Camp Kulin director Tanya Dupagne shone bright at the national Rural Women’s Awards last week, taking home the 2017 AgriFutures Rural Woman Award for her leadership and success setting up Camp Kulin.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce handed the award to Ms Dupagne at a ceremony at Canberra’s Parliament House last week.
“I’m still taking it all in, I’ve spent the past week and also a week in July with the state winners and they are just phenomenal women who are doing amazing things,” Ms Dupagne said.
“It just shows that even in an isolated location like Kulin, you can make a difference.”
It was four years ago when the former Kwinana resident packed her bags and moved to the Wheatbelt to establish the camp.
The facility is designed to mentor and support children from across WA, with specialised camps for those who have suffered trauma and abuse.
The program has won numerous awards, including the National Award for Local Government, the Premier’s Award for Public Sector Excellence, the Constable Care Child Safety Award and the WA Children’s Week Award, and more than 15000 young Western Australians visit the camp every year.
“It has been growing over the past four years, but the last six months especially the growth has just been so rapid and that’s because we’re starting to get long term results,” Ms Dupagne said.
“Demand is probably the highest we’ve ever had at the moment, we’re hoping to make a difference to as many people as we can.
“We’re in the planning process to look at how we can expand into the future now that we know that there’s enough demand to do it, it’s actually grown much bigger than I ever thought it would.”
In April this year Ms Dupagne was also named WA Rural Woman of the Year and awarded a $10,000 bursary.
She has been using the funding to develop a subsidised camp for women from regional WA to develop leadership skills and promote change in their communities.
Ms Dupagne is in the process of setting up two pilot camps – with one dedicated to women aged under 30 and the other for all ages – which will be available from February next year.
“We’re targeting women who are already contributing to the community and already leaders in the community – mums that are involved in the P&C, people involved with sports clubs – they’ve already got leadership roles and they’ve already got really good ideas for their communities,” she said.
“This is all about taking them, providing them with support, life skills and teaching them the things they need so they can actually go back to their communities and then implement those skills back into those communities.”
AgriFutures Australia managing director John Harvey said Ms Dupagne’s impact on the volunteers and participants at Camp Kulin was an example of leadership at its best.
