a community and corporate standpoint on the importance of working with the community and leveraging competing agendas to achieve mutually beneficial goals. It is with these skills in mind that she hopes to lead Saltwater Country Inc. in delivering long-lasting self-determined positive change in Broome & the wider Kimberley region through the sport of Rodeo & Campdrafting.

Get in contact with Cara via Saltwater Country