Summary

Audio interview with Meredith Hayes recounting her experiences with agriculture and rural life, in particular her studies at Dookie Agricultural College in the late1940s-early 1950s and her lifelong career in farming, agriculture and conservation. The recording was taken on 19 July 2015 at Meredith's home in Coorabell, New South Wales, interviewed by Catherine Forge.

This interview is part of the Invisible Farmer Project, which was funded by the McCoy Fund and involves a partnership between Museum Victoria and the University of Melbourne. This six-month pilot project aims to interview a small number of women about their involvement with agriculture, shine a light on the history of the Rural Women's Movement of the 1980s-1990s, identify existing public/research collections that document women in agriculture, develop a strategic collecting alliance that could further enhance these collections, and prepare a larger funding proposal that will address the urgent need to collect and preserve these histories.

This interview is part of Museums Victoria's Invisible Farmer Project Collection. The Invisible Farmer Project was the largest ever study of Australian women on the land, uncovering the histories and stories of Australian women in agriculture. It began as a pilot project (2015-2016) and evolved into a three year (2017-2020) nation-wide partnership between rural communities, academic, government and cultural organisations, funded by the Australian Research Council.

Description of Content

Interview with one woman discussing her education in agricultural science and her lifelong career in agriculture, farming and conservation. The first part of the interview focuses on Meredith's experience at Dookie College and her memories of studying agriculture. Meredith was the only female in her cohort, and she spoke about what led her to pursue agriculture, what the course entailed and how she was treated as a female in a male-only domain. Meredith then spoke about her lifelong career in agriculture, which included running several farms in partnership with her husband, and getting involved in conservation and sustainability during the 1970s and 1980s. Meredith was a founding member of the Australian Conservation Foundation and won an Order of Australia for services to primary industry, conservation and the environment. She continued to manage the farm when her husband passed away in the early 2000s.

Physical Description

Digital Audio Recording: 3 WAV files.

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