Agricultural
21 August, 2025
Ewe beauty!
Oakey State High School’s Ag Team has returned home from the Ekka with several individual ribbons and the Champion Dohne Ewe award.
The team, led by Mrs Debbie Goudie, headed to Brisbane last week with sheep in tow for a four-day Royal Queensland Show campaign. Over the four days, students camped at the showgrounds where they prepared, showed and judged sheep.
It was a very successful campaign with Mrs Goudie telling the school she was beyond excited and proud of her team’s achievements in winning the Champion Dohne Ewe section and taking out ribbons in several individual sections.
The individual awards were led by Royal Sydney Show Champion Young Judge Amy Turner, who took home first place in Wool judging and in the Senior Dairy Goat judging.
Earlier this year, the young Turner, who owns her own angora goat stud, had been crowned Champion Darling Downs Young Judge after sweeping the local shows.
Amy wasn’t the only winner with fellow student Kaytlyn O’Connell taking out first place in junior dairy goat judging, a category which saw another Oakey student, Crystal Wieck, on the podium.
Oakey High also had two on the podium in the Handlers section with Brianna Keen finishing second, and Kaytlyn O’Connell finishing third.
As a team, the Oakey students took out third place in the School Wethers Competition
The trip marks yet another headline achievement for the Ag Team, which has gone from strength to strength under the leadership of Mrs Goudie, whose champion qualities were recognised earlier this year in January when she won Citizen of the Year at Oakey’s Australia Day Awards Ceremony.
“Debbie has been an example of true selflessness and has proved her dedication to her community countless times,” a Committee member said at the ceremony.
“For two decades, Debbie has been the agricultural science teacher at Oakey State High School. She has taken numerous students, too many to count, ‘under her wing’ and given them grounded basic education and a love of agriculture when, for a lot of them, traditional schooling (had) no relevance or interest.
“Even over the Christmas holidays, Debbie has gone to school daily, to check on, feed and water animals.
“The students, under her guidance, have had wonderful success, winning coveted prizes.
“Her commitment has given at-risk students a sense of purpose in life when there was no one else, and her gentle, kind and positive words of guidance have kept many students from unnecessary grief.”
