Building his career via an array of farm jobs across multiple states has given Will Lyon a passion for the industry and a long-term desire to be involved in policy making
From general farm labouring through to visiting Parliament House in a leadership program, Will Lyon’s career in agriculture has been eventful.
Now based in Tasmania, where he is farm manager of a property east of Launceston, Will has also worked in both Northern Territory and his native New South Wales and has been drawn to leadership roles as his agricultural career has developed.
He spent 2025 involved with the National Agricultural Leadership Program (NALP), a National Farmers Federation initiative where he was one of nine emerging leaders selected.
“The reason I applied was because I wanted to understand the political side of agriculture,” he says.
“I haven’t had anything to do with it through my whole career being just basically solely based on farm, so I’d never looked over the fence at what happens in Parliament and behind the scenes with the NFF.
“It was quite interesting to go to Canberra and see what’s involved with writing policy and the stages that things go through to get funding – just all the little hurdles that you don’t generally see when you’re on your normal day-to-day job.”
Will only learned about the NALP through a friend he made via being one of three recipients of the 2022 Peter Westblade scholarship – a strong endorsement for the power of networking.
The scholarship – which was another major boost to Will’s career – is given to young leaders in the sheep and wool industry, aiming to provide hands-on experience and mentoring to develop their career in the sector.
Much of Will’s working life has revolved around the sheep and cattle industries and these are the areas he is most enthusiastic about.
“My passion is livestock and livestock handling because it’s directly related to the quality of the meat that comes out of the farm,” he says.
“If you’re handling your livestock and looking after them quite well, then obviously that’s going to be directly related to the end result.
“That’s my passion – trying to make sure that I’m producing the optimum product.”
Origin story
Will was born and bred in the central-west New South Wales town of Orange, where studying several agriculture-related subjects in high school helped to build his passion for the industry.
“I didn’t grow up directly on a farm, but my mum’s side and my dad’s side are both directly related to agriculture,” he says.
“Mum’s side has a family farm and dad’s side were in the meat carting industry and my dad was working in viticulture.”
After school, he spent a season working near the Queensland and Northern Territory border, before returning home and starting a diesel mechanic apprenticeship working on tractors and farm machinery.
He would ultimately not finish this apprenticeship after feeling a desire to get back into agriculture.
“I went back and started farm contracting and labouring around Orange and the central-west doing all sorts of things – drenching, spraying, tractor work and just general farmhand stuff,” he says.
From there, Will got a full-time job as a head stockman on a property just outside of Molong in New South Wales.
He spent more than four years in that role, assisting with livestock management and other general farm maintenance.
The next move was to the state’s western Riverina region where he spent about 18 months as assistant manager of a large sheep station, a role which involved managing a team of jackaroos.
It was around this time that he got the Peter Westblade scholarship – something which he says kickstarted his career and opened up new opportunities and networks.
“I used it to improve my skills as a stockman as well as gain a lot of leadership skills,” he says.
“I did a few leadership courses, got a lot of books and managed to pick up a lot of mentors, all of which is pretty cool.
“My wife and I also had a five-year goal and wanted to move to Tasmania.
“Through networks I made with the scholarship, and a few people from Tassie within the scholarship community, we managed to find this management job down here in Tasmania.”
That job is farm manager of Elverton Pastoral, a 2,700 hectare mixed sheep and beef enterprise which also includes about 350 hectares of irrigation and involves finishing prime lambs and growing out their own beef.
“I’m currently managing a team of six to nine people depending on the time of the year and it’s pretty full on,” Will says.
“The day-to-day is basically managing the team and can vary from anything from livestock right through to machinery maintenance and all the admin that goes with it.
“Through the spring we get a lot of extra casual labour in when we’re quite busy with making hay and silage and there’s a lot of rotational grazing going on.
“There are a lot of stock moves to be planned, so we get a few backpackers in for that.”
Future plans
Will considers himself established in Tasmania, having a young family and being settled in the farm management role.
While day-to-day life on the farm is his top priority, he sees the opportunities and networks gained through both the NALP and Peter Westblade scholarship as being valuable for his longer-term ambitions.
In addition to everything learned after visiting Parliament, part of the NALP’s aim is to give a program for participants to develop their own policy.
Will focused his policy on red meat production, with this being the area he is most passionate about.
Moving into the policy making field and trying to make a difference to the whole sector is something he can foresee in the future.
“At this point in time I’ve got a young family, so we plan to be based on farm until my young fella goes through school,” Will says.
“Down the track, being a part of TasFarmers and things like that is something that I’m wanting to get more involved in, so I can have my finger on the pulse a bit more of what’s going on outside of the farm and things that directly affect the premiums we get for our meat.
“Particularly in Tassie, because we’re quite clean and green labelled, there’s a bit that goes into that to make sure that we maintain that reputation.
“That’s what I find quite interesting, plus there are a lot of little things like transport inconveniences and things like that going over the water.
“It’s definitely an area that I’d be looking at getting involved with.”
