Meander farmer at the heart of community

Running a farm is hard work but somehow Christine Chilcott of Meander has managed to juggle cropping and dairying with raising children, running a post office and volunteering for more than 20 local organisations and community groups.

Volunteering is certainly in the blood, with her father being a long-time member of Probus and awarded the last British Empire Medal, her mum involved in the Country Women’s Association and both Christine and her sister Carol have been awarded an OAM for their selfless contributions to others.

Christine recently received the Lifetime Commitment Award and Tasmanian Premier Volunteer of the Year Award at the Volunteer Tasmania Awards in Hobart – adding to a pile of official recognition that she neither seeks nor displays.

“We’re just ‘if you see a need, do it’ kind of people,” Christine summed up.

“Yes, you have to be organised, but that’s what my calendars are for.”

The two calendars hang in the kitchen near the old kitchen table that Christine refuses to part with purely because there is a meaning or a grandchild’s name attached to every scratch or blob of superglue.

One end of the table is allocated for David to pay the bills and the other for Christine to plan all her volunteering admin work and committee meetings.

In fact Christine’s husband David is forced to refer to the calendar to work out where his wife is on any given hour or day of the week.

The couple have spent many decades running what was David’s family farm, growing peas and potatoes and then adding dairy farming on a nearby property.

“When I think about all the early milking, the moving of irrigators late at night with a torch held in my mouth, the muddy paddocks and the like – it’s hard to work out how we did it,” Christine said.

“Then we bought the house and post office shop over the road and I ran that with my daughter Pricilla, who is now a teachers’ assistant, for a long time.

Finally ready to take a step back, and let their son Jason, who works on several dairy farms, take the reins, the Chilcotts don’t seem to be any less busy.

Their other son Nathan and his wife Amanda have 700 acres in the district and David keeps a small mob of sheep there.

There’s also 11 grandchildren to eat up a good deal of their attention too.

“I was very young when I went to my first committee meeting – my dad was secretary of the Deloraine Probus Club but he couldn’t spell so he’d take me along to take the minutes when I was just a child,” Christine said.

Since then she has been on more committees than the back of spud diggers – and that’s a lot.

Christine’s a life member of the Deloraine Badminton Association, Deloraine Junior Basketball Association and Aged Care Deloraine.

For more than 30 years she’s been on the Meander Hall Committee and is on the roster to clean toilets and barbecues at the Meander Dam under contract to Meander Valley Council to help keep the hall financial.

Deloraine Meander House, Deloraine Junior Football Club, Meander Primary School and the Deloraine Probus Association have all long relied on her volunteer efforts.

She’s that person who will be on the gate at 8am at the local footy match or sitting with the elderly, giving them treats and an ear at the aged care homes.

“There’s a lot of farmers in there and I see some of them are forgotten by their families – it’s nice to be able to brighten their day,” she said.

So if you ever need to give Christine a call, don’t be surprised by her voicemail message.

“Make the most of each day. I must be busy. I’ll call you back.”