AgriFutures Rural Women’s Acceleration Grant

Stephanie March
South Australia

Stephanie March is a dedicated mother, carer, passionate health advocate, and active farm business manager, deeply involved in her family’s broad acre farming enterprise specialising in cropping and sheep production across the Yorke and Eyre Peninsulas in rural South Australia. With a professional background in occupational therapy, community development, and primary teaching, Stephanie brings a dynamic and versatile skill set to her daily life.

As the mother of a child born with medical challenges, she combines her lived experience with a genuine dedication to advocate for rural families navigating complex healthcare systems. Committed to fostering understanding, empowering families, and ensuring equitable healthcare access for rural communities, Stephanie’s deep connection to farming life and focus on building strong support networks drive her dedication to making a meaningful impact in both agriculture and rural healthcare advocacy.

Catherine Jewell
New South Wales

Catherine Jewell combines a background in forestry and place-based planning with a passion for sustainability and community connection. With degrees in Forest Science and Social Science, and extensive experience facilitating community collaboration and strategic planning in the public service, she is dedicated to fostering meaningful relationships between people and the natural world.

In her 5–9 life, Catherine cultivates seasonal botanicals, including edible flowers, aromatic herbs, and plant-based ingredients, on her property located at the edge of town and farmland in Braidwood, NSW. Guided by a vision of small-scale, sustainable orris root farming, she seeks to connect with nature’s rhythms while exploring innovative ways to make small properties productive and ecologically rich. Balancing tradition and innovation, Catherine integrates eco-friendly practices into all her endeavours, demonstrating how thoughtful stewardship can inspire and sustain both communities and landscapes.

Ceilidh Meo
Victoria 

Ceilidh Meo is the Leading Soil Steward at Apulia Grove Olives, a successful small-scale, mixed farming enterprise in central Victoria. When not actively engaged in farm tasks, Ceilidh designs and delivers educational and outreach programs around rural living skills development and creating successful small farms, as well as establishing local food tourism events.

Based on her experience building business relationships and community within and beyond the olive industry, her current passion is leading the formation of a democratically designed, producer co-operative for small-scale olive growers to help increase their on-farm productivity, profitability, and innovation, and to share this remembered business model with the broader small-scale agricultural sector. Having seen the amount of ownership turnover of olive groves in central Victoria in the past five years, she feels the time is ripe for collaboration over competition.

Megan Bowden
Queensland

Megan Bowden, co-founder and innovative heart behind Dragon Fields Farm, is a dedicated advocate for regenerative sustainable agriculture, dedicated to transforming ways communities connect with food, farming, and the environment. Megan has developed programs such as Dragon Eggs, which aims to bring connection to schools, early education centres, and workplaces. Her constant learning and looking for best practice approaches inspired Dragon Eggs and other programs to connect the next generation to value ethical food production and environmental responsibility.

Megan’s vision extends beyond the farm; she champions community education and accessible agricultural experiences. A creative problem solver with 20+ years of business experience, Megan integrates her small is beautiful and stacked circular enterprise mindset into her work, all the while ensuring the farm remains a model of sustainability and innovation. Through joint leadership of Dragon Fields, Megan continues to empower others to embrace change and make meaningful contributions to a healthier, more sustainable planet.

Tegan Johns
Western Australia 

Tegan John’s story is one of red carpets and red dirt. A seasoned film distribution and exhibition professional, her 25 years of experience in film PR, marketing, and events have taken her across Australia, promoting films and rubbing shoulders with Hollywood’s A-list. Since relocating from Perth to Bolgart in 2018, she has been living and supporting her husband’s family on a 4th generation Merino sheep and cropping enterprise. Both roles leave her feeling immensely fulfilled—she assures us that there are more similarities between managing a chaotic red carpet and working sheep in the yards than one might think.

Recently made redundant from her dream role as WA Publicity Manager at Universal Pictures when the local office closed, Tegan knew her years of experience couldn’t go to waste. She set the wheels in motion for a new project, merging her passion for the screen industry and rural life.

Sally Turner
New South Wales

Sally Turner, run’s a sheep and cropping farm near Trundle NSW with her husband David. Alongside the farm she also runs her own business, Ag Opti Systems which helps farming businesses with HR, WHS, Admin and bookkeeping systems. She’s a passionate advocate for agriculture and has a keen interest in understanding the ecosystems involved in farming and how she can care for the land whilst feeding a growing population. She is also a passionate advocate for rural mental health.

Tammy Schutz
South Australia

Tammy Schutz was raised in a generational Barossa grape-growing family. During her teenage years, she chose a career in viticulture, seizing the opportunity to purchase land at Stonewell in the western Barossa and began planting her vineyard. Sustainability has been the underlying force in her viticultural management plan for many years now, a philosophy she shares with her husband and fellow Vigneron, Stuart. With three sons, they are especially conscious of their roles as custodians of the land.

Tammy and Stuart value the sharing of knowledge which comes from their involvement in viticultural project groups that focus on the challenges of growing fruit for luxury wines and find that this collaboration is vital for continuous improvement. The Barons of Barossa named Tammy & Stuart Schutz as the 2023 Barossa Viticulturists of the Year.