Dalby mum Katie Robertson claims award at BASF Crop Solutions’s Biggest AgriPhoto Competition

An unwavering passion for the Australian agriculture industry led a Dalby mum to win a national photography award. See her outstanding work here.

Growing up in the big smoke, Katie Robertson always held an unwavering passion for the Australian agricultural industry.

This passion, and a keen interest in photography, recently combined and saw the Dalby woman take out a top agriculture industry photography prize.

Her dedication and intrigue in the industry saw her move more than 1000km to study at the former Longreach Pastoral College.

Forging a pathway into the industry as a young woman in the early 2000s brought with it challenges, including living through the peak drought period out west.

“It was really hard for women to get work in the early 2000s and it didn’t help there was a major drought going on at the time, so no one was really hiring out west, so I decided to head back to Brisbane,” she said.

“If I could go back to my 17-year-old self now, I would give myself a harder push to get into the industry and really advocate for myself.

“It’s a lot easier now for women to get into the industry, but in saying that we still have a long fight ahead.”

Dalby woman Katie Robertson's award-winning photo of a grain harvest at dusk, taken on a friend's property in Millmerran.

It was her husband’s work in window tinting that landed their family on the pastures of the Western Downs in 2016, now proudly running their own business in Dalby.

Accompanying her love of all things agriculture was a keen eye for photography, taking the initiative to teach herself how to be a camera pro.

“It was around 2021 I decided to invest in a proper camera and didn’t want to spend extra money on photography courses, so I taught myself,” she said.

From then on Katie began entering into local agricultural society photo competitions and her talent hasn’t gone unnoticed.

A daily scroll through Facebook put the BASF Crop Solutions Biggest AgriPhoto Competition on Katie’s radar, which ultimately saw her take out the grand prize for her first submission.

The award-winning photo captures a harvest at dusk on the property of a close friend at Millmerran.

The competition held weekly between October and November encourages farmers, growers, their families and people outside of the agriculture industry to capture moments on the farm that showcases the hard work of farmers.

The grand prize winner was chosen from the pool of weekly winners and Ms Robertson was awarded a cash prize of $2500.