White Pages Covers Program

White Pages® celebrates Stephen Mills’ agricultural irrigation for the future

March 3, 2011

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Numurkah resident, Stephen Mills has been selected to appear on the cover of this year’s Shepparton Yellow Pages^® and White Pages^® book which will be distributed to Shepparton, Deniliquin, Kyabram, Cobram, Numurkah and Tatura from 26 February 2011.

Each year, Sensis, the publisher of the Yellow Pages^® and White Pages^®, recognises the contribution of local residents in the community by featuring them on the cover of its books.

The theme for this year’s covers, Australians Creating a Better Future, recognises people throughout Australia who have made a positive contribution to their community through projects or initiatives that help to make a better future for Australia. These projects have contributed environmentally, economically and/or socially to the local community and will benefit the next generation of Australians.

Stephen’s selection recognises his contribution to improving the environmental management of the community’s water resources.

After purchasing his dairy farm in 1978, Stephen became aware of the potential problem in accessing water if ever there was a drought. This led him to researching and developing methods to implement the best irrigation systems on his farm and share his learning’s with other farmers.

Stephen’s exploration to find methods of converting and gathering water has led him to his current project of modernising the region’s 100-year-old irrigation infrastructure, in a bid to make more farms sustainable in times of drought. By providing a technologically advanced backbone to the region’s farms, water channels are progressively being sealed to stop seepage, and farms connected to this new irrigation system.

“I feel it is imperative to ensure the future of such a precious resource in order to guarantee a successful future for the farming industry. I’m humbled to be recognised for making local farmers in particular, aware of the importance of sustainable irrigation,” said Stephen.

For his dedication to modernising irrigation in the community, Stephen has received the Centenary Medal for Services to Agriculture.

Did you know? The last three local people to appear on the Shepparton Yellow Pages^® and White Pages^® cover were:

2010/11: Shepparton resident, Richard Trevaskis was selected to appear on the cover the Shepparton directory under the theme Courageous Australians. Richie is well known in the Shepparton area as former Mayor and a courageous cancer survivor who has continuously served his local community for 60 years.

2009/10: Shepparton resident John Head appeared on the 2009/10 Yellow Pages^® and White Pages^® cover under the theme Creative Australians: Inspiring our Communities. John has been helping raise the profile of the arts in the community for over 10 years through the SheppARTon Festival and SheppARTon Shorts: Short Film Festival.

2008/09: Tatura Hot Bread Bakery owners Glenda and Jeff Alexander were the cover heroes for the Celebrating Australian Flavour’ theme, recognised for putting Tatura on the map for their award-winning vanilla slices.