Talk of the Town: Time to stop portraying a bush career as a second tier option

It's the first day of school when the teacher delivers the young students their first task.

"I want each of you to tell me what you want to be when you grow up," she says.

Doctors, veterinarians and hair dressers.

The kids throw those three occupations around prolifically and receive plenty of positivity for their future endeavours.

And then someone mentions meat worker, shearer or farmer and the mood changes.

"That's very nice," she responds to them.

So why doesn't society celebrate a future in agriculture like other careers?

Is it because of historical stereotypes?

Have we been groomed to believe that working in processing plants is only for the uneducated and that shearers are unaccomplished?

I remember sitting in on a next generation forum at Beef Australia in Rockhampton a few years ago where the Oakey Beef Exports' general manager at the time, Pat Gleeson, was the key note speaker.

He left school at 15.

"I will never forget one of the things that really drove me was the science teacher told me, the best you will ever aspire to is filling potholes with the shire council," he said.

He switched his focus from bull-riding to complete a butchering apprenticeship, worked 10 years in boning before moving up the ranks with further vocational training and qualifications.

Attitude rather than schooling was what they looked for in their staff.

"From the processing sector one of our challenges is an old age saying, if you don't do any good at school you will end up at the meat works, however, there are so many good opportunities there," he said at the time.

Now more than ever agriculture should be seen as one of the most attractive professions going around.

There isn't a single commodity that isn't booming, or crying out for staff.

In under two weeks thousands of students from across the state will graduate from high school.

Some will go to university or take on extra skill-based training, but a large portion will enter the workforce directly.

Despite this significant flow of new blood to the workforce, we'll still have the same problem and the bush will be short-staffed.

These young people will be influenced to apply for the city job over a rural placement for a number of reasons but the stigma associated with bush careers is undoubtedly a big influence.

Some of the earliest attitudes and decision making processes in a young person's life are shaped during their schooling.

When I finished grade 12 I planned to become a sports journalist for The Courier Mail in the bright lights of Brisbane.

I thought the only way you could be successful was by moving to the skyscrapers.

But after a few years on the Gold Coast, I came to learn that I was just another number on their fluctuating population figure.

So I decided to move back to the bush. I was in tears the day that my parents helped me unpack my belongings in Roma. What would people think of me? I couldn't cut it in the city? Would anyone take me seriously again?

It's time that we stopped allowing people to portray a bush career as a second tier option. You don't need bright lights or big cities to feel worthy or successful.

Every job is an important one and there is no better place to work when you grow up than in the bush.

Talk of the Town is a weekly opinion piece written by ACM journalists. The thoughts expressed are their own.

Source: Lucy Kinbacher, North Queensland Register, 13 November 2022