Sharing stories to inspire others was a common theme among speakers at this year’s Women in Agriculture luncheon at Farm World.

Event patron Angela Betheras, winner of the 2011 Victorian Agri-futures Rural Woman of the Year award, initiated the luncheon in 2012 to celebrate the significant contribution of women in agricultural communities.

“The stories I heard were amazing and I thought, we need to celebrate as many women in regional and rural Australia as we can.

Guest speakers included Kimberley Fine Diamonds proprietor Frauke Bolten-Boshammer, The Camel Milk Co. founder Megan Williams and Got You Girl founder and creative director Sophie Stewart.

Frauke shared her story of a young girl whose mother died, a woman who married young and worked hard on their farms and a mother who endured many battles.

After her husband suicided three years after they immigrated to Australia, Frauke, 37, found herself desperate and alone in outback Western Australia.

But she had fallen in love with Kununurra, its soil, sunshine, water and mostly its people.

Frauke had no family and a few close friends but she did not want to uproot her two young children again.

Frauke remarried, Robert Boshammer, and her family grew, with 21 years between her oldest and youngest.

Farming in Kununurra was different to Germany but they made it work.  They farmed chia seeds, corn and later cotton.

But something else beckoned and Frauke decided to chase what seemed an impossible dream - to open a boutique diamond business in the heart of the outback.