Marion Rak - President

Contact: 0409 009 878

Marion and her husband Tony have a horticultural property west of Wangaratta, growing cherries, wine grapes and olives. She also runs her own Business Management, Financial Services and Training and Assessing company. These qualifications and skills, along with Occupational Health and Safety and Equal Employment Opportunity exposure, computer skills and a vast knowledge of Governance and organisational protocols are just a few of the strengths that Marion brings to the AWiA.

Marion was a recipient of the Australia Day Community Achievement Award and has also been awarded a RIRDC award for Victoria. She is a graduate of Australian Alpine Valleys Leadership Program and has been on the Board for several years.

Marion’s international exposure includes attending the Rural Women’s International Conferences in Washington D.C. 1998 and Madrid 2003 and she also organised the pre conference horticultural tour of 6 European Countries. Marion is keen to involve women in agriculture and does this through organising and assisting women to attend the Women on Farms Gatherings each year and is involved at a grass roots level with industries throughout Victoria and the wider nation.

Marion Rak has been a member of Australian Women in Agriculture for 12 years and is our current President. With a keen interest in getting more young people involved in agriculture and especially women, Marion’s focus on the board is on the wider AWiA exposure and building our industry connections.

Val Lang AM - Company Secretary - VIC Representative

Contact: 0407 054 823

Val is part of a farming family producing fine wool and cereal, legume and oilseed crops near Lismore in western Victoria. Val has tertiary training in agriculture. She is a graduate of the Australian Rural Leadership Program and has been honoured with an Australia Day Award, AM, for services to rural women.

She has been active for over thirty years in local community organisations including school councils and hospital boards which have translated to active involvement in state and national women's organisations and advisory groups to government.

Val is passionate about inclusive and effective discussions and decision-making and her focus.  Val is the Victorian State Representative and is passionate about lifting the profile of AWiA internationally.  She is also heavily involved in our Projects area which delivers projects supported by grants from Government and other industries.

Vivien Thomson - Vice President

Contact: 0408 282 899

Vivien helps run 3 mixed farming enterprises with her partner, Robert, near Muttama NSW on the South West slopes.

She has been involved in many areas of farming, conservation and firefighting for many years. She is currently the Vice President of Australian Women in Agriculture and works on the national parks Southern Ranges Advisory Committee.

She is a graduate of the Australian Rural Leadership program where she qualified for a graduate certificate in Australian Rural Leadership. She was announced as the runner up for the RIRDC NSW Rural Women's Award in March 2013 and is looking forward to undertaking the Company Director's course in July.

She has always been passionate about ensuring the rural and regional areas get a fair go. She is an advocate in social media to help connect women from all over Australia to help reduce isolation and share our wonderful industries.

Her most recent project was to publish a book that documents the journey of nine firefighters after experiencing a major traumatic event. The subject has never been openly discussed before and it is the first book of its kind.  It is called "Ashes of the Firefighters". She is very passionate to ensure not only our firefighters but our rural communities can recover effectively after experiencing a natural disaster, like a bush fire.

Tonique Bolt - Treasurer

Contact: 0409 378 332

Tonique lives in Thoona, a small town in north east Victoria, where she is the secretary / treasurer/ occasional firefighter for the local CFA and the secretary / treasurer for the Thoona Memorial Hall.

As a practising architect, she has worked for a number of years on the Rural and Regional Health Services program that delivered thirty new multipurpose health facilities across NSW and many aged care and educational buildings.  Since 2003, she has had a small business based in Wangaratta. From here she travels extensively across regional Victoria, southern NSW and the ACT. She understands the difficulties rural communities have acquiring well funded facilities and recognises the importance of liaison with government as this is the major source of infrastructure and facility funding in regional areas.

Much of her work as an architect has involved the preparation of funding submissions that reflect a balance between a cost effective solution, community expectations and recurrent costing pressures.

Tonique has three (adult) children and two smallgrandchildren. In her spare time she is passionate about the garden and photographing our environment, community buildings, churches, graveyards, paddocks, crops, sheds, farm gates etc.

Lauren Brisbane - QLD Representative

Contact: 0438 777 948

Lauren Brisbane has worked in primary industries in Queensland for the past 15 years. She and her female business partner have a small primary industries company that focuses on primary production in niche meat markets and they own competition quarter horses.

On top of being the Queensland Representative for Australian Women in Agriculture (AWiA) and Assistant Secretary, Lauren is currently Chair of the Australian Camel Industry Association Inc. and a Steering Committee Member on the National Feral Camel Management Plan. She has worked with the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation in Queensland (DEEDI - formally DPI) for the past 4 years to develop the camel industry in Queensland as a second income stream for primary producers to provide resilience in drought and management efficiencies in weed management. In 2009 she released a two-year study ‘Camels in Queensland – Opportunities for Diversification’ and ran a national camel conference, which led to the development of the Australian Camel Industry Association.

