Director Spotlight: Gabrielle Coupland

Director Spotlight: Gabrielle Coupland

11 June 2024

“There were a number of options I thought of taking at this stage in my life, but I chose to go down the wool marketing avenue because of my grandparents, Lochie and Betty Brunt," Gabrielle explained.

"I’d spent a lot of time with them on Coree Station between Jerilderie and Conargo, and sheep and wool became a great passion for me.” 

After completing her course, Gabrielle was offered a couple of jobs, but decided on a trainee position at Wesfarmers Dalgety as a Wool Technical Officer, then moved to Jamestown in South Australia as a Wool Area Manager. 

“This was an incredibly eye-opening experience," she said.

"Hundreds of kilometres from home and building relationships with farmers from across outback South Australia was a great adventure. The trust my clients showed in me to assist market their wool, using new marketing tools and assisting with clip preparation highlighted to me the importance of listening and being available.” 

While in Jamestown, Gabrielle’s contribution to agriculture was recognised as a young leader in agriculture by the Young Australian of the Year, becoming one of the 21 national finalists and being awarded a Queens Trust Award in 1998 at a dinner at Parliament House, Canberra. 

“I just loved what I did, the people I met and how I could support them and their businesses," she said.

"I didn’t think I was doing anything amazing so to be recognised for my efforts and given the leadership opportunities and courses that came with the award was humbling.” 

After spending two years travelling throughout South Australia as a Wool Area Manager, Valuer and Auctioneer, the call back to irrigation and the Riverina was strong. This saw Gabrielle appointed as the Deputy Director of the Ricegrowers Association, based in Leeton NSW.   

“RGA was a completely different opportunity for me, but it utilised and honed my communication skills and opened my eyes to the world of farmer advocacy," she said.

"Of course, I always loved agriculture and was proud of what we do, but the work of advocates in their attempts to create an appropriate economic and regulatory framework for farmers to get on with the job of farming was exciting and valuable.

“It was through RGA that I also met a lot of the farmers I now know today and hold in high regard for how they advocate on behalf of us, build relationships and have the courage of conviction that sees them leave their business for days on end to head to Canberra or Sydney and make our operating environment better.” 

After meeting her husband Mark, Gabrielle moved to Brisbane and it was here she began further education. 

‘’Succession Facilitation for farming families’ with Lyn Sykes and a Masters in Business Administration through the University of Southern Queensland have proven invaluable throughout my career and enabled me to assist farming families prepare for a successful future,” she said. 

After years of a rewarding career working in several other agricultural fields including financial education in Brisbane, grain protection in Western Australia and as a succession planning facilitator in NSW, in 2014 the opportunity arose for Gabrielle and Mark to return to the family farm at Logie Brae with their sons Max and Jock. It is from here that Gabrielle launched into the world of water advocacy again. 

“Water is the lifeblood of our region and to see perverse outcomes from poor policy was infuriating my family and I, so I decided to put my skills and experience to use and started going to water meetings," she said.

"I quickly rose to become the Southern Riverina Irrigators (SRI) Chairman and am proud to have been part of the Basin-wide lobby for the 605GL of SDLAM projects that have significantly reduced the amount of water that will be purchased by the Federal Government in buybacks. It is obvious our environment needs outcomes not volumes of water and the SDLAM projects and new ideas will ensure that.

“During my time at SRI, I was able to build many constructive relationships that still exist today and I’m hoping to use that network as a Director of MIL to benefit the region. It was through these relationships I was selected to be a panelist for the Department of Agriculture, Water & Environment under the previous government and participate in the allocation of funding to environmental projects throughout the Basin, which gave insight into what other stakeholders want to achieve for our waterways and the innovative ways it can be done.” 

In 2022, Gabrielle was offered the opportunity to participate in a delegation to Northern NSW with the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder to gain an understanding of the challenges and opportunities northern irrigators face and how they are working with their environment. 

“This was a fantastic opportunity in learning and building relationships with irrigators from across the Basin," she said.

"We are all working towards the same sustainable environmental, economic and community goals, just in different ways. It’s important to gain perspectives from outside our region to understand that.” 

Innovation in water management for the environment and irrigated agriculture plays a large role in ensuring that all water users can achieve more with the same volumes of water they have access to. Water use innovation is a deep-rooted concept for Gabrielle. 

“When I was about eleven years old, my brothers and I got off the school bus one day and there was a lateral move irrigator being built on our farm," she said.

"It was incredibly exciting and weird looking at the same time. Dad and Mum (Ian and Kathy Brunt) had been to the US and found a constant move irrigator system in Nebraska and imported the first one to Australia. It used around 30% less water than flood irrigation which meant we could use that water on 30% more land, thereby improving efficiency and productivity per megalitre.

"The irrigator was quite a novelty for some time, but now lateral and pivot irrigators are common through the region. All irrigators want to achieve maximum efficiency in what we do, some use laser levelling and some use overhead or drip tape irrigation. It's innovation that sees us continue to thrive in our challenging environment.” 

Gabrielle has recently been awarded a scholarship to attend the Australian Institute of Company Directors'  Foundations of Directorship course in Canberra. 

“While I’ve been a Chairman and Vice Chair of several organisations such as GRDC Partners in Grain and the NSW Nationals, being a Director comes with significant responsibilities and challenges that we don’t really appreciate until we are in the role," Gabrielle said.

"Our region needs Murray Irrigation to be led by a Board who completely understand and respect their governance duties and I’m committed to doing everything I can to ensure our organisation is stable and sustainable for future generations of irrigators.”