The Adelaide-based daughter of a keen pastoralist, Alex Thomas was awarded the 2018 SA AgriFutures Rural Women's Award after her father's battle with Q fever virus more than 30 years ago took her on a journey to make farm safety a priority for families living on the land.
Growing up on Parnaroo Station, east of Yunta, Ms Thomas saw how a farm-related injury or illness could occur, and decided that women on the land were the catalyst to making a change on how farm safety was dealt with in an agribusiness.
Ms Thomas will use a $10,000 bursary to launch the Plant a Seed for Safety social media campaign and design three free, downloadable work, health and safety tools for industry.
"I will profile 100 rural women and their stories about how they have improved safety on-farm or on the boat," Ms Thomas said.
"I hope to raise their consciousness, curiosity and connection to enhance their role in agribusiness to lead change," she said.
Social media was chosen as the preferred platform because of its benefits to rural communities.
"Social media has the ability to reach people in rural areas a lot quicker than other mediums and it has a lot more spreading capability. Issues can go viral on social media and that is something that can help put the spotlight on the big issues," Ms Thomas said.
Employed as a work health and safety consultant and part-time carer for her father who contracted the livestock-borne virus Q fever from goats, Ms Thomas said it was the collective impact of illness, drought, interest rates and a family breakdown on her father that led her on a journey to improve on-farm safety.
“The fatality rate for a work-related injury in agriculture is eight times higher than the national average and because women are key influences in their businesses, communities and family, they have a capacity to push change," she said.
I will profile 100 rural women and their stories about how they have improved safety on-farm or on the boat.
- ALEX THOMAS
The AgriFutures award honours a woman involved in agriculture who wants to inspire and make a tangible difference in the industry.
PIRSA chief executive Scott Ashby said the award highlighted the excellence of the finalists but, more importantly, recognised women stepping up to take leadership roles.
"We need women to be at least 50 per cent of the leaders in agribusinesses – this award will help find them," he said.
"The award supports a women’s movement that has evolved over the award's 23-year history."
The other two finalists were Duxton Capital Australia's Lauren Thiel, and Jo Bonner, a relief teacher at Marree Aboriginal School.
Ms Thomas will represent SA at the national AgriFutures Rural Women's Award in Canberra later this year.