Lauren lives with her husband and three children in the Glasshouse Mountains in Queensland.  Lauren’s focus for AWiA and Queensland is in the area of networking with AWiA members and encouraging knowledge sharing across industries and innovation

Vacant - SA Representative

Danica Leys - NSW Representative

Contact: 0488 735 351

Marianne St Clair - NT Representative

Contact: 0427 555 484

Marianne St Clair is currently developing a "retirement" block 30kms south of Darwin which focuses on mixed tropical fruit production. Her involvement in agriculture and mariculture spans some 25 years after the completion of her Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Biology. She taught while at Flinders and Adelaide Universities and undertook research projects (Conservation Ecology, Behaviour of Captive Siamang and Ecology of Sygnathidae) before moving to the Top End. Marianne, her husband and son ran several businesses on a property near Katherine, primarily poultry, boarding kennels, consultancies in environmental management and information technology architecture.

Marianne established the Primary Industries Training Advisory Council (NT) in 2002 and continues to work towards the development of the primary industries particularly in Indigenous communities. In this role she supports the Women without Boundaries Network which consists of regional and remote women (and friends) from a wide range of sectors within the primary industries. She is a founding member of the Katherine Regional Food Processing Group and is endeavouring to foster the development of the Value Adding Industries in the NT. Marianne continues to work with Lucas Mills, the family owned portable saw mill company to support and develop timber based enterprises in Aboriginal Communities. Marianne also instigated the reef watch programme (1994), worked with irrigators, community groups, the Southern Vales Water Resources Committee and the Australian Government to divert waste water from a sensitive marine environment to the southern vales to increase irrigation capacity.

Marianne is passionate about the Northern Territory and is the Australian Women in Agriculture’s Northern Territory State Representative and Vice-President. Her focus on the board is supporting the Northern Territory members and promoting its amazing environment, culture and people. Marianne is also keen to bridge the gap between Industry and Government through our Canberra Delegation.

Leonie Hiscutt - TAS Representative

Contact: 0419 361 110

Leonie Hiscutt and her husband Ben, farm on the rich red soils of Tasmanian’s North West Coast. Leonie, besides growing Pyrethrum, agists dairy cattle for farmers in her area. These range from calves, through to heifers and the cows in the winter.

Leonie moved into agri-politics some years ago and was elected to the all male board of the Tasmanian Poppy Growers Association.  Due to the down turn of the poppy prices in the late 90’s, Leonie resigned her position and stopped growing poppies.  She is now the President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in her municipality.  Leonie was recently selected to represent agricultural women on the Tasmanian Women’s Council which has been charged with the responsibility of developing a 5 year plan for the betterment of all women in Tasmania. This council is answerable to the Tasmanian Government.

Leonie is also a tourism operator and has built a self contained accommodation unit on her farm at Howth. She is also a practicing marriage celebrant.  

Leonie is the Tasmanian Representative on the AWiA Board and will focus on continuing to build a strong network with rural women in Tasmania and linking them in with the rest of Australia.

Elizabeth (Liz) Brennan - WA Representative

Contact: 0403 292 158

Elizabeth has facilitated a number of community and agricultural development programs in her home WA Wheatbelt region, across Australia and abroad as an AusAid volunteer in Papua New Guinea. Having completed her Bachelor Business (Marketing and VisualArts) and her Meyers-Briggs (MBTI) Accreditation, she is currently studying a Masters in Sustainable Systems, majoring in Food Security and Agrifood.

Elizabeth is currently employed by Rural Development Australia (RDA) Wheatbelt and has assisted WA RIRDC Rural Women's Award winner, Catherine Marriot, in establishing Influential Women. Aimed at empowering women as agricultural advocates, the new business venture has been successful nationally. Elizabeth has been a member with AWiA for the past two years and in 2012 was nominated as the WA Board Member for Australian Women in Agriculture (AWiA). Previously she had been awarded a scholarship to participate in the AWiA NextGen Leadership and Decision Making in Agriculture program and was also nominated to attend the Slow Food international Congress in Turin, Italy as the WA representative.

She is active in local community organisations and is a member of the RRR Women's Network, Slow Food Avon Valley and Future Farmers. Elizabeth is excited by the opportunities online media creates by re-connecting paddock to plate and empowering traditional knowledge and history between generations.

Donna Digby - General Member Representative

Contact: 0447 040 613

Donna has been living and working in rural and regional communities in Victoria and in the Northern Territory for the past ten years, where her work has focused on working with land managers to implement integrated, sustainable land management programs. She currently lives in Alice Springs with her husband Matt.

Donna has been a member of AWiA for the past two years.  During that time she was awarded a scholarship to participate in the Next Gen Leadership and Decision Making in Agriculture Program in September 2010 (Rd2): assisted with the Next Gen Program (Rd3) in October 2011 and travelled with the AWiA delegation and attended the Global Conference for Women in Agriculture in March 2012 in Delhi, India.

Donna is passionate about networking with other women working in Agriculture in the Northern Territory and Northern Australia; raising the profile of AWiA nationally, creating opportunties for young women to connect, network and develop leadership skills and supporting and promoting sustainable food production in Australia.

Donna brings strong skills in program management and reporting, corporate governance, financial accountability, fostering resilient partnerships and enthusiasm to Australian Women in Agriculture.