Women living in rural, regional and remote (RRR) Queensland are courageous, generous, powerful and inspiring. They are achievers who get things done and play a key role in their communities.
2023 RRR Women celebrates it’s 30 year anniversary. So to honour the inspiring, hardworking rural, regional and remote women in Queensland, RRR Women’s 30 Year Anniversary Awards will shine a light on RRR women and connect, develop and inspire them to make their mark through renewed alumni community recognition. Using their skills, talents and ingenuity, these women are working in their communities, building their businesses, and leading the way for the next generation.
These are ‘grass roots’ awards that aim at identifying those who underpin our communities, the quiet achievers and those that deserve to be acknowledged.
Across four categories including RRR Woman of the Year, the awards hone in on women who are leading the way, lifting others up, creating products and services, and building tight-knit communities. We want to honour women who are visionary, innovative, entrepreneurial and role models for other women to aspire to.
Women in metropolitan areas are an incredible source of support and inspiration for RRR Women. We therefore have a specific category that is also open to women from metropolitan areas ‘RRR Women Champion of the Year’.
SHINE THE LIGHT ON YOU’RE THE WORK THAT’S CLOSE TO YOUR HEART!
The RRR Women Awards Program is a great platform to acknowledge your work, the work of an organisation or a community in rural, regional and remote areas, and a chance for others to nominate the women who are achieving great things.
Winners will have the chance to share the work they’re doing with the whole of the RRR Women’s network – to raise awareness to their causes and businesses with strong, influential women right across the state. Winners also receive a trophy and the ability to use RRR Women’s winner logo on their websites, social media and collateral.
The RRR Women’s Awards is a peer-reviewed recognition of your work within business, volunteering or your community. The judges are people who understand the challenges and joys of living in rural, regional and remote communities.
We put the call out for nominations via our e-newsletter and our social media platforms, asking our members to nominate the women in their areas that inspire them or who they feel deserving of recognition for the work they’re doing, the way they’re doing it and the results they’re achieving.
The nominations are then collated and forwarded to an independent judging panel, headed up by Susan Escott, a previous RRR Women Executive Support Officer who now lives outside of Queensland, giving us some arms-length on the judging of the awards.
Twelve finalists were selected from among the nominations. These finalists have been highlighted on our social media platforms in the last few weeks, so if you’re in need of some inspiration I highly recommend getting on and having a read of their profiles. Each and every one of you can support these amazing women by following them on social media, especially those who are running rural businesses. The winners have been announced during our AGM on the 2nd December 2023.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS OF THE
2023 RRR WOMEN’S AWARDS
This award recognises young role models making an impact in their community, inspiring youth to think outside the box, follow their dreams and take action to put these dreams into motion.
The RRR Woman of the Year is the chief of our awards program. This award recognises a woman or women-led endeavour that is making a difference to rural, regional and remote communities. She/they are leading the way on farm, in town or in business. They are actively involved and go above, breaking new ground in their chosen field. They may be an entrepreneur, a charity worker, or a role model for others in her community.
This award recognises the unsung heroes and leaders who are passionate about rural, regional and remote Queensland, building strong communities, helping others and improving the lived experience of the people around them.
The RRR Woman of the Year Award shines a light on their work and exists to give them the recognition they deserve.
The first regional Board Member to be elected to the board of Massage and Myotherapy Australia, Stacey is truly an advocate for bringing skills to rural, regional and remote Australia and creating career pathways for those wanting to build and maintain career skills in the Outback.
“Growing up in the country, high school curriculum was limited, public transportation was non existent and if you wanted a career that wasn’t a trade there was no option but to relocate. For me to study Massage Therapy and become a Health Fund Provider, I negotiated my own course structure with the Australian Institute of Applied Sciences.”
The financial and emotional strain required to complete her qualification, not only for herself but her husband and kids, inspired Stacey into action, to help other people wanting to study or continue their professional development from rural and regional areas.
Stacey was successful when writing submissions to Registered Training Organisations, advocating for campus structures and course flexibility to accommodate regional Queenslanders in their pursuit of becoming a massage therapist. She also created scholarship programs with Massage and Myotherapy Au, that allows regional Australian massage therapists access to post graduate study at no extra cost.
This award recognises young role models making an impact in their community, inspiring youth to think outside the box, follow their dreams and take action to put these dreams into motion.
The RRR Young Woman of the Year is an entrepreneur, trailblazer, inventor or performer aged between 16 – 25 years.
Shané is one to watch in the future. She’s committed to her values and is a passionate supporter of the health and wellbeing of rural communities and the environment.
This award recognises a woman who demonstrates exemplary leadership and has made significant contributions that support RRR women and the challenges they face due to distance and isolation.
The RRR Women Champion of the Year empowers and supports other women by building honest relationships, valuing input, and leads by example. She is changing the landscape for RRR Women through her activity within a community or government organisation, making significant contribution to policy, programs or services that have promoted, supported or improved services for RRR women in a high priority area.
This award is also open to women in metropolitan areas. This award focuses on philanthropic work and volunteering.
Lyn is a leader, trailblazer, chopper pilot, farmer and advocate for all outback businesswomen. Lyn is extremely passionate about rural and remote children education, beef cattle industry, eco-tourism in helping educate our city cousins about the paddock to plate concept and importance that every family needs a farmer.
Newly established charity @bushedaustralia is one of Lyn’s most recent achievements. Lyn identified the need to support the education of rural and remote children, and the family members who devote their time to educating their children. BushED delivers resources to support the access top quality education, health care and disaster assistance to Australians who are geographically isolated.
Lyn’s an active member of the Einasleigh community, lending her time and experience across an incredible range of charities and community groups.
At home she runs the farming enterprise alongside the @gilbertonoutbackretreat, a 5 star luxury private eco-tourism venture.
This award recognises a woman or women-led enterprise whose business/organisation has grown in leaps and bounds. We are looking for an enterprise that has the qualities of vision, innovation, entrepreneurial drive, leadership, individuality, tenacity and demonstrates their commitment to rural women and community building.
The RRR Emerging Enterprise of the Year is the founder or significant stakeholder in a small to medium-sized business, with demonstrated growth in their product or service, or holds their own in an emerging field or areas of focus.
Since 2009, the @CrackupSisters have delighted crowds at ag shows, rodeos, award dinners and music festivals with a range of dance, knockabout acrobatics, stock whip cracking and spinning hilarious yarns.
Co-creator @Amanda Lyn Pearson lives and breathes outback life. In 2015 she bought a half-demolished home on Winton’s main street… over time the original plan, simply a home for The Crackup Sisters, grew into a larger vision… an outback arts precinct!
Thanks to funding from Arts Queensland the Winton Arts Precinct wholistically celebrates outback architecture, resourcefulness, generosity, sharing of skills, and permaculture. Collaboratively engaging local and regional artists with a shared vision has allowed everyone’s creativity to drive the outcome of the project.
Through the Arts Precinct project, Winton is being acknowledged as a creative community. Amanda Lyn says “Art is something that expands our minds. It has been incredible to see the conversation around town, people giggle, become buoyant and light up when they see the creations.”
