October 4, 2017
Local Member Llew O’Brien showed off some of the champions of agriculture in his Wide Bay Electorate to visiting Federal MP Luke Hartsuyker during a tour of the region last week.
Mr Hartsuyker is the Assistant Minister to Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce.
The pair visited the Landcare-award winning Rockemer family at Boonara.
Dean and Tracy Rockemer have been involved in their local Landcare group for a long time and were acknowledged for their work in land rehabilitation in 2008.
“The Rockemer family have used grazing and land management techniques that they learned in Landcare-supported workshops to turn a rundown lucerne farm into a thriving 1000ha property that runs approximately 1000 head of cattle,” Mr Hartsuyker said.
“It is great to see a hardworking family using knowledge gained through Landcare to transform an at-risk farm into a successful business.”
The two MPs also visited Moffatdale Ridge Wines at Moffatdale to learn more about owner Jason Kinsella’s wine production operations and export plans.
“It’s great to see viticulture, horticulture, primary production, food processing and land management leading the way in Wide Bay and Australia,” Mr O’Brien said.
The duo also visited Gympie’s Nestlé plant plus 2016 Landcare Award winner Steve Burgess and the Mary Valley Country Harvest Co-operative at Dagun.
