Shine Awards: Landcare and CWA member Janette O’Keefe nominated

The paddocks surrounding Janette O’Keefe’s southwest Victorian cattle farm used to be barren. Until she started planting trees.

Janette O’Keefe on her Winslow property, where she and her husband, Owen, still farm cattle. Picture: Nicole Cleary

Janette O’Keefe is a nominee in The Weekly Times Shine Awards, which celebrates Australia’s rural women. If you know a rural woman who deserves to be recognised, nominate her in the form below or email [e-mail].

There are hundreds of thousands of trees that grace paddocks and line waterways across southwest Victoria near Winslow, where Janette O’Keefe has farmed cattle and sheep with her husband, Owen, for more than four decades.

Janette examines some of her mature trees, planted decades ago. Picture: Nicole Cleary

Few people know how big a role Janette has played in the revegetation effort, which has changed farmers’ mindsets, as well as the landscape.

“I can definitely drive around and think, ‘oh yes, I helped the day we planted the trees on that farm’,” said Janette, who moved to the region in 1973.

A trained nurse, Janette threw her all into learning how to help Owen manage the family property using best practice after they married.

Her research led her to help set up a local land management group in about 1990.

“When I said to my husband, ‘I think I’ll do that’, he said you have enough on your plate here - our youngest was only two at the time. He knows if he says I can’t do something, I will go and do it,” she said.

“It was one of the best things I have done.”

That group was a driving force behind a two-year, 440,000 tree-planting project in partnership with Warrnambool Rotary club that kickstarted a movement in the region.

“Originally it might have been seen that (revegetation) was a waste of land,” Janette said. “Over time that attitude certainly changed a lot. It was an amazing experience to be part of that.”

Now a member of the Basalt to Bay Landcare Network, Janette still plants thousands of trees on their property each year. She is also heavily involved in helping communities through the CWA.

Friend and neighbour Susan Finnigan said Janette’s tree-planting efforts were ahead of her time.

“She is an inspiration to other farmers,” Susan said. “It is exactly what you need in a community.

“Someone who can do the research, do the education, do it herself and believe it and you have to join in and follow because what she is doing is right.”