Young Aboriginal woman shares agricultural SBAT journey video

Liam (host):

Thanks for joining us today. Can you just tell us a little bit about yourself?

Nellie:

Oh, no worries. So I'm Nellie Witt a proud Worimi indigenous female. I'm currently studying here at the Department of Primary Industries in Wollongbar. And I'm also a school student in year 11 at Alstonville High School.

Nellie:

We come here once every week, so my days are Thursday. So I come out here and work with the farm crew on a Thursday. We do everything in between, vaccinating, cattle, soil tests, things like that. We get to work with the other guys from the labs and the cattle tick team and things. So yeah, a really wide option.

Liam:

Yeah. Awesome bit of variety there.

Nellie:

Yeah.

Liam:

How do you find juggling that with schoolwork? And are you starting an ATAR as well?

Nellie:

Yeah, so I'm actually doing an ATAR at the moment. It's been difficult, but I think once you're at school, it's working consistently to meet the timeframe that you've got to have things done by. But it's really interesting to have the practical side of things as well that we're learning in the classroom every day.

Liam:

Do you find the school's really supportive of that?

Nellie:

Yeah, I actually found out about this job through my Ag teacher and my career's adviser was really, really supportive. So they nominated me for the position and yeah, I just haven't really looked back.

Liam:

Moving forward, career wise. Do you think it's something that you want to do or?

Nellie:

Yeah, definitely. For me, it's something that I want to do. I'd hope that having all the training we've had here at the DPI, that it's something that at the end of it, there's a full time position comes up. But yeah, if not, definitely moving down the field of agriculture, taking the skills and stuff that we've learnt from here with us.

Liam:

That's great. And I've heard you got a little bit to boast about as well, you've been recently successful lately with a bit of showing...

Nellie:

Yeah, I've shown cattle for the last seven years myself. So coming into this position was very welcoming. This year with the help of our farm supervisor, Michael, who is from a feedlotting background. We were able to establish the Department Primary Industry's first ever livestock show team. So we sent 10 head from here to the Brisbane Ekka show. So they competed up there in the paddock to plate and carcass competition. But yeah, we had some really great results, so we're pretty chuffed about that.

Liam:

Yeah, should be proud. Sounds awesome. And also heard that you do a little bit of other work as well, around that representing women as well.

Nellie:

Yeah.

Liam:

What can you tell me about that?

Nellie:

In 2018, I won the North Coast National teen showgirl, and ever since then, I've kind of had a bit of a passion for promoting the importance of women in agriculture. I've been really blessed here to be mentored by one of our full time farm members, Kimberley Phelps. Kimberley's definitely been a big support for me to get through a working life in a male dominated industry.

Liam:

So, for you personally, being a young woman coming into the agriculture industry. Do you have any advice for anyone else out there who's thinking about it?

Nellie:

Definitely, as a young female, it hasn't been easy. I know myself and Kimberley have both been told, you can't do it, it's a blokes job, whatever. But I think here we're very lucky. We've got a really supportive team and the boys just treat us as no different, we're one of the workers, we all work together to get the job done.

Nellie:

But you know, for other young females, definitely try and push through the hard time. If someone says something, don't let it define you, raise up, be above it, know that you can do it yourself and yeah, just get in and give it a crack. That's all you can do. What's the worst thing that can happen if someone tells you no. So give it a go.

Liam:

Well, that's fantastic. I really think you're leading by example there you're setting a really good standard.

End of transcript.