Agricultural Town of the Year Award
Voting open
Public voting is now open to determine the top 10 towns of the 2026 Agricultural Town of the Year Award.
You can choose from the 91 towns that were nominated.
Anyone can cast a vote. Voting closes on 3 June 2026.
Vote nowEstablished in 2019, the South Australian Agricultural Town of the Year Award recognises SA towns that excel in agricultural practices and are great places to live and work.
In addition to being recognised as the South Australian Agricultural Town of the Year, the winning town receives:
- town entrance sign recognising their achievement
- certificate and trophy presented by the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development
- community event and sign unveiling to celebrate the town's achievement
- double-page feature in SALIFE magazine
- media exposure
- video and stories published to showcase the achievements of individuals and businesses that have made a significant contribution to the town
- networking opportunities with other regional towns.
The award is an initiative of the Department of Primary Industries and Regions and is delivered in partnership with InDaily. It highlights the vital role that agriculture plays in regional development.
2025 Agricultural Town of the Year winner
The Mallee town of Lameroo has been named the winner of the 2025 Agricultural Town of the Year Award, recognising its pursuit of excellence in agriculture and regional development.
Home to just under 900 people, Lameroo has been recognised for leading the way in sustainable farming, innovation, and agricultural education. The town is making the most of its location and opportunities, using its surrounds to strengthen both local industry and community life.
Lameroo was also commended for its resilience and community spirit during a particularly difficult year, with producers facing prolonged dry conditions.
Lameroo is a town built on innovation, resilience, and community.
From world-class farms and multicultural businesses to women leading in agriculture and community-led services, this town thrives because of its people.
It's this pioneering spirit and the determination of the Mali farmers that makes Lameroo a worthy winner. I think the attitude of the Mali farmer is to sort of make do what with what you've got and make the best of it and really community is intertwined in that as well.
And it's been really wonderful to see the community prosper with a huge amount of care that's gone into the town. The key to ensuring agriculture can thrive out here is being able to have a really strong community.
There's a real sense of volunteering to be able to do some really special things out here that make it a great place to live. Honestly, I think the gem in the crown of Lameroo is our multicultural population.
I think that's something that's really unique. Got a very big South African population. We've had a number of new families move here from Pakistan, directly from India, Bangladesh, and it's fantastic because they've come here and brought their families.
Um, and now I feel it's our role in our town. We love raising our kids here. Um, so we want to show them what we can offer too. A lot of our staff have come from um m migrants from Philippines skilled over on skilled visas. So, these people though haven't just come over, and you know worked a few years and gone back.
They've they're now here 15 20 years later. We had a mums and bubs group which has slowly evolved into our play group and we've called it parents and friends because we wanted to be as inclusive as possible and it's become a really great way to sort of as a catch all for new families that move into the area and it's been a great place for kids to come and practice their English um as well as to practice their social skills which they'll need heading into school.
It's an incredible um industry out here and we probably are the food bowl of the nation. We've been here for 120 years. We're going to be here for many more. I'm a fifth-generation farmer for the Lameroo district and my family uh the Dabinet family has been farming on this land that we are at the moment for over 100 years.
In this district, you can have, you know, for those that are aspirational and career driven, you know, from on farm work right through to management, but even finance. Um there's a career in in the Mali.
I was fortunate 15 years ago to start with the PI group which was in my in my scope was a was a big farm or and it grew from in the last 15 years it grew massively. We invested in a lot of housing so build a lot of houses. We need more big farmers like this that that we invest back in the community so the population can grow.
We've just we've just tend to have had a lot of women in our town um who have gone on to educate and then bring those skills back to our to our area to be able to bring that research and do the trial work in our in our patch. There's nothing better in terms of accelerating that adoption and the innovation in um for the district. They're running the farms.
They're on some incredible industry boards. They're um they're scientists. They're doing some groundbreaking breaking research. We've got um Renee Pi running um you know the PI group which you know they've just built a $44 million factory um Lou Flor um with her incredible um representation um in the broadacre industry.
Bonnie Flor with her work um with CSRO as a scientist um Kim Thorp with Nick Pig. We're progressive. We're innovative. We're inclusive. And I think sustainability is not a buzz word out here. It's because what we're doing we're doing so we can be here for the next hundred years so our kids can be here.
So, our grandkids can be here. I love Lameroo and I can't wait to see what the next hundred years bring. With its thriving farms, welcoming community, and forward-looking spirit, Lameroo proves it's truly a worthy winner of the 2025 Agricultural Town of the Year.