NSW Rural Women's Award finalists Mary Howard, a prawn trawl business operator, Kate Schwager, cotton farmer and rural towns website designer, and Cath Ford, macadamia and coffee grower.

Cotton farmer and rural towns website designer Kate Schwager has been named the 2006 RIRDC NSW Rural Women’s Award winner.

Kate, from Wee Waa in the State’s northwest, won the award in recognition of her efforts to promote rural towns and their links toa griculture, as well as her contribution to the cotton industry.

'Kate has created a rural towns website project that promotes the role of agriculture in small towns and also helps attract tourists to regional areas,' Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald said.

'She is also well-regarded for her experience in the cotton industry. She runs a successful cotton and wheat share-farming enterprise and is publicity officer for WIN-COTT (the Women in Cotton Network).

'Seven years ago she began developing websites to promote her local community and generate extra income opportunities.

'She has now developed a Rural Towns Package based on her original weewaa.com website and wants to share her learnings with other rural communities.

'Kate is an excellent example of a rural woman who has the initiative and determination to make things happen.'

Mr Macdonald also congratulated this year’s runner-up Mary Howard, a prawn trawl business operator.

'Mary has worked very hard to promote the commercial fishing sector over the years and her efforts are truly inspiring,' he said.

'She has 30 years experience in the commercial fishing sector and today runs a prawn trawling business on the lower Hawkesbury River with her husband and two sons.

'I wish her all the best in her efforts to create new promotional tools about commercial fishing and provide information on strategies that help deliver sustainability and profitability in the prawning industry,' he said.

Finalist Cath Ford from Rosebank on the State’s north coast was also recognised for her efforts to create support networks for women working in the macadamia and coffee bean industries.

Mr Macdonald said all three finalists had submitted excellent proposals, and this year’s judges faced a tough task in selecting the winner.

The annual awards are designed to recognise the outstanding contribution women make in primary industries. The NSW awards are coordinated by the Department of Primary Industry’s (DPI) Rural Women’s Network.

This story appears in Agriculture Today.