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We're going behind the scenes to see and understand modern agriculture, because no matter whether you're in it or not, you probably don't know all the pieces to just how incredible, diverse and multi-layered agriculture is. We do this by uncovering the real stories, experiences and voices of modern agriculture.
Unknown Speaker 0:01
G'day and welcome back to another episode of the humans of agriculture podcast back on home soil and this episode was recorded up in Gander windy at the beginning of January now, I don't think I'll say this very often, but I genuinely think in the 220 Something episodes that we've done so far. This one is well and truly up there with one of the most extraordinary stories, and I'm so excited to share it with you. Today I'm sitting down with Nigel Cornish, he's a farmer from the gander windy area, up in Southern Queensland. He's got properties in northern New South Wales, as well. Now, I don't even know where to start with night. He's a Nuffield scholar. He is the chair of ability agriculture is a father of three kids. And part of his story is that he was born with cerebral palsy. It's shaped so much of his life and outlook, and was fostered in human drive to be adaptive and think outside the box. And this week's episode nine talks about the moments of frustration, the desire to be normal, and when he learned to embrace and acknowledge his disability, how it actually could become a bit of a superpower. Why I say that is not only is he absolutely kicking goals, he's an extraordinary person. But he has been named in his early 30s Cotton grower of the year, the following year, he was young Australian Farmer of the Year is a Nuffield scholar, he is so incredibly humble and passionate. And I'm so excited for you guys to listen to it. So let's get into it.
Unknown Speaker 1:26
Now, the courage of being an observer from the sidelines seen seeing your name pop up in various places, but I need to flag there's a whole lot of your story that I'm not aware of. And I'm really excited to find out a whole lot more about it. But here's my a couple of notes. 2022 2012 Cotton Grove, the Yep. 2013 young Australian Farmer of the Year. Not sure if we were meeting down the pub for the first time, how would you introduce yourself to me? Pretty quiet sort of guy. Ollie, so certainly wouldn't mention that I'd sort of won those accolades or awards. I'm pretty, pretty humble sort of person. So very passionate about agriculture and farming. So if we met each other, first time and down on the pub, we would be certainly talking about farming and agriculture and sort of what we do on farm and so forth. And more say, getting to know you and sort of what your past and history is about. So I've just love getting to know people and learning about their story as well. And I think we can cover maybe just some of the different people that have influenced you in different places. You've been through the Nuffield scholarship and in various other community groups and organisations you've been involved in. But first up, tell us a little bit about the gathering the area, your family, and what you guys are doing up here. Yep. So very unique situation only. We're sort of born and bred in Ghana, windy and lived here all my life, and particularly with the family that all my siblings are involved in agriculture. So all farming, actively farming. So I think that's quite unique in its own. So the canowindra community. He's been fantastic to us, since we've lived here. And family moved here in 1979. They moved up from Maury, they'll share farming here for a few years. And I guess our background is from sort of central New South Wales sort of Danny do Dubbo area
Unknown Speaker 3:20
came up here to Gander windy, bought mundane, which is a family property. It was a grazing property back then, and my parents were actively looking at sort of converting it to dryland cropping. Then, fortunate enough along the way, I met some really good people getting involved in the cotton industry. So I looked at developing some irrigated cotton country. And that was in 1982, was our first cotton crop. And I guess they say the rest is history. It's just been phenomenal journey, and ride for the family been very successful, and been able to support the family up until now. So it's been really good. And the gardener in the community has had a huge role to play in that. And I think what I've learned, growing up over the years is giving back to the community is so important. And it is definitely a special community. I think we've only been here for a week or so. But God, I feel like I've been adopted by going to India. Yeah, it's just so so unique to Ghana when these are solely basically farming or agriculture. Dominant so there's no real other industries here in town. So it's all all based around agriculture and the supporting industries. So whether that's manufacturing also hold plays a huge part in Ghana, winiso Doctors, Dentists, etc. And then we've also got the accountants etc solicitors in town into so such a unique community that everyone supports each other. And so you you've mentioned that all your siblings that
Unknown Speaker 5:00
I have two older brothers and a twin sisters era. Yep, yep, that's right.
Unknown Speaker 5:04
Yep, yep. So Simon, my oldest brother, he's, he's farming with my brother Brett. They're in partnership on the home property now. Aaron's married to Alex and they're going to farm out among and die. And then myself and Ness, my wife farming up at Condamine. Now, so Yeah, lovely. keeping you busy. Yeah, absolutely. Well, tell me a little bit about.
Unknown Speaker 5:28
Yeah, the childhood the four of you running around the farm, what did it look like? Us is amazing. Childhood sort of experienced growing up in, in a country Ollie, just having that wide open spaces having having the environment to live in. So spent a lot of time fishing on the river waterskiing at Berber lagoon, sort of just spending a lot of time riding around the farm on motorbikes mastering those sorts of things. Sort of going down the paddock, watching the machinery, watching the sunsets at picking time and so forth are some of my greatest sort of memories as a child, and also living in a really good community. So our sport was a big part of our sort of childhood. So whether that was cricket, or junior rugby, those sorts of things were very special as well. To the outside observer, it sounds like that that lifestyle hasn't really changed. If I'm thinking about the weekend you just had as well. Yeah, that's exactly right. So very fortunate enough that we're bringing our kids up exactly the same way, whether that's sort of water, water skiing, Junior sport, so forth, are getting some amazing opportunities sort of growing up in the country. So nice.
