Ag a driving and lifelong passion for Gellard

Jeanette was raised in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, but always preferred being outdoors as opposed to inside - potentially foreshadowing her now well-developed passion for the land.

Following school, Jeanette studied agricultural science at the University of Adelaide's Roseworthy campus, attracted to the course for the "broad range of opportunities on offer upon graduating".

"I just knew I wanted to do something that involved being outside and working with people, and agriculture would involve that," she said.

The years to follow included a six-year stint in SA's pig improvement program during the 1980s, as well as time with feed and farm supplies company Lienerts Australia at Roseworthy, before taking a position as a lecturer in business and communication, again at Roseworthy.

"It was then that I realised I really enjoyed working with people in agriculture, and the business side of farming (as opposed to production)," she said.

As well as clarifying the direction Jeanette wanted to take, the lecturing role opened up an opportunity to become a rural financial councillor, a role that eventually led her to Kangaroo Island, where she has resided for the past 25 years.

"Back then, there were incredibly high interest rates, low commodity prices, and a Senate inquiry into rural policy - there really was a lot going on in that agricultural and rural community space, that was quite challenging," she said.

In the 25 years since Jeanette moved to KI - the first six of which she was an RFC - she and husband Mark have established Toolache Pastoral, running about 150 Wiltipoll ewes up until 2014, when the pair completely destocked and moved to South Korea for three years for Mark's work.

Since returning in 2017, she and husband Mark have agisted the land to neighbours, and presently hold about 200 Merinos and crossbreds.

In keeping with her passion for natural resource management, Jeanette has been heavily involved in Trees for Life, a SA not-for profit charitable organisation aiming to "safeguard" biodiversity and protect and revegetate bushland.

Jeanette said the organisation is working to help revegetate land on Kangaroo Island and also in the Cudlee Creek area, in wake of the recent bushfires.

RELATED READING: Donations flood in as KI rallies for its farmers

"We'll be providing about 10,000 seedlings for landholders around the Cudlee Creek area, and for KI, the nature of (revegetation) work will be very much focused on seed collection this year, and a focus on planting next year."

Plans to restore revegetation have not been Jeanette's only positive contribution to the bushfire recovery effort, with the first few weeks of the year spent organising logistics as part of the incident management team to assist KI locals in a time of crisis.

Having experience as a previous KI commercial operations manager where she was trained in incident management, Jeanette felt her expertise could be used.

"When the fires came round, I felt I needed to contribute in some way and had a good understanding of incident management structures and how they worked, I felt like I could offer supporting logistics and operations, with some local knowledge," she said.

"We needed to access large amounts of water, food, supplies, and working with the firefighters themselves, in regards to how many were needed, when they were going to arrive, how they were being transported, where would they be sleeping, all sort of things like that.

"So many people came from the mainland, who were just amazing and really committed to doing the best for the community."

RELATED READING: SA Volunteer Fire Fighters Museum set to open after 18 years in the making

Jeanette has always enjoyed instilling a love of agriculture and landcare in others, particularly women, and chaired the first ever Rural Women's Gathering on KI in 2001. Her work in getting new people involved played a big part in her being named Rural Woman's Award winner that same year.

"I often think women are under-recognised and undervalued, and have such capacity which isn't utilised as much as it should be," she said.

Continuing this passion, Jeanette is a co-convenor of the biennial Thriving Women Conference, which will be held in Hahndorf later this month, aiming to grow and inspire women connected through agriculture.

Adding to all these commitments, Jeanette started her own company, Innovative Influences, in 2011, where she works with individuals and companies to support the development of skills, behaviours and mindsets, which she has "absolutely loved".

Despite the many commitments, Jeanette concedes she loves being busy.

"I get a lot of satisfaction in feeling that I have an impact and influence the decisions being made in the community," she said.

"At the end of the day, I want to build other people's capacity to be more influential around the decisions that affect them.

"Whether that's on a personal level, or in their farm business, or across their industry sector, or across their community, or at a state or federal government level, that's my passion and that's what I actively try and do myself, and give capacity to others to have that influence."