James Cleaver

UNE 2020 Rising Star Award Winner

James Cleaver could hardly have chosen a more challenging time to leave his comfortable job as a Dubbo solicitor and join the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) as a rural support worker. It was April 2018 and drought's grip on the state had tightened to a stranglehold. Concerns for the health and wellbeing of farming families were at an all-time high.

With his roots extending deep into the black-soil floodplains near Nyngan, James was not oblivious to the dry conditions, nor intimidated by them. "It was a bit of a leap of faith, after having spent just three years practising law," says the UNE graduate and Robb College life member, "but I had this longing to be a part of agriculture. And while it was a really tough time for many people, I couldn't have been luckier. It gave me a lot of opportunities to help people out."

Because if there are two things his colleagues report about James, besides his authenticity and rapport with rural people, it's his passion and persistence. In the months that followed, giving talks to exhausted and sometimes hostile audiences, he never shied away from the most difficult subjects, especially if he thought it might help.

"Agriculture is a hard game," James says. "There's either not enough rain or too much rain, and  adverse events are the norm now. It's only a question of how close together those events are.

"I gave the valedictorian's address at Robb College last year and recommended three things to my fellow Robbers: that they do everything with passion and confidence; try to offer solutions rather than criticisms; and recognise the importance of social networks during difficult times. Those three things underscore my work. I am not the best leader out there, but I think passion gets you a long way in life, and there's always something you can do to help others."

James completed a Bachelor of Laws/Bachelor of Economics at UNE, which he says comes in "pretty handy" in his current role. As well as linking primary producers to financial, agricultural, health and non-government services, he advocates on their behalf, straddling the city-country divide.

"We keep knuckling away and help where we can; the people are the best part about my job," he says. "I am just the middle man. I don't have to know everything; it's about having the right people in the tent."

The power of connections became patently clear to James not long into his DPI post, when he gave a keynote speech to Rotary clubs looking to support drought-impacted communities. At the time, generous donations were not always being equitably or well directed and James "gave them the lay of the land".

"Next thing you know Rotary gave our group $40,000 for the Release Valve Project, to host social events across western and north-western NSW to get men, especially, off-farm," says James, who chaired the project. "Men often fall behind, so we targeted them with working dog workshops, horse trail rides, barbecues and camp-oven cook-offs to give them a break from the drought, opportunities to socialise and reconnect, and to go home refreshed. You could see the change on their faces."

Off the back of that initiative, much of the drought support became socially based. Another $50,000 from the Western NSW Primary Health Network enabled James and his colleagues to run similar events in the central west, and their success inspired the Drought Resilience Fund. James also used his platform as a Royal Agricultural Society NSW Rural Ambassador to continue to develop the best means of supporting rural people.

When the drought did finally break earlier this year, that support took the shape of the Drought Observations Report, which James helped compile to highlight the issues, gaps, challenges and solutions for future reference. "It may surprise people, but being a solicitor is so similar to offering support to rural people," he says. "It's about sitting there and listening, and asking the right questions to steer them in the right direction. It helps having grown up on the land."

After the demands of drought, bushfire support consumed much of James' working days earlier this year. The focus now is on recovery and preparing for the next adverse event, by helping farming families to build on their considerable business skills.

The stresses of managing a property are pretty uniform, wherever you might be," James says. A lot of people think their situation is unique, but the more they talk about it, the more they realise it's the norm and that we are all in this together.

Congratulations James, one of this year's UNE Rising Stars.