Unknown Speaker 6:51
I guess there's a few different parts of your story. I think Nuff said we'll get to.
Unknown Speaker 6:55
But I know
Unknown Speaker 6:58
that you grew up your mom has cerebral palsy. Yep. And how did you go as a young fella growing up in a rural community was it challenging, it was all a bit all I was very lucky to be in a unique situation where I was born with cerebral palsy. So I was very lucky that I didn't know any difference, or growing up, but in saying that, it still was very, very challenging. And I'm sure we'll talk about it later. But it's certainly had a major effect on my life.
Unknown Speaker 7:27
The big thing to me that at a young age, I just felt so different. That included sort of being pulled out of school to get a lot of treatments. So whether it's physiotherapy or speech therapy, on spend at least sort of sort of one or two hours, sort every second or third day outside of the classroom. So from that point of view, I felt very different in sort of isolated to a certain degree that it wasn't part of the sort of main group of the kids in the class, but in saying that I could keep up and I wasn't the best at cricket or was in the best rugby league but I certainly had a go and they always include envy to be part of the be part of and that was that was pretty special. And certainly a lot of people went out of their way to make sure that I was okay. And sort of part of the
Unknown Speaker 8:18
part of the group and enjoying myself so yeah, I had a great childhood even I had cerebral palsy, a lot of frustrations a lot of along the way. Water skiing was probably one of my biggest frustrations it probably took me sort of two or three years of sort of attempt after attempt and probably over I know probably 200 attempts at sort of trying to get up and
Unknown Speaker 8:43
yeah, just just being so frustrated at myself but but just persistence and patience really shows that it does pay off and never forget the first Dale's be able to get up by waterskiing. And
Unknown Speaker 8:58
yeah, it's pretty special, even to the small things like timeline shoe laces I couldn't do so forth until I was about 15 or 16 years of age. So those little things were very frustrating for me, but
Unknown Speaker 9:14
you very much able to live a normal, active life. And one of the biggest, I guess, achievements I'd thought at a very young age was when my parents bought me a
Unknown Speaker 9:27
motorbike when I was I think it was my 12th birthday. And that was a game changer in my lifetime because up until that stage because there was a right hand throttle on the motorbike. I could never ride a two wheeled motorcycle so it was just sort of very big frustration in my life and they came up with an idea of adapting a thumb throttle on the left hand side.
Unknown Speaker 9:52
Which was just the game changer for me. It allowed me to sort of ride around the farm and sort of ride around when we were
Unknown Speaker 10:00
brothers and sister and friends, and it was just such a great experience. And it learnt, I'd certainly learned to young age, certainly adaptivity and sort of adoption of sort of things you can do thinking outside the box was very important. So that's certainly something I've carried through life as well. And meant that you had your own motorbike to that no one else was going to take. Yeah, certainly did. So I want to come back and chat to that. Because I think
Unknown Speaker 10:30
I think what would be fascinating is is this determination and kind of the grip that you had, whether it was waterskiing or playing cricket or whatnot, and it's certainly something I've learned over recent period with my work with ability, agriculture, that determination, that sort of thinking differently, which disabled people have, which is, I think is a phenomenal asset. Yeah. And I think well, and this is where that diversity comes in, in so many different ways. Like, I was having a conversation with someone recently. And the way I was thinking was like, Well, here's the example. I was running late to Maury airport to pick up.
Unknown Speaker 11:10
And, and I was like, Oh, just organised someone else to pick her up. And take it apart for be in my head. I was thinking that Skype, someone said to me, they were like, holy like, to firstly on the job, a stranger picking her up, do you think? And I just thought, like, that blind spot has just been picked up straightaway. Yeah. And I think that's it. But that is, for me, it's such a simple example. But then this is where these conversations and why it's so important in agriculture, that we have the groups, but also the space where it's like, yeah, I have the input into the conversation, because my blind spots, you'll pick up things, and ultimately, we're all better for it. No, that's exactly right. You mentioned like, the broader effect that cerebral palsy and, and growing up with a disability is having me off. Tell me more about that.
Unknown Speaker 11:57
Basically,
Unknown Speaker 11:59
I think he just living with it, you obviously doing a lot of things
Unknown Speaker 12:04
along the way that other people aren't. So whether that's treatment, I was actually going down to Brisbane, sort of on a monthly basis when I was growing up. And putting in that extra effort, I think, really made me think that I guess the effort and the things you put in in life will we all get back in return. So certainly at a young age, the determination of
Unknown Speaker 12:31
actually, whether simple as doing daily exercises, so forth, that I had to do growing up and still do that it really gives you a determination that you need to put him in 100 110% effort.
