Blog Gong!

I received an email a few weeks ago that had me intrigued…

It was from the Rural Press Club of Queensland , asking me to come to Brisbane to attend a lunch at Tattersalls Club.  I had been chosen as a finalist for the Rural press awards (for social media) which was very exciting… however I umm’d and aaah’d a bit about attending.

After all I had just BEEN to Brisbane – galloping around a few squillion appointments (celebrating an ‘all-clear-so-far’ from my specialists) and catching up with a few dozen (a slight exaggeration) friends.  Pictured is a sample of the special people in my life – some of my media mates including the beautiful Marnie (centre back) who is currently battling breast cancer (and rocking HER new short ‘do’ as a result).  It was a birthday/karoke/long-overdue catchup evening… and yes, it got loud.

These 1200km round trips are never to be taken lightly, but I was thoroughly ‘encouraged’ by organisers, so I re-packed, re-fuelled and whizzed down once more.  I even whipped up a bit of a speech (and got all navel-gazing-ish in my motel room and wrote a blog instead) just in case I was lucky enough to nab a gong.

I feel pretty strongly about the value of having ‘a voice’ – especially when you live way out ‘whoop whoop’ – so talking to that topic wasn’t too hard.  I managed to sneak in another appointment (any bushie knows you have to squeeze every ounce of value out of your time to make each city trip properly worthwhile!) and then nabbed myself a pretty sweet city park for the Prado (I know, took a quiet bow in the underground David Jones carpark after nosing in just 15 metres from the lifts) and turn up in time for the presentations and scrumptious lunch (with a minor ‘wardrobe malfunction’ only making me a teeny bit frazzled and 20 minutes late for pre-lunch drinks).

Lucky for my nerves, the Rural Social Media award was UP FIRST!

And ….

Stone the freaking crows!

That’s me… in black and white.

Oh look, literally! Hehe.

According to the Queensland Rural Press Club release:

…the Rural Social Media category was won by Amanda Salisbury for her blog Bush Babe of Oz (www.bushbabeofoz.com) which judges described as a visually attractive blog which tells the real story of life in the bush and is not afraid to engage in bigger industry issues.

I am afraid they offered me the microphone, and I took it…

…and despite my fairly ordinary speaking skills (I was reading off my iPhone here!) I shared a bit of why I think bush voices need to make the most of social media – even more than we are now – and why bush internet is so damned vital to us on all levels – social, educational, business-wise and political.

I suspect the shepherd’s crook was being readied by the time I wound up.  But I did get some very lovely feedback from many around the room, including some of my fellow award-winners in the ‘more serious’ platform categories.

Here’s me amid the serious talent in QUeensland’s rural media… #feelingspecial

Courier Mail reporter Michael Madigan (pictured at back to left of banner) was announced as the overall winner of the 2016 Rural Media Awards for his article “Beefing Up on Welfare”.

Other category winners announced were:

• Radio: Craig Zonca (far right in photo) for ABC Rural for ‘Qld Ag Minister on Sugar Legislation’
• Television: Dominique Schwartz (not pictured), ABC Television for ‘Unsoiling the Reef’
• Online: – Marty McCarthy (second from left), ABC Rural for ‘Drought Before & After’
• The Rural Photography overall winner Brian Cassey (front centre), for his piece “Beef Farmers” published in the Courier Mail. Brian also won the people and production categories.
• Clermont based freelancer Paula Heelan (second from right) won the landscape category for her piece “Storm Passing”.

I am still pinching myself – while I would NEVER consider myself a serious rural reporter, I do think there is a real value for our part of Australian society to work cleverly with social media, and ensure we are not lost in mainstream melee.  It’s really nice (and affirming) to know others think so too.

I have been lucky enough to be asked to speak on the Queensland Country Hour today too… so if you are near a radio, tune in to ABC near noon. I’ll be the one reading from my iPhone notes!

😉