Lucinda Corrigan, Bowna
CONTACT DETAILS
'Old Renny Lea, Bowna NSW 2642
Ph: 02 6020 2032
Email: rennylea@bigpond.com
Life experiences are cumulative. Luck doesn’t happen overnight.
Lucinda Corrigan is a strong woman who has thrived working in the once typically man’s world of agriculture. She and husband Bryan own a very large multi-property cattle genetics enterprise from a farm in the Murray Valley east of Albury. Their business features 900 performance recorded cows. In 1994 they won the Seedstock Producer of the Year award which opened doors to many new opportunities. Over the past 22 years their business has become the largest seller of Angus genetics at auction in NSW. They have three children - two studying at university and a son about to go into Year 12.
What gave you the motivation/inspiration to follow your dream?
I had a wonderful childhood growing up with my four siblings on a western NSW sheep station at Darlington Point. My father died aged 44 when I was 13 and this turned our lives upside down. My mother returned to Sydney after my father’s death, having little affinity with the property. ‘Noonameena’ was sold five years later in 1975 to cover death duties. My plan was always to work in livestock and return to the country. After completing a degree in Ag Science I started working in agribusiness and then in the goat industry for eight years, becoming CEO of the Australian Cashmere Growers Association, which had 1600 members. It was exciting times travelling across Australia on a shoestring budget watching a new industry grow.
At what point did you realise that your dream was actually possible and what was it that made you think you could really do it?
When I met my husband things really began to fall into place - although nothing is ever that straightforward! Bryan’s family had been in the area since the 1860s and he was in business with his eldest brother. It was a very old-fashioned set-up with the usual family farm complexities. As farming was my profession too, I knew things needed to be sorted out, so in my first week there I suggested we have a meeting. The business was successfully split within a year and a half. This allowed all of us to manage our enterprises as we wished. With a small property I’d bought with the help of my father’s estate, and Bryan’s inherited 400 hectares, we were able to start a mixed livestock business and steadily grow it into the substantial cattle enterprise we have today. I continued to work for the Cashmere Growers Association from home until our second child was born. In the mid 90s we sold the goats and in the 2002-03 drought we offloaded the sheep and decided to focus on cattle. We recognise we are now very focused specialist genetics producers, and that is where our strengths are.
When you were a child, what did you want to ‘be’ when you grew up?
I have always wanted to do what my father had done and work on the land.
How did your childhood influence you in later life?
My childhood experiences with my father, in the shearing shed and in the paddocks with the merinos, sowed the seeds for my love of farming. I was always really clear that agriculture would be my future and I never equivocated from that dream. That has developed into all the other important parts of the equation, including the environment, the industry and the community.
Who are your role models?
There are three primary female role models that come to mind. Betty Archdale was the principal of Abbotsleigh where I went to school. She was the most extraordinary person. She’d been captain of the English Cricket team, emigrated to Australia, and was head of Women’s College before taking over at Abbotsleigh. She made us believe women could do anything. Helen Newton Turner is another role model. I won the Helen Newton Turner Medal in 2007, and Helen is someone I always admired. [The Medal is awarded to provide encouragement and inspiration to those engaged in animal genetics. It is named in honour of Dr Newton Turner, a CSIRO scientist dedicated to genetic improvement of sheep for wool production.] The third female role model is the author and corporate high flyer Jill Ker Conway.
I’ve also had many fine ethical male mentors throughout my life who have taught me so many practical things. I have been fortunate to have worked with some of the most experienced chairmen in rural research and development in Australia, such as David Crombie, Alex Campbell and Andrew Inglis, to name a few.
What does success mean to you?
The starting point for me has been to understand what it is I want to be and do. What do I want to be remembered for? I’ve worked out I don’t necessarily want to be happy … for me it is more about being worthwhile. That is what really drives me and gives me the buzz. We have a lot of students and young people visit and I enjoy helping them to follow opportunities and introduce them to people who may be able to help their career. RecentlyI had a mother come to me to tell me her son had been offered a job through an introduction I had made. This is one example of what really gives me a feeling of success.
What has been one of the biggest barriers you have had to face, what happened, and how did you overcome it?
The potential for self-doubt when the head and heart collide is the only barrier that I can see. I recently read a book by Ayaan Hirsi Ali [Somali/Dutch feminist, writer, and politician] who, despite significant disadvantage, never saw barriers to achieving what she was passionate about. If I look at women like her or other people who’ve had challenging childhoods, I realise we in the West have no real barriers ... our barriers are inside us and it is up to us to manage them.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years time? What is your vision for the future?
As long as I am healthy, I want to be leading at a national level for change in rural and regional Australia and work at the corporate board level on some big companies in areas where I think I can make a difference. Plus the balance of business and family, always a juggling act!