Adam Dawes
Now a Policy and Technical Officer with the Department of Quarantine and Inspection Services in Canberra, Adam’s career involves him working with foreign stock feed producers to make sure the stock feed they supply to Australian producers meets our quarantine standards. This is really important says Adam “because it protects our local agriculture industry by safeguarding it from foreign pests and disease”. Having grown up on a farm near Yass Adam knows just how important this is. Adam’s career involves travel to such destinations as Brazil, Malaysia and Singapore. Even better, Adam lives in Yass and commutes to Canberra by car each day. “It’s the best of both worlds”So how does a young man of 25 from a farm near Yass come to be travelling the world for work? I went away to university in Wagga and studied for three years. At uni I started to learn about agronomy and really enjoyed it. I had some work experience with Chris Copeland and Col Medway and fell in love with the job and stayed." "I started out as a Sales Agronomist, based at Yass. I was there for three years and it was a great job. I gave professional agronomic advice in areas of farm management to help improve our customers’ productivity and profitability.
Towards the end of 2000 as Adam was finishing Year 12, his father and he noticed an advertisement in the Yass Tribune from the Yass District Education Foundation calling for applications. Earlier Adam had decided that when he finished school he wanted to complete a Bachelor of Applied Science in Agriculture at Charles Sturt University in Wagga. In the long term after gaining experience he planned to return and work in Yass.
Adam recalls that in December 2000 he was invited to an interview with the Yass District Education Foundation.
"The interview process was a great learning experience because it was the first time I’d ever had to sit down and put myself forward to someone. …. It was great to learn what an interview process was like.”
Adam received a Community Scholarship from the Yass District Education Foundation to assist with the cost of books and accommodation during his three years of study. Adam explained that without the Community Scholarship
"…. I do not think that I would have been as successful at the course as I would have been more dependent on having to source funds through part time work. I still did a bit of part time work while I was at uni but when I would have otherwise been doing more part time work it [the Community Scholarship] just allowed me the flexibility to focus on study time and things like that.“It definitely keeps you focussed, knowing that the community’s putting the money towards you. It encourages a little more self-discipline. Knowing that they’ve backed you with this money you feel like you have to perform."
In his second year at university, Adam started work experience with Landmark in Yass and this cemented his view that he wanted to become an Agronomist.
"The job opportunity came up about three months before I finished uni and I snaffled it up straight away …. [Landmark] basically approached me directly …. I was fortunate that the timing was right and I could slip straight into it. I think in with that particular job where I was giving farmers advice, being a local was an advantage as they tend to give you a bit more respect. Especially if they know someone else within the family or they know you are off a property, they can be confident that you know what you are on about. Whereas some of the guys I went to uni with have found it a bit more challenging moving into a new area. No one knows of them and farmers are a little more sceptical to start with."
Col Medway who is the Managing Director of Landmark Copeland Medway, a sponsor of the Yass District Education Foundation and Adam’s employer agrees.
"You have a walk up start really, people know you, they know your family, you know where people live. You just hit the ground running a bit earlier. Here's a young bloke who's got an income, is living in town, has bought a house and he is probably like everyone else tipping about 75% of his salary back into the immediate community just through day-to-day living. It's just good for the economy! And how good is that for Yass?”
“One thing that I would like to do personally in the future, I have just bought a house, but one thing I would like to do at some stage is to have the capacity to relay some funds back through the education foundation because I know how much it helped me out. And not just me but my family as well. It reduced the financial burden on the lot of us. So I would like to help someone out too who might be questioning whether they can go to uni or not because of financial reasons. Just get them there! …. If everyone does that the thing is going to gain momentum" said Adam.
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