Cultivating Growth In Agriculture And Beyond Ayr Hosts Influential Women Community Leadership Forum

A cohort of women in agriculture attended a three-day leadership forum in Ayr last week designed to develop leadership skills, personal confidence and be empowered to make future focused decisions to drive a positive change in their communities.
The Influential Women Community Leadership Forum, held from March 19 – 21 in the Burdekin Theatre Music Loft, was supported by Tropical North Queensland Drought Hub as part of their commitment to enhancing the skills and capacity of agricultural communities in North Queensland, which invited ten women from a variety of backgrounds and careers to take part.
Forum facilitator Heather Ellis of Blue Wren Connections guided the participants through three days of group and individual activities to learn about different leadership roles, teamwork, adapting to change, understanding personal values, and self-care to achieve work/life balance.
“The first few days are looking at self and personal mastery, what are our goals and where do we want to go, and then the last day we come together to look at different roles in teams and the benefits of getting the most out of your team,” Ms Ellis said.
“What’s important in terms of self-leadership is continually honing our skills and being open to learning and growing.
“When you invest in people, amazing things can happen in businesses, so it has economic benefit down the track.  
“When people have self-confidence, amazing things can happen for the region.”
The ten participants varied in age, background and careers, ranging from agriculture, business, education and nutrition.
“What’s been lovely to see is the cross pollination of knowledge and wisdom sharing,” Ms Ellis said.
“It’s pretty exciting in terms of creating spaces for people, particularly with an agricultural lens, thinking about grower industries, because that’s the heart of the economic development in this region.
“I think we’ll see the women who have participated, grow into the future and do amazing things.”
Shantelle Arratta is an Agronomist at Nutrien Ag Solutions and took part in the forum to develop her leadership skills and networking opportunities.
“Through my career, I’ve had a lot of great mentors, and they’ve donated a lot of their time and skills, and hopefully in doing this and honing in on my own skillsets, I’ll be able to return that favour to the next lot of people coming through agriculture,” Ms Arratta said.
“There are a lot of incredible women and the diversity in the room is incredible.
“I’m already wanting to take what I’ve learnt in the last few days and get out there and use it.”
Ms Arratta said having an opportunity like this hosted in Ayr is “thrilling”.
“We’re often having to travel away to get this kind of expertise,” she said.
“To have them actually come to us, in this small group setting where people have the confidence to speak up, being surrounded by likeminded people, having this here in our own backyard is just wonderful.
“I’m already thinking about who I’m going to be telling about it and recommending it to and, to be honest, I’d probably come back again to let some of the stuff sink in.”
Tropical North Queensland Drought Hub Program Lead and forum organiser, Dr Jane Oorschot, said the event was the second of its kind to be supported by the Drought Hub.
“We piloted this forum last year in the Gulf Savannah region and received extremely positive feedback on how inspired participants felt about contributing to their local communities,” she said.
“This forum is firmly rooted in rural Queensland, reflecting the unique challenges and opportunities faced by rural women.
“By supporting the skills and capacity within the agriculture sector, together we can become more drought and climate resilient and build flourishing, sustainable communities equipped to make future focused decisions.”

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Ten women attended the Influential Women Community Leadership Forum in Ayr last week

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