2020 Victorian AgriFutures™ Rural Women's Award winner and finalists

Congratulations to Kelly Barnes the 2020 Victorian winner of the AgriFutures™ Rural Women’s Award. Kelly was announced as the winner for 2020 at Parliament House in Melbourne on 24 March 2020.

Kelly also represented Victoria in the National Award, announced in October 2021. Learn more about the National and State Winners via the AgriFutures website.

Meet the winner

Kelly Barnes

Kelly wants to establish a Working Dog Training School, small group training of six one-day sessions over a 12-month period.

Kelly lives in Dunkeld and is dedicated to providing ways for rural people to build resilience and connectedness in their communities.

Kelly's training school will provide practical skills in a training environment that supports social interaction and networking with like-minded people.

Kelly will begin her project by establishing a pilot Working Dog Training School for eight local participants.

Congratulations to the following three amazing finalists

Kerryn Wildenburg

Kerryn lives in Kyneton and wants to create a permaculture 'Food Forest' to provide vulnerable community members with a place where they can learn to grow and cook nutritious food.

Kerryn is passionate about creating resilient food sources, and the 'food forest' will support the local community food bank.

Kerryn has worked for Kyneton Caring Community Inc for the past two years and it has given her great experience in managing people and change and enhanced her skills of persuasion and influence.

She is focused on helping and educating her community with her 'food forest' concept.

Jackie Elliott

Jackie is from Byaduk in Western Victoria. Jackie wants to extend on the successful 2019 International Rural Women's Day celebration she coordinated on 15 October.

One way Jackie wants to do that is by creating a toolkit for other communities across Australia to host their own International Rural Women’s Day celebrations.

Jackie knows how important it is to close the isolation gap for rural and regional women, and her 2019 one-day event addressed a community need with 140 attendees.

Jackie is dedicated to connecting and sharing with women in her community.

Katrina van Eyk

Katrina is an experienced swimming coach from Pyramid Hill. Katrina wants to expand on an affordable eight-week summer Learn-to-Swim program in regional communities that uses under-utilised community pools.

Katrina is passionate about teaching safe swimming practices and sees first-hand the many benefits of her Learn-to-Swim program beyond water safety.

Benefits such as community connection and community pools becoming a local meeting place, improved physical and mental health, and upskilling of locals to be qualified swim teachers.