And the Winner Is … Angie Nisbet
It’s likely that someone you know has had a brush with sun cancer – it’s one of the deadliest cancers and one of the most preventable. And as we know, Australia has the world’s high melanoma rate. Queenslander Angie Nisbet took the dangers of cancer to heart after a close friend died and her sister, Shona, was diagnosed with stage two melanoma.
Angie knew there are hats, shirts, jeans for sun-protection but hands were overlooked; so she designed UPF50+ sun protection gloves and sells them via her FarmHer Hands website. These are not your mother’s gloves, but colourful fingerless gloves more attuned to workers such as Angie. She’s a cattle producer who knows about spending hours mustering cattle. Drivers, take note. Oh if you wanna hear Angie listen to her podcast Married to the Land. Angie obviously needs more to do so she’s expanding the business into retail and developing educational resources.
In March Angie won the 2026 Queensland AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award. Angie beat out some pretty tough competition – the four finalists were Jaime Best, Sam Musson and Alyson Shepherd. Jaime is co-founder of Rural Women Unite which raises awareness about free mental health support for rural and remote women; the organisation has large community events, where hundreds of women social and raise money for rural mental health. Sam founded Zest Element a business that transforms unwanted fruit into dried formats, powders, salts and slices, that can be added to smoothies, baking, drinks etc. Alyson Shepherd is a beekeeper (Norma May Honey) dedicated to the ethical production of honey – if you have missed the recent scandals about fake honey then it’s a worldwide thing. When she’s not producing honey, she’s about teaching us about apiculture—aka science and art of raising honey bees. Four fab women with four fantastic stories. Aren’t you glad you weren’t a judge?
The AgriFutures event was a buzzin’ with lively ladies and everyone had a great story to tell. Many alumni attended to support the finalists and to celebrate their nominations. But wait, there’s more. The grand final will be held in Canberra, in September – there are glittering prizes – Angie collected $15,000 grant to develop her educational program and potentially could win a further $20,000 if she is the national winner, or if a runner-up then $15,000 grant. Thanks to Westpac.
AgriFutures has been recognising rural and regional women for over 25 years. If you want to know more about AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award, thinking about applying, or wish to suss out Angie’s competition apply then visit their website.
