Women on Farms Gathering 2025 Benalla: a resounding success

 

More than 100 people, 2.5 packed days of shared stories, laughter, reminiscing and steps towards a strong, community-focused future. See just a few highlights in the GIF below.

 

Vic Hub Director shares insights on resilience at Women on Farms Gathering

 

 

Resilience in rural communities: Adjusting our sails through life’s storms

 

Think: Our individual resilience is the key to community resilience

Feel: The importance of looking after ourselves first

Believe: In the power of collaboration

 

Dr Sara Hely, Director of the Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption & Innovation Hub (Vic Hub), delivered a thought-provoking speech at the Women on Farms Gathering to a room of more than 100 people in Benalla in mid March.

Sara’s presentation focused on the importance of resilience in farming communities and drew parallels between the challenges faced by rural women and the inspiring story of the first all-female crew to compete in the Whitbread Round the World yacht race.

 

“And so, I start with a quote by Elizabeth Edwards:

‘She stood in the storm and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted her sails.“

 

After acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land, and sharing her connection to the region, Sara recollected the last WoFG she’d attended: in Hopetoun, Western Victoria, in 2016.

She then introduced the concept of resilience, framing it within the context of drought stages in Victoria.

“In Victoria, we talk about the four stages of drought: when we are not in drought – ‘the good’ – when we are in drought – ‘the bad’ – the recovery from drought – ‘the ugly’ –and the uncertain time when we don’t know if we are going in or out – ‘the confusing’.”

Sara highlighted the unique model the Vic Hub employs, which emphasises distributed leadership and adaptive governance principles.

“Given these stages, the model put in place for the Vic Hub five years ago is one of distributed leadership, using adaptive governance principles.”

 

6 domains of resilience

She went on to discuss six domains of resilience, illustrating each with anecdotes from the 1989-90 Whitbread Round the World yacht race, where Tracy Edwards led the first all-female crew aboard the “Maiden”.

These domains are:

1. Vision
2. Composure
3. Reasoning
4. Health
5. Collaboration
6. Tenacity

“What is truly impressive about this story is the tenacity of these women — the persistence, realistic optimism and ability to bounce back and regain motivation,” Sara said, drawing parallels between the yacht crew’s experience and the challenges faced by women in farming communities.

She concluded her speech reciting a poem by Maira Kalman, “Why do women hold?”, which explored the theme of women’s strength and resilience. Sara encouraged attendees to use the gathering as an opportunity to “collaborate, dream big and solve the world’s problems”.

Sara’s presentation offered valuable insights into building resilience in rural communities, emphasising the importance of collaboration, adaptability and perseverance in the face of challenges such as drought.

See just a few highlights in this GIF below.