Back in 2010, our family dairy farm had just been named National Primary Producer of the Year, and we were invited to put in a Banksia Award application.
I’ve just rediscovered that application, both in print and tucked away in Dropbox, and it’s a monster. Almost 200 pages long. The actual award entry? Seven pages. The rest? Ten appendices that somehow stretched to 192 pages.
As someone who now judges awards, I can say with confidence this is the last thing a judge wants to see.
But I’m delighted I still have it. Flicking through, it’s the most extraordinary time capsule of that chapter in our farm’s history , the productivity gains, the conservation work, the community projects, even the early stirrings of what would become national agri-education programs.
What at the time felt like an exercise in paperwork overload now feels like a gift. A thick, overstuffed reminder of what we were doing, why we were doing it, and how much of it still matters.
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