After interviews the preceding Friday, Claire was awarded the honour on the basis of her remarkable perseverance, hard work, and dedication through several personal hardships, including coming through her recent HSC exams with top marks in five of her classes.

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She was recently also recognised with the Dungog Young Citizen of the Year, awarded on Australia Day 2024.

“I love being a representative for my little town, our tight knit community, being able to be a role model for young women in agriculture, and intend to further my skills and experience and gain knowledge on how to improve my town,” Claire told NOTA.

Claire, whose family runs a cattle farm near Stroud, is all about the wider understanding and acknowledgement of the fundamental value of agriculture to Australia’s economy, and to the health of its citizenry.

“I would love people to know where their food really comes from, and to understand what it takes in dealing with pasture losses, cattle in floods, how farmers can lose the food that would feed Australians,” Claire told NOTA.

As well as her day job, Claire is also an active and enthusiastic volunteer with the Stroud SES unit, having joined after a “really exhilarating experience”, an impromptu assist in the rescue of a calf from a flood island in 2022.

“I get to work alongside a lot of inspirational and powerful people, and see what the SES do and see how they can help farmers.”

Next year, Claire will further her academic studies with a dual degree in Agriculture and Business at UNE in Armidale, and hopes to continue her role model work thereafter.

“Because I’m doing agriculture next year, I want to grow my knowledge and be a role model for women in agriculture, like to help get young people, not just females, into agriculture, because it is the future.”

By Thomas O’KEEFE