Shine Awards 2022: Rolleston cattle farmer Bloss Hickson wins Dedication category
A Brigalow Belt beef producer who is passionate about revegetation is this year’s Dedication winner. Meet the finalists.
The Weekly Times Shine Award for Dedication goes to a woman who has shown long-term commitment to their industry, project or community.
One of six categories in the awards, which celebrate Australia’s rural women, Dedication honours those who have worked tirelessly to contribute to the broader society. This year’s winner is organic cattle farmer Bloss Hickson, from Rolleston, Queensland, who has spent 35 years championing the importance of trees in grazing systems. Finalists are Julie Aldous from Mansfield, Victoria, and Pam Mawson from Warragul, Victoria. Read their stories:
2022 DEDICATION WINNER: BLOSS HICKSON
Organic farmer, Rolleston, Queensland
Since she was a child, Bloss Hickson has been fascinated by nature’s complexity, from her childhood in the Gulf to her corner of Queensland’s Central Highlands today.
So the past 35 years managing her 5000-hectare cattle property at Rolleston has been a labour of love for the permaculture devotee.
Organic cattle producer Bloss has built much more than just a productive 1000-head herd on her Brigalow country.
She has also nursed the native ecosystem back into balance, built up 40 per cent vegetation coverage, and runs permaculture workshops to share knowledge about soils, the importance of biodiversity and growing healthy food.
“I like to share information because it is relevant to all farmers,” she says. “My passion is about growing healthy food in resilient landscapes.”
Bloss acquired the Arcadia Valley property, called Huntly, in 1987 via ballot. At the time, there wasn’t space on the form for women to apply.
“It read ‘male applicant’, and there was an area for a spouse,” Bloss says, “I put an ‘FE’ in front of my name and thought I would never hear from them again. Lo and behold I was the lucky winner out of about 2000 people.
“It was such a privilege and opportunity to have my own landscape to develop my way.”
Her block was the final parcel allocated of more than one million hectares balloted from the mid-1960s to 1980s.
While much of the land in Queensland’s Brigalow Belt was cleared for agricultural production, Bloss approached things differently.
“The land had been cleared and continually burnt to control regrowth. There were no mature trees, so I decided I was going to rebuild the brigalow ecosystem,” she says. “I did a permaculture course with Bill Mollison in the early ’90s. He talked about leaving strips, on the contours and perpendicular to prevailing winds. I more or less followed that pattern.”
Her efforts resulted in better shade for her cattle and a healthy native ecology to support wildlife, bugs and birds. Plus, 1000ha is now part of a vegetation offset, earning her money for her efforts.
Also a talented painter, Bloss has become so passionate about the benefits of trees in the landscape, she has incorporated the messages into her artwork in a collaborative exhibition called “The Wisdom of Trees”.
“You can paint pretty pictures but there is only so much wall space,” she says. “I decided I was going to paint for a purpose.”
For her enduring efforts to improve the health of the environment, food and people, Bloss is a worthy winner of the Shine Award for Dedication.
Launched in 2017, The Weekly Times Shine Awards, supported by Harvey Norman, celebrates the contributions of Australia’s rural and regional women.
This year, 120 nominations were received for rural women in every state and territory.
Finalists were announced last week and today winners have been revealed in six categories: Belief, Courage, Dedication, Grace, Passion and Spirit.
Meet the other finalists in the Dedication category.
FINALIST: JULIE ALDOUS
Agriculture educator, Mansfield, Victoria
Julie Aldous has created an agriculture education program that not only creates bright futures for students, it solves a critical problem for farmers.
Teacher Julie was drafting cattle on her Mansfield, Victoria, property in 2008 when she realised even in her rural class of high school students, very few kids came from farms.
“Older farmers assumed they would get workers after school, but this wasn’t happening and you can’t learn drafting from a book. I thought ‘my goodness we are in trouble’,” she says.
Since then, she has devoted her life to the cause of educating secondary students about farm skills, establishing a model for years 9 and 10 in partnership with local producers and businesses.
Through the award-winning program, students learn skills such as milking goats to fencing, tree planting to sheep drenching, and gain a certificate II in agriculture.
“A number of the farms ended up being employers to the kids,” Julie says, thinking back to the program’s first year.
“In the five years before I started the course, there were two students from Mansfield Secondary who went on to study agriculture.
“But the five years after the course 26 per cent of students or about 5 per year went on to do agriculture at university or a certificate III in agriculture.”
The successful model has been rolled out across the state and nation. Though now retired, Julie still works as a consultant, speaking at conferences, and for the past three years has worked with North East Victorian Local Learning and Employment Networks to expand the model to other industries.
“Rural people are crying out for schools to establish this program, but we’ve found that schools are constrained in many ways, especially around funding,” she says. “One significant problem is that year 9 students – when schools have space in the curriculum – cannot access education department funding to do certificate II. They can do it, but they don’t get funding for it and that’s a significant barrier.”
She says it’s in every rural town’s interests to ensure the next generation of workforce.
“If you train a rural student they are more likely to return to a rural area,” she says. “Education in agriculture provides much more than employees.”
FINALIST: PAM MAWSON
CWA Victoria president, Warragul, Victoria
Pam Mawson’s belief in the mission of the Country Women’s Association is measured in the countless hours of service she puts into the organisation.
As president of CWA Victoria, Pam has been at the helm during a milestone year – its 80th anniversary celebrated at Melbourne Royal Show this year.
“It’s like working full time,” she says, of the demanding two-year presidential term.
“There is a room in Toorak (head office) for the state president. I’m here more than in my own home at Warragul. If you added it up, it would be more than a 40-hour week.
“I really believe in what we do. It’s such a worthwhile organisation. We are high in helping and advocating and that’s just a good feeling all round. You get back what you put into things.”
Pam has been part of the CWA’s volunteer army for the past 20 years, peeling potatoes, working the cafe fryers, judging the art and crafts and of course baking up a storm in preparation for many shows.
But this September’s celebration was special, especially since it heralded a return to more normal operation after the huge disruption of Covid. A highlight of her time in the CWA was creating a pop-up shop during the pandemic to help make money when all their other income streams, including the show and the Toorak B&B, were shut down.
“All our financial inputs had gone and so I had this idea to open a pop-up shop on the lawn because you could sell food outside,” Pam says.
“There were only three of us doing it because that was all we could manage in the mileage we were allowed to move at the time due to Covid. I would be furiously baking scones and Anzac biscuits and the girls were running back and forth to get some more.”
For this year’s show, Pam and the CWA had a team of 150 volunteer members come together to pitch in.
“It doesn’t matter the job, you put out a plea and people come along and help,” Pam says, explaining they put together 800 show bags this year for the big celebration.
“It is a lot of trips around the table. Gets your steps up.”
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