Post by elnini on May 25, 2012 22:49:16 GMT -5
Growing numbers show women are at home on the range
THE industry that was to define a colonised Australia, shape its literature and populate its rural towns for well over a century began humbly.
In 1788, the continent's stock of farm animals amounted to seven horses, seven cows, 29 sheep, 74 pigs, five rabbits, 18 turkeys, 29 geese, 35 ducks and a couple of hundred chickens.
Through depressions, droughts, wars and a changing climate, the women of the land have largely worked quietly in the background.
But the times are changing. For the first time in its history, the NSW Farmers Association has a female president, Fiona Simson, while Katrina Hodgkinson is the state's first female Primary Industries Minister. As mining cuts swathes across the countryside, it is the Country Women's Association marching on the streets of Sydney to demand a fair share for farmers.
Men are still in the paddocks in greater numbers, but the proportion of women has doubled since the mid-1960s, when they accounted for just 15 per cent of agriculture workers.
Susan Chisholm is a 68-year-old grandmother who mounts her quad bike early each morning after tea and toast in bed to run an Angus herd on 800 hectares in the Riverina.
Electronic tags, bluetooth wands, ultrasounds and spreadsheets are now a large part of her work, which thrives on high-quality beef aimed at a discerning Japanese meat market.
''It's no more chewing on a stem of grass,'' the widower said. ''The science has changed enormously over the last 20 years.''
She is no statistical anomaly.
Lilliane Brady, 81, was managing three massive sheep properties totalling 81,000 hectares near Cobar in the state's dry, flat west long before statisticians began collecting data in earnest on women's role in farming.
''I can remember once a chap from [stock agents] Dalgety's - we were having a drought - he said to me: 'What are you going to do sweetheart? You've got a drought,' '' said Mrs Brady, who moved with her late husband from Strathfield to the far west 42 years ago.
''And I just felt he condescended to me and I said: 'Don't you dare tell me what to do. I'll go on to shear 20,000 sheep and the day I do, you'll put a keg on.' ''
About 21,000 shorn sheep later, Mrs Brady showed the man from Dalgety's. ''It nearly killed me,'' she said. ''For six weeks, I didn't know day from night, but I was going to do it.''
Now mayor of the distinctly mining town of Cobar, Mrs Brady never had any problems with the men she hired to repair fences or shear sheep.
''At shearing time, it was always so busy and tempers were always raising, but at the end of the day you'd always have a carton together and you'd get over it and get ready for the next one.''
Mrs Brady, like Mrs Chisholm, has led the move to an era of larger properties with fewer owners.
''I'll give myself another eight to 10 years, which will really bring me up to the old, crinkly area,'' she said. ''I just hope this chassis has another 10 years in it.''
There is a 4 min video included in the article :
www.smh.com.au/national/growing-numbers-show-women-are-at-home-on-the-range-20120525-1za4f.html
THE industry that was to define a colonised Australia, shape its literature and populate its rural towns for well over a century began humbly.
In 1788, the continent's stock of farm animals amounted to seven horses, seven cows, 29 sheep, 74 pigs, five rabbits, 18 turkeys, 29 geese, 35 ducks and a couple of hundred chickens.
Through depressions, droughts, wars and a changing climate, the women of the land have largely worked quietly in the background.
But the times are changing. For the first time in its history, the NSW Farmers Association has a female president, Fiona Simson, while Katrina Hodgkinson is the state's first female Primary Industries Minister. As mining cuts swathes across the countryside, it is the Country Women's Association marching on the streets of Sydney to demand a fair share for farmers.
Men are still in the paddocks in greater numbers, but the proportion of women has doubled since the mid-1960s, when they accounted for just 15 per cent of agriculture workers.
Susan Chisholm is a 68-year-old grandmother who mounts her quad bike early each morning after tea and toast in bed to run an Angus herd on 800 hectares in the Riverina.
Electronic tags, bluetooth wands, ultrasounds and spreadsheets are now a large part of her work, which thrives on high-quality beef aimed at a discerning Japanese meat market.
''It's no more chewing on a stem of grass,'' the widower said. ''The science has changed enormously over the last 20 years.''
She is no statistical anomaly.
Lilliane Brady, 81, was managing three massive sheep properties totalling 81,000 hectares near Cobar in the state's dry, flat west long before statisticians began collecting data in earnest on women's role in farming.
''I can remember once a chap from [stock agents] Dalgety's - we were having a drought - he said to me: 'What are you going to do sweetheart? You've got a drought,' '' said Mrs Brady, who moved with her late husband from Strathfield to the far west 42 years ago.
''And I just felt he condescended to me and I said: 'Don't you dare tell me what to do. I'll go on to shear 20,000 sheep and the day I do, you'll put a keg on.' ''
About 21,000 shorn sheep later, Mrs Brady showed the man from Dalgety's. ''It nearly killed me,'' she said. ''For six weeks, I didn't know day from night, but I was going to do it.''
Now mayor of the distinctly mining town of Cobar, Mrs Brady never had any problems with the men she hired to repair fences or shear sheep.
''At shearing time, it was always so busy and tempers were always raising, but at the end of the day you'd always have a carton together and you'd get over it and get ready for the next one.''
Mrs Brady, like Mrs Chisholm, has led the move to an era of larger properties with fewer owners.
''I'll give myself another eight to 10 years, which will really bring me up to the old, crinkly area,'' she said. ''I just hope this chassis has another 10 years in it.''
There is a 4 min video included in the article :
www.smh.com.au/national/growing-numbers-show-women-are-at-home-on-the-range-20120525-1za4f.html