The Australian Women's Register

1 sound file (ca. 89 min.) Sally Mitchell born in Cohuna, Vic. Talks about her father’s sawmill; her family background; the local timber source and the local state forest which is now a national park; the relationship between him as an independent miller and the forest commission; how the industry still operates in the area; the property she lives on ‘Wattle Creek’; learning her business skills from her mother; her education; getting a job in the National Bank; marrying; overseas travel, getting an illness which prevented her from working fulltime when she returned; leasing property at Gannawarra and Torrumbarry, running sheep and cattle; the purchase of a dairy farm; rural finance; her husband’s illness and death (1992); Austin Hospital; the birth of her daughter (India) in June 1992; working the farm with hired help; her nomination for the ABC Rural Woman of the Year Award, winning the state award; public speaking; invitations to join boards and statutory authorities. Mitchell discusses her involvement in the Victorian Women’s Advisory Council; how farm living should not be an emotional decision but a financial one; working at the Kerang TAFE with rural women; understanding the extent of rural women’s marginalisation; Cohuna Women in Agriculture Committee, teaching chemical handling and a women’s only Artificial Insemination course; her degree through Monash distance education, completing a Diploma in Education; meeting the other ABC Rural Woman Award nominees; Joan Kirner; getting involved in Agripolitics, United Dairy Farmers, Women’s Advisory Council, Target 10, Goulburn Murray Water; her Women in Agriculture involvement; being asked by IMG management group to join there stable of public speakers; women as agents of change in rural environments; Dairy Industry; horse riding being a very important part of their family life; Global Financial Crisis; her remarriage.