Local grazier on Royal stage

The Southern District display, one of 5 district displays, was designed by Currawang grazier Margie Fitzpatrick and has been 6 months in the making and took ten full days to install. It’s the 13th time Fitzpatrick has designed the display and, being Australian Year of the Farmer, she decided on a theme of ‘Women in Agriculture’.

Fitzpatrick said “I’m focusing on all different roles whether it be wool and beef production, genetics, education and planning or rural community support.”

The display was constructed around 20 panels, depicting a wide range of rural women from the district. Each image is painted and then meticulously filled with various seeds such as millet, canola, rice, linseed, sesame seeds and egg shell grit

Dorothy Griggs, mother, grazier, and farm manager from Araluen has been living at ‘Yang Walley’ for 60 years. Yang-Walley means ‘richest valley’ in Chinese and reflects the farm’s past in supported the miners during the gold rushes. Dorothy's family have run a Hereford stud for 60 years.

Some of the other women depicted in the display include NSW Farmers Association president and Gunnedah grazier, Fiona Simson, Breadalbane based Landcare and Lachlan Catchment management Authority officer Mary Bonet, Breadalbane woolgrower Jenny Bell, Marulan Alpaca farmer Wendy Billington, rural educator Susan Ange, soil scientist Christine Jones, beef grazier and Crookwell zone Showgirl winner Jasmine Nixon, Taralga agribusiness woman, Felicity Wheelwright and tussock tamer Alison Elvin.

The next generation of farmers is also represented in a portrait of Margie’s daughter, Emma Lipscomb, who studies agriculture at Frensham School, Mittagong. Locals will see familiar faces in youngsters Madeleine and Annabelle Hannan from Breadalbane in another panel, depicting the industry’s future.

The portraits are surrounded arrangements fruit and vegetables, fleeces, hay, grain, apples from Batlow and much more.