Unknown Speaker 12:48
And really give back to yourself, but also the community as well. So it's certainly something
Unknown Speaker 12:56
I've always been
Unknown Speaker 12:59
sold in the back of my mind is always to give 110% Whatever you do, but also giving back to the community as well. And that's what sort of cerebral palsy in sort of being disabled has allowed me to sort of achieve or be be part of my life over my lifetime. Now, I'd love to know, what have you learned about being current and not being too hard on yourself? Very good question, Ali. And this probably leads me to sort of one of my big sort of life changing events in my life time, which was sort of having a mental breakdown, when I was sort of about 24 years of age, and getting diagnosed with depression. So basically, he, you hit the nail on the head, when you say accept acceptance with yourself. And up until that age, I didn't, I really put a lot of pressure on myself that I had to keep up
Unknown Speaker 13:54
and had to be our normal to a certain degree.
Unknown Speaker 13:59
The big thing was around that sort of like teenagers, early 20s, as well couldn't keep up
Unknown Speaker 14:06
with with my friends, and whether like particularly playing rugby or so forth at that stage where suddenly
Unknown Speaker 14:15
Yeah, I just felt very isolated, because I couldn't keep up with my friends and
Unknown Speaker 14:21
we all know, sort of particularly after playing rugby that you know, it takes a week to recover from a game where it was literally taking me sort of two or three weeks to recover because my body was at sort of sore and sorry for itself that basically I just couldn't couldn't do it anymore. And at the same time I was living by myself on the farm. And just a lot of internalised thing things wasn't wasn't good. I was always down on myself, particularly with my disability, particularly working on farm during the physical activities were sort of whether it was changing points on a plan or or changing
Unknown Speaker 15:00
and sort of shear pins on the
Unknown Speaker 15:03
river, I couldn't do or I could do those things. But it was took me a lot longer. And I just got so frustrated with myself doing it, which would sort of lead to a breakdown, unfortunately, and which led to sort of depression for a period of time. It wasn't probably for my parents, it really noticed the sort of situation I was in wasn't until I started seeing a psychologist and really reflecting back on my childhood. And it wasn't until that stage in my life where I realised I'd put so much pressure on myself to be normal, I haven't really accepted that I'd had a disability, and wasn't sort of comfortable talking about it, and so forth. And once I accepted that, it was sort of my life changed forever, which was, which was brand new. And I guess the rest is history after that. So asking for help can be so important, and so freeing, and as you say that, that weight off your shoulders. Someone who had has had a huge impact on your life has been your twin sister. So tell me a little bit about like, what it was like growing up with a twin? And how how did you guys, I guess work together? And and what's that relationship? Like? Yeah, that's a very good question, Ali. So Aaron, my twin sister. Very interestingly enough, when I was about three or four months of age, I wasn't diagnosed with cerebral palsy until I was about six months of age, I think. And the first thing my parents noticed was Aaron starting to do things for me, so sort of hand things to me or sort of just do things for me then. And that hasn't really changed for the rest of our lives. So Aaron was very good, and very close, sort of talking, for me sort of standing up, sort of doing a lot for me, she was certainly the leader of the pack, when we were going up. So very important person in my life and did a lot for me, growing up, particularly through childhood, which was just fantastic. And quite interesting enough, warm, very close. So my parents will, will both plan to go off to boarding school, and they actually sent Erin off a year early, just so they could allow some separation and sort of, for me to get some worldly knowledge and independence for myself before I headed off to boarding school. So But certainly, I think all twins have a such a special relationship with their twin because you spend so much time together. And there's certainly a sixth sense sort of thing going on where sort of when she's down and out or had has some significant something happened, that I certainly can tell and sort of know when to reach out, which is just fantastic. So very lucky to have a twin in your life. So an amazing connection. I think
Unknown Speaker 18:09
you mentioned a few times about this, this the pressure on yourself to be normal. But I think
Unknown Speaker 18:15
if you look at, I guess the achievements and accolades, you've got like, everyone's unique, there's nothing Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 18:23
And I remember growing up only one of the, I guess defining moments was that we used to do a lot of clubs swimming and used to go around to all the different competitions around Southern Queensland and never won anything or never sort of got on on a podium. And we went up to swimming carnival okey, and fortunately, there's only three people in the inner breasts. I think it was 50 metre breaststroke and thought you beauty, this is my perfect opportunity, I'm gonna get finally get on a podium, I didn't care if there's going to be third, I just wanted so desperately to be on the podium. Anyway, lo and behold, did the race, I wasn't too far behind the other competitors. But I was just so happy that I was gonna get third and be able to get on the podium. Anyway, after the race, the official came up to me and disqualified me not doing the correct stroke after I was just so devastated and something that sort of a life lesson that you for me that was that you just need to be so accepting. And so because he was just doing his job, he was just sort of doing his singing here. I was so desperate to see just get on the podium. So it was just great for me to
Unknown Speaker 19:41
I guess have those setbacks at a young age and really have an understanding of sort of what other people's thoughts and
Unknown Speaker 19:49
ideas are to be accepting of all people and that you are sort of running your own race to a certain degree. So and sometimes the rules aren't in your favour. Yep, yep, that's exact
Unknown Speaker 20:00
Tierra so what was it like when you got the accolades? 2012? Cottage Grove the year 2013? Young Australian farmer? Yes. Certainly one of the meats you so definitely the cotton farm of year was certainly a big surprise to me. And certainly being so young, I think I was the youngest person ever to receive that award. I think 2012 Just trying to think what age or would have been
Unknown Speaker 20:29
11 years ago, yeah, 11 years ago, so I was about 3030 years of age. And it was, yeah, it was so
Unknown Speaker 20:40
rewarding just to be
Unknown Speaker 20:44
sort of recognised by the peers in your industry. Because I've, I've held the sort of leaders and of the coding industry with such high respect and to sort of being a presence and be recognised by that sort of group of people was, was Yeah, sort of very, very humbling.
