WHEN Ali Duckworth left her hometown of Grafton at 18, she didn't think she'd be returning, especially not to marry a dairy farmer.
But that's exactly what happened, and when it did, she needed a little support.
She teamed up with Nicole Nicholls, Kyogle, to create the Women in Dairy Australia network.
"I had been based in Brisbane and Auckland, New Zealand, working for a high profile software company before returning to Grafton so I didn't know anything about dairy," Mrs Duckworth said.
"I was up to my knees and didn't know who to turn to for advice."
The network now has more than 80 members.
She said a "startling" number of the network's members had shared a similar story.
"When you come into a family run operation and haven't known anything about farming it can be an isolating experience," she said.
Communication between the network's members flows on their Facebook page, WIDA Women in Dairy Australia.
The group is a place where members from all States post queries, inspirational messages, advice and share information about industry events.
But the network transcends the boundaries of the world wide web - meetings and workshops are held regularly to bring everybody together.
Co-founder Nicole Nicholls said off-line, the focus of the group was skill development.
"When we come together, it's all about helping members to develop the skills they already have and giving them skills they need to solve their own problems," Mrs Nicholls said.
"Some of the main things women in the group have said they need help with are succession planning and business planning.
"In the past they've talked about which accounting programs they use and they've found it was great to know they are not on their own."
WIDA has big plans for the future - Mrs Nicholls wants to connect the many small women's networks across the country into one.
"The long-term goals of the group are to connect Dairy Farming Women's groups from across Australia, learn from, support and network with these groups," Mrs Nicholls said.
She said the reason they wanted to create a single, large group in Australia was to have all women connected so they could easily communicate and push ahead with large scale education and empowerment initiatives.
Mrs Nicholls travelled to New Zealand last year to attend the Dairy Women's Network conference, and said there was much to do in Australia to keep pace.
"In New Zealand women are celebrated and encouraged in their industry; they have Dairy Woman of The Year awards and are recognised as large contributors to their businesses."
