Fourth-generation Manjimup farmer Thea Walker winner of 2024 WA rural ambassador award

A fourth-generation female farmer from Manjimup has been recognised by the Royal Agricultural Society of Western Australia as the WA rural ambassador of the year. Thea Walker was honoured at the Perth Royal Show for her contributions as a young leader promoting regional development. Ms Walker said she was grateful to be taking on the ambassador role for the next 12 months, hoping to help raise awareness of rural life. “It’s an opportunity to get out and talk about topics we’re passionate about,” she told the Times. “Horticulture is what I’ve grown up around, and that’s a little passion of mine.” Born in Manjimup, and living in the area most of her life, Ms Walker grew up on her family farm that produced passionfruit, truffle, avocado and livestock. The 23-year-old now works in town as a horticultural farm business consultant with Planfarm. “I’ve never really known what I want to do, but I just know that I want to work in agriculture. The good thing about horticulture is it’s an area that is changing really fast. “We’re getting so much more technology and data and we can make those systems so much more efficient. It’s quite a cool space to be involved in.” Still involved in the family farm, Ms Walker said she enjoyed branching out to help other farmers with her consultancy work. “This role lets me help other farmers — I get to work with horticulture growers around Australia,” she said. “It’s cool to be able to get out and engage with farmers and get to know all the different farming systems, and the challenges they’re facing and find ways to help them overcome them.” As the ambassador, Ms Walker said one of the things she would like to see is more representation of farmers at the Perth Royal Show. “I was just at the Royal Show last week, and there’s no farmers, which is hard,” she said. “You can’t expect a farmer to walk away from their farm for a whole week and have a stand, but it’d be cool to find some anyways.” Ms Walker will represent WA in the national competition next year at an interstate show for the title of national rural ambassador.