Organising committee chairwoman for the successful Darkan Sheepfest, Jodie King, will be the next Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) industry relations officer for Western Australia.
Ms King is married to Elders stud stock specialist and auctioneer Nathan King, who has worked in the sheep and wool industry for more than 28 years and whose parents and brothers - Jeremy (Rangeview stud, Darkan), Jarrod (Warralea Poll Merino stud, Gairdner) and Travis (Elders Albany branch manager) - are also involved in the agricultural industry.
She and her husband have a small property at Darkan where they are setting up a Poll Merino stud for their teenage daughters Darcy and Matilda, who attend WA College of Agriculture - Denmark and are already involved in the wool industry.
"The girls have carried on the wool harvesting tradition and spend school holidays working alongside some of the best in the game," said Ms King, who starts her AWI position on September 11, replacing Tori Kirk, who has joined CSBP Fertilisers.
"Darcy and Matilda have been fortunate to be trained by AWI trainers and this year will be following the show circuit with (shearing contractor and competition shearer) Mark and Sarah Buscumb."
The Kings were among the Darkan families who organised the initial 2018 Act Belong Commit Darkan Sheepfest as a community building exercise to bring their local agricultural show back after a 60-year absence.
They continue to volunteer to make the event a success each year.
The ABC's Back Roads program filmed at Sheepfest in February and the program aired earlier this month, introducing the Darkan community and Sheepfest to a national television audience.
Ms King is giving up a 23-year career in nursing to take on the industry relations role with AWI.
"It is a career change for me, but I'm looking forward to it and I consider my nursing in aged care involved a degree of what I'd call 'public relations' and, of course, I know many of the families involved in the wool industry here," she said.
Ms King's own background is also in Merino wool and sheep studs.
She grew up in Crookwell, on the New South Wales Southern Tablelands, where her father worked for 26 years with Koonawarra Merino stud at nearby Laggan and an uncle was a shearing contractor.
"I have many memories of working in the sheds with my late uncle, he was old school, but he taught me about respect for the animal and the beautiful wool that it produces," Ms King said.
"My family went on to start their own Poll Merino stud, Stillbrook, and I still have vivid memories of spending a lot of my time in the ram shed just watching the rams, I loved everything about them and to this day, I still do.
"Working in the sheds helped me get through my studies and eventually I went nursing in regional NSW (and) through the sheep and wool industry, I met my husband, Nathan."
Ms King said her childhood friend, former sheep and wool journalist Kristen Frost, has recently started with AWI as an industry relations officer in NSW.
"I'm sure we'll bounce ideas off each other," she said.
"There's some big things happening in the industry at the moment and I want our woolgrowers to contact me.
"I want them to know that I'm working for them."
