Queensland Rural Press Club honours Pip Courtney at Longreach

That was one of the revelations the award-winning journalist made when she was formally inducted into Queensland's Rural Press Club Hall of Fame in Longreach on Friday night.

Dubbed 'an evening with Pip Courtney', over 100 guests travelled not only from around the central west but also from Brisbane, along with Pip's mother Robin Courtney from Launceston, to share in a journey that started with television and radio work with the ABC in Hobart in 1986.

She moved to the mainland to take up a job as a reporter with the rural current affairs program Landline 25 years ago, becoming its host in 2012.

In an hour-long conversation with Longreach's Nicole Bond at the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame Cattleman's Bar, Pip shared the inspiration her father, also a journalist, gave her, as well as insights into working with her late husband, talented cameraman John Bean.

She believed that social licence would be one of the biggest challenges rural Australia would deal with in future, saying that while activists were adept at using social media, agriculture was still struggling with it.

Speaking of what makes a good Agriculture Minister, she said she didn't want politicians on L plates in the portfolio.

"Some are given agriculture to learn the ropes on - that burns me up," she said.

Pip is the fifth entrant in the Rural Press Club Hall of Fame, joining past Queensland Country Life editor Malcolm McCosker and photographer Rod Green, as well as the ABC's Robin McConchie and Kerry Lonergan.

President Trent Thorne said the Hall of Fame celebrated the passion of rural journalism.

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