Speak Up

by Shelley Scoullar

Speak Up

Mateship Day

There is a lot of debate about the date of Australia Day and whether it should be January 26, but personally the date doesn’t bother me because it is the meaning which is most important.. For me Australia Day should be about celebrating what we...

Shelley Scoullar
Speak Up

Winners and Losers

There has certainly been a lot of media hype and political frenzy around the Murray Darling Basin Plan to start the year off. Media coverage has reported a mixed bag of results over the Basin Plan; some say there have been environmental outcomes and...

Shelley Scoullar
Speak Up

Inspiration for Next Gen

What a great way to start the new year – getting together with other rice farmers to discuss the season so far, problems, what’s worked, next steps, identifying critical crop stages and what to do differently next year. For me it is so...

Shelley Scoullar
Speak Up

Summing it Up

The time between Christmas and New Year is always a good one to reflect on the year that was and the year that will be. To be honest a year ago I would not have predicted the ups and downs of the year that has been, but I have certainly learnt a lot...

Shelley Scoullar
Speak Up

Don’t upset SA

“We can’t upset South Australia” is the catch cry at the moment from bureaucratic and political circles. I’m not sure why we are bowing to SA wishes. Instead, we should look at the reality of the situation: South Australi...

Shelley Scoullar
Speak Up

Mixed Emotions

This week water filled the channel and flowed out into the paddock in preparation for rice sowing next week. It’s my absolute favourite part of the year, I love the physical labour of preparing the paddock – like shovelling dirt etc, and...

Shelley Scoullar

Most popular

Speak Up

Mateship Day

There is a lot of debate about the date of Australia Day and whether it should be January 26, but personally the date doesn’t bother me because it is the meaning which is most important.. For me Australia Day should be about celebrating what we...

Shelley Scoullar
Speak Up

Winners and Losers

There has certainly been a lot of media hype and political frenzy around the Murray Darling Basin Plan to start the year off. Media coverage has reported a mixed bag of results over the Basin Plan; some say there have been environmental outcomes and...

Shelley Scoullar
Speak Up

Inspiration for Next Gen

What a great way to start the new year – getting together with other rice farmers to discuss the season so far, problems, what’s worked, next steps, identifying critical crop stages and what to do differently next year. For me it is so...

Shelley Scoullar
Speak Up

Summing it Up

The time between Christmas and New Year is always a good one to reflect on the year that was and the year that will be. To be honest a year ago I would not have predicted the ups and downs of the year that has been, but I have certainly learnt a lot...

Shelley Scoullar
Speak Up

Don’t upset SA

“We can’t upset South Australia” is the catch cry at the moment from bureaucratic and political circles. I’m not sure why we are bowing to SA wishes. Instead, we should look at the reality of the situation: South Australi...

Shelley Scoullar
Speak Up

Credit where it is due!

Credit when credit is due. South Australia have their cake and they can eat it too. Sorry for the clichés, but I am not sure how else to describe the current situation, where SA have failed to act on directions from the Commonwealth...

Shelley Scoullar
Speak Up

Could Gladys be our champion?

This week I had the opportunity to meet with the NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and the Minister for Land and Water Niall Blair. I know that I did not do a very good job of hiding my disappointment that at a “Round Table on Water” there...

Shelley Scoullar
Blog

Past the comfort zone and back

Last Sunday morning as I prepared myself for a trip to Brisbane to present and participate in the International River Symposium a number of doubts flooded my mind. I said to my husband, “what do I think I am doing – what right do I have?...

Shelley Scoullar
Blog

Hats off the Harry

Growing up as a farmer’s daughter and now as an active farmer for ten years, one thing I absolutely know for sure is there are not many farmers out there who rest on their laurels. Farmers have always been innovative, driven and experimental...

Shelley Scoullar
Blog

In Memory of Dorothy

Today we farewell a pioneer of not just the Australian rice industry, but a leader and trail blazer of rural communities. Dorothy Meyer passed away peacefully on Sunday 3rd September in Griffith Hospital at the age of 87. Dorothy grew up on the...

Shelley Scoullar
Blog

What’s the hold up?

Excitement has been brewing over the last few weeks as summer cropping, and for this part of the world rice planning is in full swing. Over the last week or so I have attended three meetings about the upcoming rice season. The meetings were well...

Shelley Scoullar
Water

The waiting game

I am one of the lucky ones, because we bought our farm before the 2007 Water Act and before land and water were separated. Back then a water licence came part and parcel of the land; they were a package. A lot has changed, unfortunately, for anyone...

Shelley Scoullar
Blog

It’s all about soul.

It is human nature to have something to believe in; something to have faith in. We all need it. Historically, for many people religion has filled that human need. 50 years, maybe even 30 years ago, Sunday was family day. You went to church together...

Shelley Scoullar
Blog

Why choose rice?

Originally this week I was going to further air my frustration at the endless fallout from that Four Corners episode, but a conversation with my agronomist got me thinking and I changed track. During inspection of my canola crop (the first time I...

Shelley Scoullar
Blog

Given them an inch.......

Over the past fortnight there has been a lot said and written about Australia’s irrigation industry and the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. Most of it has not been complimentary of food and fibre producers, and overall it has painted the Basin Plan...

Shelley Scoullar
Blog

Blame Game

As our city cousins, and many who live in rural towns, tuned into 4 Corners on Monday night they were greeted with the open words “greedy irrigators”. I have thought long and hard about Monday’s episode of 4 Corners, and I am not surprised...

Shelley Scoullar
Blog

Ripped Off

Having recently attended a presentation from an international palaeoecologist (study of plant and animal fossils), and then reading an article by other leading Australian ecologists I really can’t help but feel that as a nation we have been ripped...

Shelley Scoullar