Getting her hands dirty

Trailblazing scientist Dr Mary Cole has dedicated her life to teaching farmers how to care for the land. And now she has received one of agriculture's highest honours.

- WORDS by GENEVIEVE GANNON

Tea is what Dr Mary Cole prescribes for safeguarding the future of Australia’s farmers. Compost tea, that is, and soil aeration, molasses and planting multi-species crops. For more than 45 years, Mary has been using her expertise in plant pathology and soil microbiology to teach farmers how to grow food ina way that preserves the health of the soil and ultimately makes the crops more nutritious.

Her passion springs from her happy childhood spent on Queensland’s Atherton Tablelands where her father, James Madsen, learnt how to cultivate the land from a local Aboriginal elder, and her childhood treats were hot jaffles straight from the AGA stove and wild honey.

Mary was promoting organic and regenerative farming long before concepts like permaculture became trendy. It hasn’t always been easy. She has faced resistance from farmers and endured being called a liar by executives from companies that produce chemical fertilisers, but public opinion has come around, she says, chuckling softly.

“What I’ve done through my career is talk to farmers about how they can still be successful, but they can be successful with a footprint that is far kinder and softer than the imported European style of ploughing the hell out of the land,” she says. “My reason for being is to try to help farmers.”

At the age of 80, Mary has just been named the Victorian winner of the 2025 AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award for the work she does through her company, Agpath. When