Unknown Speaker 21:01
I have to thank sort of the likes of Ben Colton.
Unknown Speaker 21:05
Today, he was the local Cotton Growers Association, chair, I've been sort of on the local committee for about three or four years. And he just threw me, he wanted to step down because he was moving up to be on the board of Namoi cotton. So literally threw me into the chair of the local Cotton Growers Association. And that was the defining moment in my life as well, because suddenly, I was responsible and accountable for a group of probably about 40 or 50 girls in the local McIntyre
Unknown Speaker 21:42
Valley, here was sort of representing them. And that was, that was in about 2007. Eight, that I took that
Unknown Speaker 21:53
sort of position on. And yeah, that was such a game changer that suddenly here was because I'd always, particularly my cerebral palsy board has been sort of quiet, sort of not a leader,
Unknown Speaker 22:07
whatsoever. And that sort of propelled me into a position where I had to be a leader and had to sort of represent these growers,
Unknown Speaker 22:15
whether it was locally, state level or national level. And that was, that was certainly very rewarding. And I was chair of the local CGA for about six years. And that was sort of a very rewarding experience. And,
Unknown Speaker 22:33
again, one of the key lessons I learned out of that is sort of giving back to the community and local people. And also, the more you put in and more effort you give to a position, the more you get results, the more you get
Unknown Speaker 22:50
sort of things back, which is just fantastic. So that sort of experience sort of led me into the sort of growth of the year position, will doing some really good things on the farm and that stage particular answer the nitrogen trials, and so forth, and getting some great sort of yield results. And yes, suddenly yields sort of propelled on to the national stage as sort of the cotton grower of the year. So yeah, sort of very humbling. Yeah. Very strange situation to be in at the time. So it sounds like this little period from say, 2012 to 15, was probably like quite life defining
Unknown Speaker 23:33
the awards, but then also, that was when your involvement with Nuffield came about? Yeah, absolutely. So I was first, I guess, got introduced to Nuffield, when Tim Napier, my farm manager. At the time, he was working with the family, he got awarded and went off overseas to do his scholarship and as sort of got promoted into the manager's role while he went off overseas. So certainly seeing the experience and the knowledge and what he got out of the scholarship, certainly, there was a light bulb moment to say, Okay, I should really be doing that sort of down the track. And then I think it was about 2000
Unknown Speaker 24:20
was mid 2014. I was on the communist Regional Committee, and codnor, Australia and the CRTC decided that that was going to start sponsoring a scholarship. So I sort of had inside knowledge that sort of, they were looking for someone. So that's sort of prompted me to put up my hand and really give it a go so and yeah, very fortunate, lucky enough to receive the scholarship, not knowing anything about sort of Nuffield and the history of Nuffield and thrown into the deep end again, and it was certainly a huge learning curve, but certainly one of the
Unknown Speaker 25:00
best experiences of my life. So out of interest, what was your topic? So interesting enough, I did nitrogen noose in irrigated cotton, which broadened out to be more of a sort of soil health project around irrigated cotton in the end, so, it was quite interesting, just being rewarded sort of those accolades, the sort of, in the last few few years before, I thought I was a pretty good farmer and sort of, I thought I knew sort of thought I knew my ship to, to a certain degree, but certainly never forget, was up in South Dakota with a guy called Dwayne Beck. And I sort of introduced myself and
Unknown Speaker 25:44
you know, he's, he's the guru of no till farming and sort of guy, I had the meat on my sort of travels, and he, he just ripped to shreds off me, sort of the first five minutes and I'll just about to deck decking, I was so pissed off, that sort of travelled, sort of literally halfway across the world to meet this guy that was absolutely ripping shreds, off me telling, telling me that I couldn't farm and I had no, no future in farming, and like really getting stuck into me. Anyway, I stuck it out. And it was probably the best thing I've ever done. Again, sort of looking at that sort of patience and accepting of people then end up spending sort of two days within touring around a research facility and local farms. And it says, certainly was another light bulb moment for me, where I changed my sort of whole philosophy and idea of sort of farming systems and sort of the holistic approach to farming, where, particularly for me, I went through university did Applied Science and did a agronomy degree. And for me, it was all that sort of high technical, sort of how that yield improvement, so forth, were these researchers and farmers, were taking a step back and sort of looking at that whole holistic approach to farming and certainly changed my sort of view on farming practices, and how we should be doing things. So certainly a game changer for me. How do you go, like, obviously, you're seeing all these different things, all these different ideas all around the world. But at the same time, you're still managing and running a business back at home that you don't turn up with this huge new wave of enthusiasm and ideas. Yep. So it's, it's a very common experience that I think all scholars have is this.
