Jim Willmott is a long-term defender of the rights of rural regional communities.
Born in Perth, Western Australia Jim’s family moved to regional Queensland in the mid 70’s and spent his early years on the family’s small crops and beef cattle farm west of Gympie. His love of primary production led to him attending the University of Queensland, Gatton Campus where he studied Applied Science in Agriculture specialising in Agronomy with Distinction. After leaving tertiary studies Jim started an extensive and distinguished public service career and this is where he accumulated an extensive practical experience in protecting agriculture and the environment from the revengers of invasive species and disease. His regional postings saw him stationed at Blackall, Longreach, Emerald and Rockhampton and participated in various strategic campaigns throughout Queensland and the Northern Territory protecting an array of agricultural industries from a series of biosecurity threats.
In the late nineties Jim led an emergency response campaign against a series of locust plagues that threatened bumper grain crops throughout central and southern Queensland. Jim and his team battled dangerous conditions for 6 months in protecting the livelihoods of many producers and communities.
This strategic response engineered and coordinated by Jim received nationwide coverage and was the first time in history that a Locust plaque had been prevented from occurring. Within the Emerald strategic cropping area alone over 50 million dollars in grain crops where saved and countless families breathed a sign of relief that their livelihoods had been protected. Jim’s leadership did not go unnoticed and he was nominated as “Citizen of the Year” by Emerald Council. At a state level his accomplishments were awarded with a “Mark of Achievement Medal” from the Department of Natural Resources and Mines. Later that year he received the prestigious “Premiers Award” bestowed by Peter Beattie for his services to Rural and Regional Communities. His term and methodology regarding “preventative control” guided State government policy and is still used within modern biosecurity studies.
Following his success Jim moved to Brisbane as a Senior Policy Officer where he worked on complex whole of government policies designed to improve the stewardship of all State-owned land in Queensland. Jim’s love of natural resource management also saw him provide executive support to Ministers and the Landcare and Catchment Management Council in developing a Statewide Landcare Support Strategy. He was also a founding member in creating the Public Service “Leadership Lounge” which is still in operation to this day.
After his mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2001 Jim resigned from the public service to spend more time with family at Gympie. After her death he moved to Northern NSW to take up a Director position with the Far North Coast County Council. Again Jim excelled in this biosecurity role and received the NSW Local Government Environmental Award in 2013. His scientific knowledge of Biosecurity was also utlised by the NSW public service in developing the Biosecurity Information System to help Government and communities prepare, respond to and recover from biosecurity incidents involving invasive species and animal diseases.
In 2014 he returned to Queensland and to his farming passion whilst continuing to provide consultancy services to private enterprises and local government wanting his scientific expertise in the specialised field of biosecurity. Today he continues his consultancy role and passion for farming running a Beef fattening enterprises in the South Burnett Region.
Inspired by his love and passion for rural Queensland, Jim has led many successful initiatives protecting the rights of landowners and their properties and calling for more essential services to rural and regional communities. He has been an active campaigner to improve the Queensland Government’s response in the eradication of Fire Ants, preparedness to respond to emergency animal diseases and improving the performance of government in managing environmental values in National Parks. He has played an active role in many community organisations, standing up to government and commercial entities that ride rough shot over people’s livelihoods and property rights. Jim now leads Property Rights Australia, a dynamic grass roots organisation that supports local communities whose property rights are under threat and their voices are not being heard.
“I joined PRA because I want to help protect peoples’ hard earned property rights. I believe enduring private property rights are fundamental to the prosperity and sustainability of rural, regional and urban communities across Australia. I am now part of an organisation that is standing up to defend and protect our properties now and for future generations”, said Jim.
