Katrina Durham | Head of Agriculture

So a little about myself, I grew up on a mixed farm (crops and prime lambs) in Southern New South Wales in Australia and have always had a love affair with agriculture. In saying that, agriculture has been very kind to me and afforded the opportunity to work many innovative and passionate people that have helped to shape who I am both personally and professionally. I have managed cropping and livestock farms in Western Australia and the Eastern Free State of South Africa that presented challenges around the robustness and agility of those particular systems. I have also worked with farming systems groups in New South Wales and Western Australia focusing on research and communications that the farmers wanted. They are grass roots organisations that focus on research and communication that is practical and implementable on farm. Prior to a stint working in a couple of universities I worked for an oil palm company with plantations in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. I was in the Sustainability Department based in Singapore working on strategic projects before winding up in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea as the Sustainability manager of a plantation. After a few years away, I thought I had better head home (to reacquaint myself with my parents!) and started working with Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, Southern New South Wales as an agribusiness lecturer before moving to Hobart in Tasmania and working for the University of Tasmania, as an agribusiness lecturer and in outreach taking agriculture to schools in Tasmania to encourage students to think about a career in agriculture.