Unknown Speaker 27:40
First of all, actually,
Unknown Speaker 27:43
building up the confidence to say, Okay, I'm going to do this scholarship and spend so much time away from home, it was it was very challenging, I had two young kids at the time. So it was only four and will was only two and telling your wife that you're going to go off overseas travelling around the world for sort of 1415 weeks, it doesn't go down? Well, Holly, and it puts a lot of stress on a young family. So literally us about the pullout probably two or three times of the scholarship, I said that I can't do it just got too much on my plate. And again, on the farming side do like that stage was so hands on and wanting to grow the crop and wanting to be there, sort of on a daily basis to make the decisions on, on how we're going to grow this crop.
Unknown Speaker 28:34
But that's what nothing is all about. It's pulling you out of your sort of daily routine, your sort of comfort zone, and really challenging yourself to become a leader. So allowing other people to step up and do the do the, I guess the decision making that you'll be making. And spending that time away from home really allows you to, I guess, particularly manage your relationships and making sure that everything's in order,
Unknown Speaker 29:05
as well. So that was that was very challenging. But once you're on a scholarship and sort of getting to this routine.
Unknown Speaker 29:16
Somehow it just all works. We've certainly had some very challenging phone calls when I was overseas and you know, we're doing all these exciting things and travelling around the world and poor Ness was at home with a sick child or something is is very challenging, but I think all that I guess emotion and all that
Unknown Speaker 29:40
all the things you put put into the scholarship, you get more rewarded back, which is which is really good. So
Unknown Speaker 29:49
So you have the other things and again watching. I had a really good young guy, Alex, who's sort of running the farm for me now
Unknown Speaker 30:00
I'm walls overseas. And to be honest, when I got back, I sort of didn't have a position
Unknown Speaker 30:05
in a farming operation because he was doing such a good job without me. So that was very rewarding to see sort of these sort of people step up and and do the things that you're doing previously. So it sounds like you're forced to be working on the business, not in it. Yep, yep. And that's what Nuffield is all about, of course, sort of becoming a leader and giving you opportunity to
Unknown Speaker 30:30
literally bringing the best ideas from around the world and introducing them back into your own business, but back into the community and industries across Australia. So the other thing that you mentioned was about that three times, you nearly pulled out.
Unknown Speaker 30:47
The people who were probably in there'd be lots of people, young families feeling like that, like a crucible moment in the business and whatnot.
Unknown Speaker 30:54
Why? Why didn't you pull out but also to maybe what did you learn by sticking it through? I think it was just that gut instinct, Ollie, I think there's my, everything was telling me to pull out because yeah, having two small children, spending so much time away from the family, I literally could not imagine or see how it could work as yours. It's just that unique, bizarre position where I guess I had faith or belief that, okay, if I do throw myself into it, it's gonna work out. And I wasn't the first one. Like, I think I'm number 314 in a sort of Nuffield Scholarship, baggy, green sort of
Unknown Speaker 31:39
cap, and, you know, 300 people have done it before me. So, you know, people, people obviously do it. And I guess, to be given the opportunity to travel, overseas and around the world. You know, I just couldn't, couldn't turn it down, basically.
Unknown Speaker 31:58
Particularly after the university, I'd spent some time travelling around the world and learn from those experiences, how much sort of knowledge and experience she can gain from visiting different cultures and countries that that appetite or sort of international travel, sort of drew me in.
