2022 Victorian AgriFutures™ Rural Women's Award winner and finalists

Congratulations to Kimberley Furness - 2022 AgriFutures Australia Victorian Rural Women’s Award winner and national runner up

Kimberley Furness was named the 2022 Victorian Winner at an event in Melbourne in March 2022, receiving a $15,000 grant from Westpac to implement her project. Read the announcement.

As a State/Territory winner, she competes against winners from across the country for the National Rural Women’s Award and a further $20,000 grant from Westpac.

Kimberley was named the National Runner Up at the National Award Gala at Parliament House in Canberra in September 2022. Read the announcement.

Kimberley Furness, Strathfieldsaye

Kimberley is the founder and editor of OAK Magazine - a proudly independent print publication dedicated to female entrepreneurs and women in business in regional and rural Australia.

With a background as a regional journalist, Kimberley loves telling stories about rural and regional women, their endeavours, and the communities they’re a part of, and would like to further build a community where female business owners feel like they can reach out, share their struggles and find kinship with others like them.

Kimberley would like to grow OAK Magazine to become a community ecosystem spanning print, digital and audio by working with dedicated digital specialists, editors, writers and photographers to amplify the voices of rural Australia.

Kimberley wants her daughter, sister, best friend and every other woman to know that their gender and postcode don't determine the career possibilities that are available to them.

Congratulations to 2022 Victorian finalists

Three women were announced as Victorian finalists for the 2022 AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award. Read the media release announcement.

Nikki Davey, Glenmore

Nikki is a co-founder of Grown Not Flown - a digital platform supporting the slow flower movement to reduce flower miles, boost local economies and showcase the best our flower industry has to offer.

With experience as a flower grower, and in digital product development, Nikki is using her skills to help growers showcase their blooms while making it easy for flower consumers to find and buy locally grown blooms.

Nikki would like to add to the existing functionality of Grown Not Flown to include florists, event professionals and other small businesses, while working with marketing specialists to educate flower consumers on the importance of buying local.

Nikki believes that by promoting slow (seasonal) flowers, we're not only helping to reduce flower miles, but also boosting local (micro) economies by encouraging flower consumers to buy local first.

Deborah Bogenhuber, Irymple

Deborah’s work with Food Next Door Co-op supports new migrant farmers to grow traditional and culturally important crops, providing a sense of belonging and connection with the local food system.

With training as an ecologist, Deborah works to build community-led solutions to how we grow, distribute and consume food. Currently, Food Next Door supports 30 new migrant farmers to access land, water, tools and training to grow food.

Deborah’s project is to establish a co-operative small-scale mill facility in Mildura to turn maize grown by this community of farmers into flour. This project will directly benefit farmer members and their families who will be able to grow, mill and eat their own maize.

Deborah hopes this project will demonstrate the viability of collaborative approaches, help to build a sustainable business model for Food Next Door, and change the face of agriculture in rural Australia.