AWARD GIVES PAT A VOICE

Mrs Fennell, 81, received a Queensland Great Award at a ceremony in Brisbane on Saturday, with seven awards given including a posthumous to Steve Irwin.

The former secretary of the Cattlemen’s Union of Australia, who was also in the advisory committee leading to Australia’s live export of cattle, used her award to highlight more support for stockmen during drought. 

She is a bush poet who once described the plight of the grazing industry in this way; “When graziers start to feel the pinch and spending must be cut, they look at every spending inch, the station hand’s the butt.” 

On Monday, Mrs Fennell elaborated that more training and financial support was needed. 

“Let’s be fair, the station hands don’t get any help. 

“Stock work is a trade and it isn’t just something you can do. 

“My kids grew up doing it, it’s a real skill and it is not given the credit it is due.” 

Mrs Fennell suggested a white paper examine all levels of professions to better understand “the big picture” of the pastoral industry.

She said the government was doing well by acknowledging small businesses in regional communities and funding towards Native Titles Respondent Schemes. 

“The graziers want to allocate some of the land for them but there is a lot of legal fees involved,” Mrs Fennell said. 

“Many of these country people don’t have a lot of money to do that.” 

The Charleville born woman lived in isolated station properties like Linda Downs, near Urandangi, while devoting herself to her four children. 

But when they left for boarding school Mrs Fennell knew equality for bush people was needed, and in 1988 became the secretary of the Cattlemen’s Union of Australia – the first woman to represent the committee.  

“I have great hopes for our country and I don’t think we’re utilising the full talents we’ve got,” Mrs Fennell said, believing further work was needed developing inland Australia, especially with water infrastructure. 

She founded the Boulia Rural Action Group, served in the Women’s Council for Rural and Regional Communities, and was a member of the Live Export Advisory Committee and the Landcare Catchment Committee. Mrs Fennell believes her greatest achievement might have been organising the 1995 Live Cattle Forum in Karumba. 

Gulf-based graziers needed to offload their cattle but could not compete with the southern market, therefore becoming price takers. 

“Cattle on boats saved cattle, the environment and provided people with labour,” she said. 

“We put them on trucks and shipped them from Darwin to the Philippines and Indonesia, from 40,000 to 250,000 in a few years.” Mrs Fennell also pushed for local medical training to encourage students to remain in the community and to keep costs affordable. 

“Young people that wanted to do medicine went to Townsville for training and many of them didn’t come back,” she said. 

“And quite a few people in the low socio-economic groups could not afford it.” 

So the Mount Isa Centre for Rural and Remote Health was formed. 

Mrs Fennell said heath telecommunication needed more improvements in regional communities.

There was a difference in the quality of telecommunications between city and regional areas even though isolated communities needed it more, she said.