Unknown Speaker 32:18
I guess, at that stage, I did not realise the, I guess, the wonderful network, the wonderful organisation, and I guess, the lifetime sentence that I was getting get out of being a Nuffield Scholar. So yeah, it's just just a remarkable experience. And anyone considering you, I guess, you just made that leap of faith and challenge yourself to, to do it if there's that gut instinct, sort of something telling you to do it. Yeah, you won't regret it. That's for sure. And so you're on the board of Nuffield, Australia now that that decision to keep giving back into as a volunteer to the organisation, what is it that makes it so special, particularly Nuffield,
Unknown Speaker 33:02
I didn't realise that that time. During my scholarship, I actually got back from my scholarship, and I was actually burnt out. And literally, what had nothing to do with the organisation, we did have to write a 12,000 word report on our return, turn travelled. So that was really how as sort of a negative aspect to the whole scholarship, but I did get through it and to give me credit, like the likes of
Unknown Speaker 33:31
yen, sort of the the old alumni that really support you, when you get home. We were talking
Unknown Speaker 33:38
about it before that you come back with all these exciting sort of new ideas. And the first thing you want to do is implement it and sort of blow your farm up to sort of introduce all these crazy new ideas. And you've also got the whole experience of you've just had this amazing experience of travelling around the world meeting some amazing people in your family in like, Nas, my wife included, but also the your employees, the people in the community haven't had that same experience. So it's quite a unique situation where they're sort of lived the sort of day to day activities, particularly if it was drier and drought. So they've had their own struggles. And here you are, that's had this amazing experience and full of energy and for life, so forth. So it is certainly a real struggle to sort of fit back in to the community and sort of day to day, sort of activities after doing a scholarship. So that's, that's quite, quite interesting to experience. And then getting back to, so I had sort of probably two or three years away from sort of Nuffield and didn't have much to do with it. They had the opportunity to get involved in the city. I guess the state
Unknown Speaker 35:01
Nuffield executive, which is really good. And
Unknown Speaker 35:05
I had the opportunity of starting to interview the applicants coming through applying for next year scholarship. And that just gave me an instant buzz of meeting new people and meeting new people that are that passionate about agriculture as well, that I just always sort of had had the thick skin or just had to be involved. And it all came right back to sort of my early days with the CGA in, particularly, my parents are big into this is giving back to the community in our industry is so important. So that's what sort of motivated me to become involved with the Nuffield executive. And then, September last year, got nominated onto the board, which is just fantastic. So really looking forward to sort of guiding and leading Nuffield into the future. So absolutely. Now, excited to see and all follow that and see where it goes.
Unknown Speaker 36:06
I think Will you talk about community and giving back a
Unknown Speaker 36:09
couple of years ago, a girl by the name of Josie Clark was, I guess, coming up with an idea of how do we make agriculture more accessible, more inclusive, especially for people with disabilities? She had her own experience with her father. And what she'd seen in the industry, you're the chair of the ability agriculture today the foundation?
Unknown Speaker 36:31
How How did that come about? But I guess Yeah, where's ability ag heading into the future. And we know that like, Mary watt has put it on the on the radar, I think it was the start of last year, he identified five kind of key groups of people that we really need to attract and retain in the agriculture sector being young people, elderly people, Indigenous Australians, people with disabilities, there's a fifth one for some reason, I can never remember it.
Unknown Speaker 36:58
But yeah, what is what's ability AGS role in this and that the importance to the agriculture sector are very important. Ali, I first met Josie at a, I guess another leadership course I was doing through grand goals are limited. And Josie came up with this concept and idea of creating ability agriculture. And it was quite interesting. Because I'd already had sort of leadership experience and in my career, and it was the first I guess, real conversation I had with anybody that I really hadn't
Unknown Speaker 37:37
sort of included my disability or sort of, in my leadership journey, I've always been very against, sort of trying to push sort of disability or so forth, into sort of the leadership roles I was in and that was quite disappointing on my behalf, to realise how much I could give back to the community of sort of disabled people was, was quite unique. And it was, it was a really good, tough conversation I had with Josie that really opened my eyes up to the first time that here is a community that is very much under represented on the resource under researched. One of the big
Unknown Speaker 38:26
defining moments, sort of my sort of work with building agriculture over the last sort of 12 months or so is that how sort of under resource how little sort of money is going towards
Unknown Speaker 38:42
sort of that whole representation of a group, so important to this, not just the agriculture community, but the whole Australian community, sort of one in four people in Australia have got a disability of some type. And it doesn't have to be visual, it can be a mental disability, it can be a payment. So we have to really look after everyone. It's being about making sure everyone's included and making sure everyone's comfortable in their own, particularly work workspace but comfortable in our community as well. So it's all the little small things that that often go quite unrecognised, that can make such a huge difference to someone's life and someone's particularly sort of career and working life as well. So those are the sorts of things that I certainly have been getting out of ability agriculture, we've been very added bit ability, agriculture, we've been very fortunate enough that Josie has done such a great,
Unknown Speaker 39:51
great
Unknown Speaker 39:52
is she's just branded sort of getting the message out and
Unknown Speaker 39:56
sort of representing the community
Unknown Speaker 40:00
IE, whether it was through evoke ag or the
Unknown Speaker 40:04
National Women's Award last year that she got runner up, she's just doing some remarkable things in this space. And just to be part of that journey is quite exciting and
