The girl from Coonamble founded The Infrastructure Collective in 2009 while living in Walgett, and now services clients across Australia and the United States.

Ms Kilby was chosen from a shortlist of four finalists: Active Farmers founder Ginny Stevens from Mangoplah, rural speaker, health advocate, photographer, and blogger Shanna Whan from Narrabri, and GOTERRA managing director Olympia Yarger from Canberra.

Ms Kilby said she would use her $10,000 bursary to develop and conduct a Regional Start-ups Insight Study to develop better space and services for new and growing business owners in NSW. 

She will compete in the national final in September. 

Premier Gladys Berejiklian and NSW ag minister Niall Blair were joined by state MPs from across the political divide as well as reps from National Farmers Federation, NSW Farmers. 

It was a big night for rural women with DPI’s departing manager of business and social resilience programs Sonia Muir getting an emotional send-off at the end of the evening. 

More to come