David Matthews

David is a farmer from Rupanyup in the Wimmera region of Victoria. His farming enterprise concentrates on crop production with 1200 ha of cereals, pulses and oilseeds being sown annually.

In 1993, he started The Wimmera Grain Company, a grain marketing, cleaning and packing business located at Rupanyup. This business has grown steadily since its inception and in the 2001-2002 season, the company processed 17,000 mt of grain for container export, purchased 15,000 mt for bulk export and traded 3,000 mt to the domestic market. The company has 14 full-time employees and up to eight casuals at peak times.

David is a member of the Grain Industry Association of Victoria and Pulse Victoria, a Director of the Australian Field Crops Association and represents that body on the board of Graintrust.

He was the founding Chairman of the Rupanyup/Minyip Community Bank, the first Community Bank in Australia, and in 2001 he received a Churchill Fellowship to study the management of change occurring in broadacre cropping regions in Australia, Canada and Europe.