Unknown Speaker 40:17
and she's just got ideas after ideas even sort of two or three days ago, after sort of Christmas and New Year's, he's she's emailed through the, to the border sort of new idea of
Unknown Speaker 40:32
having a ability check for sort of rural businesses around Australia, where sort of people with a disability will go into business and sort of give it a sort of ranking or sort of feedback on sort of, how are they doing sort of,
Unknown Speaker 40:51
sort of adapting and
Unknown Speaker 40:54
looking at people how they can
Unknown Speaker 40:58
help with disabled people. So that can be as simple as sort of wheelchair access those things, hearings, and other big thing for a lot of people that walk into a noisy
Unknown Speaker 41:12
sort of environment, makes them very, very uncomfortable, and so forth. So just the little things that can help people is so important for obesity, agriculture, you know, it's interesting, and, well, I'd never really thought about it before this week, but hadn't even clicked until now. But I'd say the last, the 10 or so interviews I've done while I've been on the road, three people have had hearing aids or hearing assistance. And so that's 30% of interviews with him. Yeah, that's this little trip. Yep. And yeah, that's interesting. And one thing I've certainly learned about building a culture is linking people together, Ollie, so a lot of businesses and
Unknown Speaker 41:53
people we come across, they want to help and want to do something, to be able to help people with a disability, but they just don't have the means or knowledge of doing so. So through ability agriculture, Jaycees had the idea and creating a work platform where it's linking to the employees and employees together and get them talking, to see what requirements are needed to get them into the workplace. And making sure to they feel comfortable. And
Unknown Speaker 42:28
in one thing, I've also learned is that with technology and so forth, disabled people can do and, for me included that,
Unknown Speaker 42:38
you know, 10 years ago, when I was doing a lot of day to day farming activities, I knew, at a certain point in time where I couldn't couldn't keep doing the physical activities, whether I was sort of syphon, irrigating
Unknown Speaker 42:52
sort of changing times, or doing points on, on repairs, etc. And it always needs to bother me sort of, you know, what am I going to do with myself when, once I can't keep up with these physical activities. And it's just amazing through technology that I've been able to, I guess, keep managing, and being involved in a day to day farming activities, where, you know, I can sit here in the office in Gander windy and basically have live feeds of what's exactly happening at Condamine on the farms and being able to have that sort of
Unknown Speaker 43:34
decision making ability. So technology's helping people with disability, no end to to have a career in agriculture. You mentioned before about that you had you hadn't really embraced or as part of your leadership journey, you hadn't really put it out there, the disability and what I guess you'd overcome. So since you've, I guess, embrace that and go on, you know what that doesn't, that's part of my story is knowledge and that I'm going to embrace, how's that benefited you? Big time, Ali? It's amazing, even when I've won the sort of accolades back in 2012, and 13. You know, I used to hide it to end just needs to hide it as much as I could. But looking back, it's quite obviously I had cerebral palsy. I just wasn't prepared to talk about it. And that was, that was disappointing, because now I have decided to talk about and be very open. Everyone's got a story. And as soon as you're willing to share your story and challenges and sort of things in life.
Unknown Speaker 44:38
People just open up and whether it's from a professional point of view, or
Unknown Speaker 44:44
sort of friendship, point of view, you just get so much more out of life and so much more satisfaction. One of the biggest things, and I don't know if you've done your research or not on this event, one of the things
Unknown Speaker 45:00
A couple of years ago, I decided to start seeing a life coach. Yeah. And
Unknown Speaker 45:06
basically, it just felt in life that I was sort of slipping the wheels and not really achieving too much. And you started talking to this life coach and started talking about sort of sport and my hobbies and didn't really have anything that I was really motivated about. And he suggested, sort of why don't give para sports ago. And to be honest, up until that time, I didn't want anything to do with sort of power sports, because it opened me up into this community and
Unknown Speaker 45:40
said that, you know, here you are, you you're accepting that you're disabled when I could keep up with, with some other able bodied athletes. And to be honest, it's one of the best things I've ever done is to have a crack at power table tennis and start being involved in our community, having aspirations of hopefully one day
Unknown Speaker 46:03
playing in the Paralympics, but certainly realising sort of 12 months on that my ability, in table tennis wasn't, is as good as I thought it was, but certainly still putting into practice and still loving it. And just meeting the people that are involved with power sports has been
Unknown Speaker 46:26
humbling, Game Change has been one of the best experiences in my life is to understand their challenges and what they've had to do do, I guess, accomplish things in our life is been? Yeah, it's, it's putting it in perspective very quickly, and motivates you to do a lot more with your life and be quite accepting. Again, going back to those small things of, you know, doing daily exercises, or sort of simple, simple things that become a chore in everyday life. But if you do do those things, it becomes very rewarding. At the end of the day, so entitled, tennis is such a small community that
Unknown Speaker 47:09
gives you access to, you know, Australian players, Australian coaches, and yeah, me I've represented Queensland twice at the Australian National Championships of table tennis and being in a hall of, you know, Australia's best table tennis players with sort of 40 Odd tables playing all at once is, is it's this great bargain. And certainly gets my competitive spirit back. And that sort of determination back to sort of, sort of be
Unknown Speaker 47:43
Yeah, really
Unknown Speaker 47:45
get setting excitement in life going and do they allow crowds them? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's one thing might end up like, Dad. Sorry, I can No, yes. One thing I didn't realise about tables tennis is because I grew up playing a lot of tennis and it's all very hush hush when you during timeout, or when you're playing the games during points, etc.
