The Rural Ambassador Award is a National Competition aimed at young adults who have a passion for living and working in rural communities and a willingness to promote what they are about.
The purpose of the competition is to uncover the next generation of rural leaders who have the desire to represent and promote their community, their region and their state. The WA Rural Ambassador will represent RASWA at selected events with an agricultural and education focus, and compete in the national Rural Ambassador competition. To be eligible to enter, candidates just need to have the desire to stand up for Rural Australia, have a basic agricultural and rural knowledge, and be prepared to ‘have a go’. They will experience some tough competition, make lifelong friends and have a damn good time.
The Waroona Agricultural Society is very proud to present:
“Holly Snell”
The Waroona Agricultural Society Rural Ambassador for 2022
21 year old Holly grew up on her family’s farm at Waroona and works as an apprentice mechanical fitter at Alcoa. Holly is also part way through completing a Bachelor of Agriculture Degree through Charles Sturt University. Holly’s ambition is to one day own or manage her own farming property. Growing up on the family farm in Waroona and spending time on their cattle station in the North of the State, Holly has had the opportunity to gain loads of experience in the Agricultural industry. Mustering cattle and sheep, helping in the yards with drafting, drenching and marking, administering vaccines and drench, driving farm machinery, fencing and doing bore runs to make sure that troughs are clean and livestock watered is just a normal part of life for Holly. Her schooling was completed at Mandurah Catholic College and she was Head Prefect in 2018. During her final two years at school, Holly took part in the school volunteer trip to Flores, Indonesia; received a scholarship to spend two weeks in Yosemite National Park, California, to undertake biological field research was a Rotary exchange student to northern Italy in 2017 and represented in interschool field hockey and swimming competitions.
Holly is an avid volunteer and was a founding member of the Waroona Leo’s club from 2016-2018. She has also given five years of service for the Waroona West Volunteer Bushfire Brigade, which involves attending meetings and training sessions, volunteering on the Waroona show gates each year, being on call when rostered on weekends and attending bushfire callouts where she is required to communicate via two-way and hand signals, work in a team to extinguish the fire and assist in the driving and refilling of the light tanker. Holly and her family are also members of the Waroona Agricultural Society and many members of her family have been involved with the Annual Show over several generations.
Holly’s passions and interests include gardening- growing fruits, veggies and flowers; caring for pets- chickens, ducks, poddy calves, dogs and cats; working on the family farm outside of her full time job; travelling- especially throughout country WA, reading, cooking, playing sports- women’s footy and basketball, water sports- wakeboarding and skiing. She loves bushwalking and native Australian plants and flowers, from which she is able to create beautiful flower arrangements. She also has a talent for creating recycled rustic homewares, signs and garden ornaments from old wood and scrap metal as well as drawing and painting.
Holly’s short term goals are to complete her Mechanical Fitter trade next year and her Bachelor or Agriculture degree so that she can have a solid foundation of skills and knowledge for her long term goals. She then plans to travel around Australia and other countries working of farms and cattle stations, picking up new skills and experiences as she goes. Her end goal is to one day own and manage a farm or cattle station in WA where she can incorporate the skills she has gained through her studies and travels.
The Waroona Agricultural Society congratulates Holly on becoming our 2022 Rural Ambassador and we wish her well when she competes in the regional competition.
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JACOB WALMSLEY
2021 Waroona Show Rural Ambassador and South West Rural Ambassador
At 24, Jacob has a sound background in Agriculture. He has spent most of his working career at his family farm in West Coolup where along with his parents Eric and Kylie and grandfather Ross (now passed on) run cattle and sheep. Working closely with respected farmers, his practices have been well developed for both intensive and pastoral agricultural farming in Northern Australia, Kimberleys, central Australia and the Southwest. His farming attributes extend to the operation of various types of farm equipment, loaders and graders. A more recent passion and ambition is to work towards improved genetics and herd management in local and regional cattle herds in W.A. Jacob undertook a two year training program, and is the only non – vet to be certified & authorised under the WA Veterinary Board, to carry out Bovine pregnancy testing. He regularly contracts to farmers throughout the southwest testing herds, doing both manual and ultrasound pregnancy testing. He is using this knowledge and skill to improve his own farm herd to maximise profits and return. Jacob’s strong interest in Camp drafting has taken him to a highly competitive level in W.A, travelling throughout the state to compete in regional drafts, including being a WA Youth representative in 2016. Ground stewarding at the Waroona Show for the past 5 years and involvement from a very young age has demonstrated Jacob’s strong connection with the Waroona Agricultural Society. His knowledge of the grounds’ setup, reliability and youth are a valuable asset to the Committee in preparing for the onset of 18,000 visitors on Show Day. Jacobs connection to the Ag society became a natural progression given the family history. Both of his parents are from families with a long affiliation with Agricultural societies. Jacob’s father, grandfather and great grandfather all served many positions with the Waroona Ag Society. The Waroona Agricultural Society committee is very appreciative to Jacob for his contribution to the community and congratulates him on representing Waroona and the South West region, 2021.
