A tribute to Liz Alexander

Our hearts are heavy with the passing of Liz Alexander, a dear friend and former colleague.

Liz was CHDC’s first Agribusiness Development Coordinator from mid-2016 to mid-2020.

She was extremely capable, knowledgeable, and motivated, and a huge advocate of the Central Highlands, the region’s agriculture industry and its people.

Liz’s energy and passion for her work was infectious but she was also kind, generous and great fun.

The loss of Liz is being felt by the CHDC family and the whole ag sector.

Our thoughts are very much with Doug, Fletcher and Brodie, the rest of Liz and Doug’s families, and her friends and colleagues.

Liz will be farewelled at a funeral this Monday, 15 July, at 11:00am at Calvary Church, Gladstone Street, Emerald.

The service will be livestreamed via this link.

Liz left a long and lasting mark at CHDC through her stewardship of Central Highlands Accelerate Agriculture (CHAA), a multi-award-winning initiative that delivered many significant and important projects. These include:

• The biennial and always sold-out AGTECH event series. Liz even helped the NSW community of Mungindi host its own successful version of the event in 2018.

• The annual Farm to Fine Dining regional produce showcase in Brisbane, which continues to be an important advocacy event for the Central Highlands and its producers.

• The uplifting Central Highlands Agriculture: More than you expect short film. To date, it’s clocked 11K views on YouTube and even more on social media.

• The AgFrontier regional agtech incubator, which nurtured local talent in the fast-growing space of agricultural technology, and was the first incubator of its kind for Queensland.

• The From Paddock to Port Tours gave local exporters a first-hand understanding of supply chain efficiencies and opportunities.

Supporting start-ups, scale-ups and innovation was a passion of Liz’s but she was also eager to help anyone who needed it. This was brought to the fore during COVID when Liz worked tirelessly to assist, guide, and assure the Central Highlands’ producers as they navigated the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic.

Before and after her time at CHDC, we collaborated frequently with Liz in her various other roles, including her FrontPaw and Blue Dog Ag consultancies, Cotton Australia, CHRRUP and as a Commercialisation Facilitator with i4 Connect – testament to how much we valued her expertise and enjoyed her company.

Vale, Liz.