The Australian Women's Register

Summary

Jackie Brown was the Tasmanian Winner of the ABC Rural Woman of the Year Award for 1995.

Jackie, a teacher at Bridgewater High School in southern Tasmania, was given the task of taking over the Agricultural studies program at the school farm. An under-utilized resource, she developed the farm and the program is supports from being one of the least popular enrolment options to the most popular option subject, with 127 students currently enrolled. She also established a Landcare Centre at the farm to ensure the sustainability of the project.

Her passion for the project has seen it grown and develop over twenty years. In 2010, she won the RIRDC version of the Rural Woman if the year award. Jackie used the opportunity and the $10,000 bursary from the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation’s to study international best practice agricultural education.

A passionate advocate of primary industry courses in schools, Jackie Brown says there’s a well known shortage of young people going into careers in and around agriculture and she hopes her project will help find ways to motivate and encourage young people to think again about the primary industries.

Events

• 1995