Harnessing the strengths of her region, Fiona Kotvojs believes smarter farms will survive downturns and bad seasons.
Her family have been involved in agricultural innovation from the 1960s when her father, Martin Kotvojs, was one of the first to breed Simmental cattle. He also was one of the first to get involved in livestock artificial insemination, working with the dairy industry.
When Dr Kotvojs and her husband Alan took over running the Dignams Creek property south of Tilba Tilba they researched new sources of on-farm income.
They ended up on growing truffles and planted two species of oaks and hazelnut trees, about 300 trees over a hectare to encourage the truffles. That was in 2012. Now they've come a long way and are even now exporting truffles to the US.
Dr Kotvojs is now encouraging other farms on the Far South Coast to get in on truffles' popularity. Diversifying is what she says farms must do to stay profitable and help keep younger people on the family farm. It's a challenge many face with the smaller holdings common on the coast.
In the wake of the disastrous Black Summer fires, she co-founded the Gourmet Coast Trail, that showcases the finest produce of the South Coast, with 50 members offering unique experiences from truffle hunts to kelp harvesting and includes the best cheeses, seafood, high-quality tomatoes as part of food adventures.
She's also on another trail - the election one - as she heads to the February 12 polling day as the Liberal candidate for the Bega by-election. She knows by-elections are tough and with just a 6 per cent margin, and having drawn the bottom of the ballot paper, it's not going to be easy.
She is juggling many things. Dr Kotvojs also runs her own consultancy business advising Australian and foreign governments on service delivery for major programs.
She and her family are still recovering from the fires that hit their farm five times and ravaged the whole South Coast.
They saved their Simmentals by putting them in a wet gully among the willows as they fought to save the farmhouse. The trees acted as an ember shield. They later moved them to a burnt area on neighbour's property as another fire front hit. The fires were relentless. The Kotvojs's are still rebuilding fences two years on and the hurt in the community goes on. The mental health battles are still huge.
"People still need a lot of support. For some it may take 10 years or more to get over this. There is no one answer for everyone."
She is facing a stern challenge now in the by-election and having been given the last place on the ballot paper for the by-election, that's made it a lot harder.
She is philosophical about the ballot draw. "I suppose I look at it this way, I had a one on seven chnace of getting last place," she says.
Former member Andrew Constance has put his full weight behing Dr Kotvojs, and the Liberals hope his strong local following will help Dr Kotvojs. The Labor Party has started throwing a lot of money at the Bega election with prime time election ads targetting the NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet.
Dr Kotvojs hopes her deep local connections will get her over the line on election day.
For the first time postal voting packages have been sent to all electors.
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John Ellicott
journalist and author
journalist and author
