Vic Hub partners with Sober in the Country for Dookie Discovery Week

 

Local young farmers invited to hear Shanna Whan AM speak at Melbourne University’s Dookie Campus

 

Free event: 9-10:30am, Tuesday 4 March, 2025

 

 

The Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption & Innovation Hub (Vic Hub) is sponsoring Sober in the Country founder, Shanna Whan AM, as a keynote speaker for Dookie Discovery Week on 4 March.

Dr Sara Hely, Director of the Vic Hub, which is supported by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund, said, “The collaboration aims to address crucial aspects of individual and community resilience in regional Australia.

“Because of the importance of Shanna’s message, we’re actually opening up the presentation to all interested local young farmers around the Goulburn Valley, northern Victoria and southern NSW, who can come to Shanna’s presentation alongside the new Bachelor of Agriculture students at Dookie Discovery Week.”

Sara said the event – part of the week-long orientation program for the new intake of University of Melbourne Bachelor of Agriculture students – was free of charge.

 

Fostering a supportive culture

Shanna Whan AM is the rural woman, founder, CEO and face behind Sober in the Country. She’s an Australian of the Year recipient who decided to “do what she could to be part of the change” after almost losing her own life to alcohol addiction in 2015.

For Shanna, the story of using alcohol to hide from traumas experienced in her gap year, and later as a way to fit in, was amplified during her time as a university student.

Today, through her tireless advocacy, Sober in the Country has grown from an online blog into a nationally respected charity, shifting the entire conversation around booze in the bush and saving and changing lives.

Shanna, known for her trademark straight talk, humour, capacity to talk about hard things and the charity’s #OK2SAYNO (to booze) campaign, emphasised the importance of going “upstream”.

“Speaking to young adults is an increasingly strong focus for Sober in the Country. We are huge believers in addressing alcohol harm and the truth of our booze-soaked culture in rural Australia with practical education and awareness, and simply by being the leaders our future generations in ag need and deserve – something our generation never had access to.”

Highlighting the synergy between Sober in the Country and the Vic Hub, Shanna said, “What I love about the Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption & Innovation Hub is that our goals and alignments are the same – they are all about preparedness and resilience. We have said for over a decade now that all the conversations around sustainable agriculture don’t count for much unless we focus first and foremost on sustainable people in agriculture.”

Sara Hely reinforced the importance of the Vic Hub’s sponsorship for the Dookie Campus event.

“Shanna’s work on individual resilience aligns perfectly with our mission: we believe drought resilience is fundamentally about community resilience, which starts with resilient individuals.

“The principles for building farming-community resilience and individual resilience are identical. Our role is to provide tools that help keep the wheels turning, especially during challenging times such as drought. When individuals feel supported and mentally well, they’re better equipped to make good decisions, improve their business acumen and remain open to learning.”

Sara said the collaboration between the Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption & Innovation Hub and Sober in the Country at Dookie Discovery Week represents a significant step towards fostering a more resilient and supportive agricultural community in Victoria.

 

For more information and to attend this free event

To attend Shanna Whan AM’s presentation at Dookie Discovery Week, please register online.

For more information about this event: please contact the Vic Hub’s Adoption Coordinator, Rhiannan McPhee, via email rhiannan.mcphee@unimelb.edu.au

 

 

 

Media Contact

Samantha Schelling, Communications

Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption & Innovation Hub

samantha.schelling@unimelb.edu.au | mobile: 0403 106 404