2025 Northampton District Rural Ambassador - Anna Henville

Hi, I’m Anna and I’m honoured to be Northampton’s Rural Ambassador for 2025.

I was brought up on the family farm at West Binnu and spent my primary years at Binnu Primary School, where my family were fully involved in the community. We enjoyed lots of activities: Scout bike rides and picnics, P&C fundraisers, tennis club events, school concerts and many more. I count myself lucky to have had such a supportive community around me and such a free-range childhood.

Although schooling wasn’t easy for me, it was my time at Binnu that taught me resilience and the value of hard work. Both at school and at home we were expected to give 100% at whatever we did, be it doing a school assignment or shifting sheep. I have dyslexia, dysgraphia and ADHD so I would have taken sheep work over school work any day. I continued my schooling as a boarder at Nagle in Geraldton, where we lived as a strong community and made friendships for life.

I have never been a fan of the city, so when it came time to go to university I was lucky enough to be able to study locally in Geraldton through Geraldton University Centre and continue living on the farm. One of the great things about study in Geraldton was I was able to complete some of my teaching practicum in small country schools; Binnu PS and Saint Mary’s in Northampton. I have also done a year teaching at Chapman Valley Primary School and am now a permanent early childhood Special Education teacher at Holland Street School.

I guess I’m not your average rural ambassador – I live in Geraldton now and am not directly involved in the agricultural sector, but I love the Northampton Show and my involvement in it. I have been an Exhibition Hall committee member for over ten years and Chief Steward of the Junior Section for the last three. A lot of country social life is centered around netball and footy, and I was not great at organised sports. As a kid the Show gave me a chance to show what I was good at – baking, crafts, visual arts and honed some life skills in the process – organisation, attention to detail, perseverance, volunteering…the list goes on.

As a teacher I encourage students to participate in hands-on activities to expose them to country life. Our school is lucky enough to have a kitchen garden and chickens, where we go out and explore where our food comes from. We are also partnered with “Kelpies for Kids” where kelpie puppies visit to become used to children and adults as they train to be working dogs. This exposes the kids to sheep work as we watch videos of the dogs training, which the students love.

The Northampton Show provides a chance for the students at Holland Street School to enter arts, crafts and cooking into the Exhibition Hall, allowing them to participate in the community that they would not have had otherwise. I love that my passion for education, rural life and the Northampton Show have come together to create these opportunities.

It’s great that our wonderful team of volunteers can create an event which showcases agriculture and also the skills and passions of all who live in the community. I’m proud to be a part of it.