AgriFutures Rural Women's Award
About the award
The AgriFutures Rural Women's Award is a leading accolade acknowledging the essential role women play in rural industries, businesses and communities. It is open to all women across Australia involved in:
- rural industries
- rural and regional businesses
- rural and regional communities.
Applicants must be over 18 years of age, and no formal qualifications are required.
A $15,000 Westpac financial bursary is awarded in each Australian state or territory, providing the financial resources to support a project, business or program that will benefit rural industries, businesses or communities. The initiative may be commercially or non-commercially focused. It must:
- be live, and up and running.
- align with AgriFutures' values.
Award finalists will also receive professional development opportunities and access to alumni networks.
All state or territory winners will participate in a separate national selection panel interview. The overall winner and runner-up will both receive additional grant funds from Westpac. These funds may be used to further progress your winning project or assist in meeting national commitments.
Acceleration grant
The AgriFutures Rural Women's Acceleration Grant is a separate program that complements the Rural Women's Award process, aiming to provide a leadership and development opportunity to women who have a business or project idea that has not yet launched.
Seven Australian women each year will be granted a learning and development bursary (not cash) of up to $7,000 for professional development to enable them to bring their idea, cause or vision to life.
2026 SA Rural Women's Award winner
Narelle Zanker of Mannum, co-founder of Dairy Adventures, was South Australia’s winner of the 2026 AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award.
Recognised for her innovative approach to agricultural education, Narelle combines her experience as a teacher with her passion for dairy farming to create meaningful on-farm learning experiences that connect consumers with food production. Through Dairy Adventures, she is strengthening understanding of Australian agriculture while supporting regional tourism, community engagement and the next generation's connection to farming.
Congratulations to the other two South Australian finalists, Kelly Kuhn also from Mannum for her dark sky tourism experiences, and Hayley Hancock from McLaren Vale for her work transforming insurance for primary industries through her startup insurable. Kelly and Hayley are making important contributions to South Australian regional development and rural communities.
National awards
South Australia winner Narelle Zanker went on to win the national 2026 AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award at a ceremony in Canberra.
Narelle was presented with the prestigious award by the Hon Julie Collins MP, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, in front of 500 industry leaders, politicians and dignitaries from all around Australia.
As the national award winner, Ms Zanker will receive a $20,000 grant from Westpac to support her business, in addition to the $15,000 Westpac grant she received when she won the South Australian award.
Narelle will invest this $35,000 in combined grant funding to upgrade her farm facilities, as she aims to enhance the visitor experience, improve accessibility and develop new opportunities to teach people about dairy farming. She also plans to develop more educational resources and a children’s book about life on a dairy farm.
My name is Narelle Zanker and I live in Mannum, South Australia with my husband Joel on a dairy farm along the Murray River.
My husband and I run a business called Dairy Adventures on a working dairy farm where we welcome visitors onto the farm to educate them in a fun and interactive way about cows, calves, and dairy farming.
The things that motivate me on a daily basis is a love and a passion to get things done.
I would say I'm an extremely hardworking person and if I can get up and achieve something in a day to either be of the benefit to other people but also the benefit of the farm, I'll be out to do it.
Working for my parents is the other part of what I do on the dairy farm. So my day-to-day life can vary a bit. Milking cows, feeding calves, grazing rotations, you name it, anything related to farming. And there's a lot of variety in each and every day.
During my fourth year teaching, I actually started studying my masters in leadership. And it was through that program that I actually was challenged: What do I really love and what do I really want to do with my life?
And it was literally through that that I had a light bulb moment. I was like, oh, I really love cows. I really love farming and I really love education. Is there a way that I can merge both of them together?
And that's when a light bulb moment came. I was like: tours on farms? Surely I could do that?
And then someone told me about agritourism and I didn't know what that meant.
And sure enough, that's when it all kind of started to come together and I resigned and took the leap of faith and came back to the family farm with the intention of merging my two loves into one.
At Dairy Adventures, we offer quite a few different packages.
Two of our key packages are our feeding frenzy experience and another one is our milking memories.
So, our feeding frenzy experience is an experience where people can come fill up buckets with grain using the grain that we've grown from the farm.
They get to bottle feed calves and interact with the calves and see them feed off of a mega feeder.
We tour through the dairy and we explain how the dairy system works.
We explain the technology and what's involved in looking after our cows' health and monitoring them.
Our other key experience is our milking memories where people can come, they can see the cows getting milked, they can milk cows for themselves, see the whole process behind what happens with the milk and putting it into the vat and also a tour around the farm to explain what dairy farming is all about.
The other part of Dairy Adventures which is a really cool part is providing educational experiences virtually, working with schools and Dairy Australia to run virtual classrooms with students all over Australia.
Dairy Adventures is contributing to our local community in more ways than just us.
So we may be a significant tourism attraction for our town, but something that's really exciting is people will take a day trip from Adelaide. They'll travel an hour, come on an experience with us and then they'll head into our local community and they'll go and give back to our community. They'll go to our local shops. They'll go to our cafes, our restaurants. They'll spend some time by the river and they'll reinvest into our local economy.
To win the AgriFutures Rural Women's Award at a national level would mean so much to me.
To educate other people around Australia and connect with them and plant seeds in their own journey to get them excited about where they're going and what ag field that they're in.
If I was named the national winner and received the $20,000 Westpac grant, I would use it in two ways.
The first way would be partnering with Dairy Australia to expand on our resources.
If we can reach thousands of people online in classrooms all over Australia, that would be an absolute dream.
The other part would be on-farm development and continue to improve our experience for visitors.
Hundreds of school groups would be awesome, to have them on-farm, experiencing dairy farming.
To me, it is so important to be an advocate for the dairy industry.
It's so important to engage and encourage our young generation that there is a career in agriculture, that there is something in ag that they could actually do in the future.
The agriculture is far broader and there's so many opportunities that they shouldn't get scared away, but they should find what they're passionate about and run with it.
Kelly Johnson (2025)
Kelly’s Monarto-based agribusiness Woodlane Pantry turns surplus and second-grade produce, purchased straight from farms, into eco-conscious, shelf-stable meals for the hiking, cycling and sailing markets.
Nikki Atkinson (2024)
Nikki’s business Horrocks Vale Collections showcases Merino wool in an innovative way, through sustainable wedding dresses and special occasion wear.
Ali Paulett (2023)
Ali developed the Bush DeVine Australian Native sensory bush food garden – a sensory walking path that supplies unique ingredients to their restaurant at Paulett Wines.
Contact
Tara Donnelly – State Coordinator
Phone: 0461 506 745
Email: tara.donnelly@sa.gov.au
Angela Ruddenklau – PIRSA representative on the SA judging panel
Phone: 0417 519 228
Email: angela.ruddenklau2@sa.gov.au