Livingstone Shire's Stacey Parfitt is the Queensland Rural Regional and Remote Women's Network Rural Woman of the Year for 2023.
The Kinka Beach remedial therapist has been described as a true advocate for building capacity for women located outside metropolitan areas.
Announcing the winner of the group's most prestigious award, a RRR Women's media release said that as the first regional board member of Massage and Myotherapy Australia, Stacey works to actively create educational pathways for those wanting to build and maintain career skills.
She said she'd spent her life growing up in small towns.
"The kinds of places where kids ride their bikes with baby joeys in their backpacks and the concept of community is instilled at a young age," she said. "And while it was truly wonderful, as I grew up I became more aware of our geographical disadvantages."
In pursuit of her own education, Stacey had to relocate to Brisbane to complete her qualification, leaving her husband and two small children at home.
This experience spurred her into action, to help create those opportunities in regional Queensland.
She has been instrumental in contributing to submissions to registered training organisations, advocating for smaller campus structures and course flexibility to better accommodate regional Queenslanders in their aspirations of massage therapy.
She also created scholarship programs with Massage and Myotherapy Australia that allow regional Australian massage therapists to access post-graduate study at no extra cost.
Three other awards were also given out, which the media release said showcased the breadth of inspirational women that call Queensland home.
Winner of the Young Woman of the Year, Shané Steffen from Bullyard in the Bundaberg region was honoured for her thought-leading example for rural youth, and her passionate support of the health and wellbeing of both rural communities and the natural environment.
Emerging Enterprise of the Year winner Amanda-Lyn Pearson is The Crackup Sisters co-creator in Winton.
The Crackup Sisters are more than a performing arts outfit, although they are known for their dance routines, knockabout acrobatics, stock-whip cracking and yarns.
Thanks to funding from Arts Queensland, Amanda-Lyn has created an outback arts precinct in the main street of Winton, holistically celebrating outback architecture, resourcefulness, generosity, sharing of skills, and permaculture.
Rural Champion of the Year winner Lyn French, from Einasleigh in the Etheridge region is a leader, trailblazer, chopper pilot, farmer and the epitome of an outback businesswoman at Gilberton Outback Retreat, a luxury accommodation facility on a working cattle station.
If she wasn't busy enough, Lyn French established BushED, a charitable organisation supporting the women and families educating their children in rural and remote communities.
RRR Women congratulated all finalists and 2023 Rural Women's Award winners, saying they celebrated the inspiring, hardworking rural, regional and remote women of Queensland by shining a light on their achievements and sharing their stories across the state.
"Women are nominated by members of the RRR Women's network, making the award a truly grassroots, community-oriented honour," it said.
