From Oxford to the farm
How the first female Rhodes Scholar became a champion for the agricultural industry
When Dr Beth Woods returned to Queensland from Oxford University in the early 1980s as the first ever female Rhodes Scholar, it was expected that she would take up a distinguished academic career.
Instead, she went to the farm.
Dr Woods (Bachelor of Agricultural Science ’77) retired as Director-General of the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries in 2021, after a career in which she alternated between working in the Queensland public service and academic posts at The University of Queensland, as well as undertaking international service in the field of agriculture.
Along the way, she was a pioneer for women in the traditionally male-dominated field of agriculture, being the first female Rhodes Scholar, first female Professor at UQ’s Gatton campus, and first female head of the Queensland Government’s agriculture-related department.
Dr Beth Woods
Dr Beth Woods
Agriculture was always an unlikely career for someone who grew up in the suburbs of Brisbane. She acknowledges magazines like the Queensland Agricultural Journal (QAJ), along with the Reader’s Digest and the Women’s Weekly – which were often lying around the family home – as inspiration for her career choice.
“I got through the good articles in the Digest and the Weekly pretty quickly, and I always found that the QAJ had a lot more substance to it,” she said.
But there was a rural connection in the Brisbane suburban household. Her father, Geoff, was a farm boy from Kingaroy, who came to Brisbane and joined the Reserve Bank, where he was the general manager of rural credits.
His main work was lending to rural co-operatives, which had sprung up in rural Queensland in the post-war years to give farmers a share in the entire food production process past the farm gate.
Consequently, the state of Queensland agriculture was a common topic around the Woods’ dinner table.
At Brisbane Girls Grammar School in Brisbane, Dr Woods excelled in maths and science and had her pick of university courses. While medicine was where many of her school friends were headed, she had an interest in all matters rural and always liked the nature of agricultural science.
Dr Woods’s first encounter with UQ was as an undergraduate in 1973, and after four years studying a Bachelor of Agricultural Science, she gained not just her degree but also the University Medal.
An unexpected turn in her life came when the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, which allows for post-graduate study at Oxford University, was opened to women for the first time in 1977.
Cecil Rhodes himself – a British mining magnate and the man who established the Rhodes Scholarship – had stipulated that the scholarship be limited to men. But between his death in 1902 and the 1970s, society had changed a great deal.
In 1975, the British Parliament passed the Sex Discrimination Act, which allowed women to apply for the scholarship.
“I didn’t realise how competitive it was until we got to the interview stage,” said Dr Woods, who admits she was reluctant to apply.
“It was not as if I had other female role models to look to.”
Dr Beth Woods visits the Commonwealth Cairns Biosecurity Laboratory to discuss the work of the North Australian Quarantine Strategy.
Nonetheless, she was selected, and through an accident of timing from Oxford, became the first Rhodes Scholar announced.
“I ended up, by sheer luck, being the first female Rhodes Scholar in the world. But really, I wasn’t the only woman in that first year,” she said.
“Of the 72 Rhodes Scholars from around the world who started at Oxford in 1977, 24 were women.”
It was an interesting time to be at Oxford. Future Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was a Rhodes Scholar at the same time, while another future Prime Minister, Tony Abbott – who was also a Rhodes Scholar – visited Oxford while Dr Woods was there.
Her area of study concerned the common agricultural policy of the European Union, a very relevant area at the time, and she was dutifully awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in Agricultural Economics.
But what do you do with such a qualification?
Dr Beth Woods speaks on a panel at a recent TropAg conference.
Before she went to Oxford in 1977, Dr Woods was employed by the Department of Primary Industries as an extension officer at Atherton, which meant visiting farmers and advising them on their crops. She was never offered a permanent position, as her employers reasoned that after being at Oxford, she wouldn’t want to come back to such a job.
They were wrong. She went straight back from the dreamy spires of Oxford to the farms of the Fassifern Valley, outside Ipswich, for five years. She spent a further five years in the lush dairy country of the Atherton Tablelands, becoming the most qualified extension officer in the department’s history.
Dr Woods recalls that it was hands-on work – a particular aspect involved working with farmers to grow more varieties of potatoes.
“Potatoes were all grown so that they could be easily made into mashed potato. But we worked with them to have the yellow-fleshed potato for Asian curries, and there was a growing demand for that,” she said.
While the Rhodes Scholarship may have been open to women from the 1970s, Dr Woods said some farmers at the time were a bit dubious about taking advice from a woman.
“I didn’t have to do that much sticking up for myself, but a few people did on my behalf,” she said.
“But after some of the farmers actually met me we all got on well and became great mates.”
Dr Beth Woods visits the Commonwealth Cairns Biosecurity Laboratory to discuss the work of the North Australian Quarantine Strategy.
Dr Beth Woods visits the Commonwealth Cairns Biosecurity Laboratory to discuss the work of the North Australian Quarantine Strategy.
Dr Beth Woods speaks on a panel at a recent TropAg conference.
Dr Beth Woods speaks on a panel at a recent TropAg conference.
With a young family – she had married fellow agricultural science student Michael Grundy (Bachelor of Agricultural Science ’77, Master of Agricultural Science ’80, Bachelor of Economics ’91) – Dr Woods returned to Brisbane in the early 1990s and worked in the DPI’s central office. In 1993, the DPI “loaned” her to UQ to start a post-graduate rural extension training scheme, which would concentrate on the adoption of new technology and practices.
There she stayed until 1996, when a new state government came into office, and she returned to DPI’s central office to help set up policy frameworks. But this was only a short stint – in 1997, she was back at UQ, again on the Gatton campus, this time as the Suncorp-Metway foundation Professor of Agribusiness.
She spent 7 years at Gatton before returning to the DPI in 2004, and had various deputy director-general roles in the bureaucracy before being appointed as Director-General of the Department of Agricultural and Fisheries in 2015.
But while she also served on the board of the CSIRO, as well as many other government committees at both state and federal level, her work was not confined to Australia.
Dr Beth Woods with her family after being awarded an Honorary Doctorate from UQ in 2021.
Dr Beth Woods with her family after being awarded an Honorary Doctorate from UQ in 2021.
From her student days, she developed an ongoing interest in helping developing countries increase their food supply. Dr Woods had two appointments in this area as chair of World Bank sponsored bodies WorldFish (from 2014-17) and the International Rice Research (from 2008-10). In both cases, the aim was to boost existing yields, either in rice or fisheries.
Now, in supposed retirement, she is a long way from being idle. When Contact caught up with her recently she was in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam in her role as a Commissioner of International Agricultural Research for the Australian Centre for Agricultural Research. Then after two days in Brisbane, it was over to Perth to chair the Council for the Australian Institute of Marine Science.
Last year, she was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate from UQ.
“UQ has featured throughout my career – my first university, my employer and a partner in agricultural research, training and science investment,” she said at the time of the award.
125 years at Gatton
This year marks 125 years of UQ's Gatton campus. UQ alumni, staff and community members gathered at the campus on 2 July to celebrate. The festivities included campus tours, talks, live music, activities for the kids, as well as a long-table lunch on the verandah of the Foundation Building.
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