WINNER: WA State Rural Ambassador – Mackenzie Walmsley
Mackenzie Walmsley is the 2019-2020 Western Australian State Rural Ambassador as well as the Waroona Agricultural Society Rural Ambassador and South West Regional Representative. Mackenzie will represent Western Australia at the 2021 Australasian Rural Ambassador competition in the foreseeable future.
“During my term, I am continually given the opportunity to meet and network with like-minded representatives from around the state and country in the agricultural and show movement industries. Since being the State Rural Ambassador, I have attended several WA country agricultural shows including the Collie and Bridgetown shows where I had the opportunity to meet fellow show volunteers, participate in ceremonies and partake in judging of competitions. I also volunteered for the Wagin Woolorama as part of the Young Farmers Challenge orchestrated by the NextGen WA team, working as a judge for the active competition. In January 2020, RASWA kindly sponsored my travel, accommodation and placement at the Agricultural Shows of Australia Inaugural Conference in the Gold Coast. The conference consisted of three packed in days involving a range of informative guest speakers, presentations, networking events, a Gala Dinner and interactive Q+As. 14 of us were from WA, with 286 attendees from Australia, New Zealand and the US. This was an incredible opportunity as there were over 200 people coming together to discuss the value of our Ag shows and how we can remain sustainable for future generations, with an emphasis on retaining youth volunteering. All the conference topics were diverse and allowed everyone to take something back to improve on for their own show. The discussion topics included tips on securing sponsorships, managing leadership transitions, insurance and risk management, how to write the perfect grant application, why a biosecurity management plan is important for Ag shows, how to manage online threats and why animal welfare communication plans are important. Taking part in this conference has afforded me some new friends around the country. From this opportunity, I have been approached to contribute in establishing a new Committee called NextGenWA, a youth committee who advocate for the importance of agricultural shows in WA. To learn from other states’ experiences with NextGen committees, I have also taken part in several online conferences and meetings, learning from like minded volunteers. I am very pleased to be a part of this and hope to make a significant contribution, an experience that is all thanks to the Rural Ambassador program. During my term, I have also attended RASWA Committee meetings in Perth, learning the dynamics of a much larger and longer event, being the Perth Royal Show. Prior to the COVID events, I was also attending Agricultural industry themed social networking events. I was also a guest presentation speaker at the RASWA State Conference in February 2020 talking about the Rural Ambassador program and the future intentions of NextGenWA. The Rural Ambassador program has provided rewarding prospects in event planning, public speaking, networking and education that I am incredibly grateful for and I look forward to the ongoing opportunities throughout the year. If you have ever wanted to take part in volunteering, look at being part of your local agricultural show movement. It is a positive and rewarding experience! We are so fortunate to have the opportunity to have our 90th Waroona Agricultural Show this year, particularly given the unpredictability and uncertainty that the last few years have presented, I hope we can deliver a fantastic and memorable event that is the highlight for the year for everyone!“
We are very proud of our young Rural Achievers below, many of whom are still involved with the running of the Waroona Show.
*South West Zone finalists are shown with an asterisk alongside their name.
| 2004 RICHARD POLLOCK | 2005 No Entrant |
| 2006 FIONA ELLIS | 2007 STACEY DAVIS |
| 2008 STACEY DAVIS | 2009 – No Entrant |
| 2010 *GAYELLE REYNOLDS | 2011 – No Entrant |
| 2012 NICHOLAS McLARTY | 2013 ANTHONY SNELL |
| 2014 KATLIN HULL | 2015 *KIRSTIN WALLER |
| 2016 KIRSTIN WALLER | 2017 – No Entrant |
| 2018 MACKENZIE WALMSLEY | 2019 *MACKENZIE WALMSLEY |
| 2020 – ¹No Entrant | 2021 *JACOB WALMSLEY |
¹Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no Rural Ambassador program for 2020.
Miss Showgirl Competition
The Miss Show Girl Competition commenced in 1975 as a suggestion by the Royal Agricultural Society.
The Waroona entrant on five occasions has represented the South West Zone of Agricultural Societies.
*Those entrants who have represented the South West Zone are shown with an asterisk alongside their name.
| 1975 LYNETTE BOOKER | 1988 DIANNE ALEXANDER |
| 1976 MIRIAM MILLER | 1989 – |
| 1977 MARGARET GRANTHAM | 1990 NERIDA BLAKE |
| 1978 LOUISE DAVIS | 1991 REBECCA BENNETT |
| 1979 LYN JENKINSON | 1992 *DEBORAH PITTER |
| 1980 *LEXIE TREVENAN | 1993 BELINDA McDONALD |
| 1981 *DIANE WATERS | 1994 SUSAN DILLEY |
| 1982 KAREN COLLINGS | 1995 SHELLEY JELF |
| 1983 *JENNY KIRKHAM | 1996 *NATALIE SZKRABA |
| 1984 LISA MONAHAN | 1997 MARIA FRANCO |
| 1985 ANNA CICOLARI | 1998 NATALIE LEWIS |
| 1986 LISA WILLIAMSON | 1999 CHANTEL HILL |