Unknown Speaker 48:07
Telephone us is a complete opposite, the more noise and more more distracting particular coaches can really put you off. And it's something that I've found that competitive table tennis that I'm very good at rallying and very good at sort of point. But that psychological sort of gameplay just gets me every time that they can just crack me.
Unknown Speaker 48:31
Crack me on that sort of, sort of tie break or match point that does just can't, can't seem to win. So that's what I love about the sport. And yeah, so it's, it's really good. And everyone's so helpful. And, and again, that para community, everyone's there to lift you up, no one's there to sort of tear you down and
Unknown Speaker 48:53
sort of help. So I've just had some great experiences and some great knowledge
Unknown Speaker 49:00
along the way. So that's yeah, that's sort of been a left field sort of journey of mine that I have to think then push out my sort of life coach for guiding me and pushing me into it. So I'm glad you went down that path. Because when you mentioned a couple of years ago, I was already going is Table Tennis is going this the story? And then when you said life coach, I thought oh, hang on. We're going down a different tangent, but I reckon Yeah, that is bloody cool. And hopefully we do see you playing at the Paralympics. But otherwise, do you have any competitions or anything coming up soon? Yeah, certainly do. So fix your startup again in next few weeks. In 12 months, I've travelled up to Toowoomba once a week to play in the sort of weekly fixtures air which is, which again is a nother community I'd never thought I'd be involved with but it's just such a great unique little community. That's really good. And then I'm involved in the Brisbane table tennis club down there and they're really good people down there. And again, it brings a lot of diversity into your life as well.
Unknown Speaker 50:00
Also, people, one of the best things about Table Tennis is you got people that can play when they're six year old or when they're 80 year old, and they can be as competitive as ever. So that's very unique and from all different backgrounds. One surprising thing is is sort of Northern European sort of
Unknown Speaker 50:20
background where I guess the cold Winter's Tale tennis is very popular as an indoor sport. So, yeah, that it's been great to sort of get to know and meet those people along the way. Not? Well, I think we're gonna have to find out when when you've got a competition, and we'll see if we can get a crowd there. But we'll have to work out. So it's in your favour, not against you.
Unknown Speaker 50:41
So I can
Unknown Speaker 50:44
always ask people about advice around
Unknown Speaker 50:47
coming to agriculture, but I want to change that question slightly.
Unknown Speaker 50:52
Given everything you've been through, I guess the the being accepting yourself for who you are, but also, looking at it through the lens of actually, yeah, what makes me me can be a superpower as well. What would be your advice to people when it comes to that? overcoming the challenges of your own self talk? And in sometimes the I guess the question is, what's your advice to people about getting out of their own way, so they can unlock greatness? Yep, I've been very fortunate enough, over the years only to sort of just have some great mentors and,
Unknown Speaker 51:28
and just different people in my life to really, and it's all about timing to me, where they just whether it's a hint, or just advice, to just say, Okay, time to step up, or, don't be afraid to give it a go.
Unknown Speaker 51:46
Wouldn't be my mantra of anyone sort of
Unknown Speaker 51:50
looking at leadership or getting involved with with agriculture or anything in life that, particularly for me,
Unknown Speaker 51:59
you know, my life journey, obviously, having that sort of mental breakdown, having depression, sort of really being down on myself to turning that around. And sort of within, I think, four or five years, being awarded an Australian, from young Australian farm of the year, was quite a really mindset, shift of me to think that,
Unknown Speaker 52:27
you know, here, I was not being involved with the community, not putting my hand up for anything to hear I was being brave enough to put my hand up and just get involved. And that's all. That's all it is, whether it's my board roles in industry involvement, it's that whole presence of being in the moment, having a conversation, and having the ability to put your hand up and give something a go. A lot of people do sort of say that, you know, why put your hand up so much, and why get involved with the community, or industry, things when, when you try and run your own business or sort of do things at home. But it's just so rewarding to be in other people's present and always learning different things off them. And being in different sort of community and different groups. And
Unknown Speaker 53:26
I think it's just human nature that we we are sort of group orientated, and we learn from each other. So that's the biggest thing I've learned in my life is, is by putting your hand up to say you're going to do thing, it gives you an opportunity to sit around the table with some fascinating and some remarkable people that you're going to learn things often. Yeah, sort of, you know, bring skills and knowledge back to back to your own business and farm. So nice. Thank you so much for the chance to sit down. I think your story is extraordinary. And I think so many other people will benefit from different pieces of the puzzle, which you've kind of, I guess, been through. So thank you so much for sitting down and having a chat. No, thanks, Ali. Anytime. Enjoyed it. Cheers.
Unknown Speaker 54:13
Well, that's it for another episode from us here. Humans of agriculture. We hope you're enjoying these podcasts. And well, if you're not, let us know. Hit us up at Hello at humans of agriculture.com. Get in touch with any guest recommendations topics, or things you'd like us to talk and get curious about. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. Right subscribe, review it, any feedback is absolutely awesome. And we really do welcome it. So look after yourselves. Stay safe. stay sane. We'll see you next time.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai