Introduction
The Project Officer – Farm Business Resilience Program role at Agriculture and Biosecurity is temporary full-time up to 2 years, 35 hours per week based in Regional NSW, with preference for regional candidates and focus locations including Queanbeyan, Armidale, Dubbo, and Coffs Harbour. It supports drought coordination activities within the Farm Business Resilience Program, including initiatives that help NSW farmers prepare for, manage, and recover from drought through business planning, risk management, and decision-making. You can view the official job ad here.
If you want to understand how to apply for Project Officer – Farm Business Resilience Program, the main point is that this application requires a CV of no more than four pages and a cover letter of no more than two pages. The cover letter needs to outline your skills and experience relevant to the role, so it should be built around primary industry knowledge, project delivery, collaboration, communication, and comfort working through uncertainty.
NSW Government applications are assessed against both the instructions and the role requirements. For this role, that means your application needs to follow the stated documents, limits, and format, and give clear evidence of project delivery, primary industries, drought coordination, cross-agency collaboration, communication across teams, and practical problem solving.
The strongest applications will make your operating environment easy to understand. Use examples that show the problem, the stakeholders involved, the systems or processes you used, the decisions you made, and the outcome your work supported.
Contents
- Project Officer – Farm Business Resilience Program role snapshot
- NSW Government application requirements
- Application requirements for Project Officer – Farm Business Resilience Program
- NSW Government candidate requirements
- Candidate requirements for Project Officer – Farm Business Resilience Program at Agriculture and Biosecurity
- Example application structure for Project Officer – Farm Business Resilience Program
- Help with your Project Officer – Farm Business Resilience Program application
Project Officer – Farm Business Resilience Program role snapshot
| Role Title | Project Officer – Farm Business Resilience Program |
| Organisation / Entity | Agriculture and Biosecurity |
| Agency | Primary Industries and Regional Development |
| Job location | Regional NSW, with preference for regional candidates and focus locations including Queanbeyan, Armidale, Dubbo, and Coffs Harbour |
| Job reference number | 509677 |
| I Work for NSW job number | 579864 |
| Work type | Temporary full-time up to 2 years, 35 hours per week |
| Total remuneration package | $113,574 to $125,720 per annum, plus superannuation and leave loading, Clerk Grade 7/8 |
| Closing date | Thursday 4 June 2026 at 11:55pm AEST |
| Official job ad | View the official job ad |
NSW Government application requirements
Application requirements are the documents or written materials you must submit so the panel can assess whether your application is complete and relevant. In NSW Government recruitment, the instructions matter because applications can be screened out if required documents, page limits, word limits, or formats are missing.
Candidate requirements are different. They are the skills, experience, capabilities, and practical evidence the panel wants to see inside your documents. A strong application does both: it follows the instructions and proves the right experience.
Application requirements for Project Officer – Farm Business Resilience Program
For this role, you need to submit a CV of no more than four pages and a cover letter of no more than two pages through the online portal.
The cover letter should outline your skills and experience relevant to the role. Because the role is focused on the Farm Business Resilience Program, use the cover letter to connect your project delivery experience to primary industries, drought resilience, regional communities, stakeholder coordination, and practical outcomes.
The role also states that applicants must hold tertiary qualifications in a relevant discipline, such as primary production, agriculture, community engagement, community development, or government relations, or demonstrated equivalent experience.
You must also hold a current NSW Driver Licence and be willing and able to travel to support drought-related activities as required.
The process may include interviews, a writing task, skills testing, psychometric testing, reference checks, and other checks such as a national police check, bankruptcy check, or health assessment for the preferred candidate.
NSW Government candidate requirements
For this role, your examples should show how you deliver projects in a regional, agricultural, government, or community-facing environment. The hiring team will be looking for evidence that you can coordinate work across agencies, communicate well across multiple teams, and keep moving when the pathway is not fully defined.
Strong examples usually explain the context, your role, the action you took, and the result. Where the role involves sensitive information, technical systems, public sector service delivery, or operational risk, make the controls and judgement in your work visible.
Candidate requirements for Project Officer – Farm Business Resilience Program at Agriculture and Biosecurity
| Requirement or capability from role | How to demonstrate it |
|---|---|
| Primary industry, agricultural, community engagement, or government relations knowledge | Show the environment you have worked in and why it is relevant to farmers, drought resilience, primary industries, regional communities, or government program delivery. |
| Project delivery experience | Use an example where you coordinated a project, delivered milestones, managed tasks, solved delivery issues, and helped produce a practical outcome for customers or the department. |
| Collaboration across agencies and teams | Explain how you worked with internal teams, partner agencies, Local Land Services, community stakeholders, or delivery partners to keep work aligned. |
| Strong organisational skills | Give evidence of how you managed competing actions, deadlines, events, reporting, stakeholders, or program activities without losing visibility of the detail. |
| Communication and information sharing | Show how you supported clear communication across multiple teams, prepared updates, shared information, or helped stakeholders understand what was happening and why. |
| Ability to manage self | Use an example where you set priorities, followed through, asked the right questions, and kept work moving without constant direction. |
| Comfort dealing with uncertainty | Choose an example where the solution was not obvious. Explain how you clarified the problem, tested options, involved others, and reached a workable outcome. |
| Willingness and ability to travel | Confirm this requirement clearly if it applies to you, and connect it to any experience supporting regional, field-based, community, or stakeholder activities. |
Example application structure for Project Officer – Farm Business Resilience Program
The table below shows how to organise the cover letter so it is specific, compliant, and easy for the panel to assess. For a two-page cover letter, use clear sections that align to the candidate requirements rather than writing a general career summary.
| Cover letter section | What to include |
|---|---|
| Opening paragraph | State that you are applying for Project Officer – Farm Business Resilience Program and briefly position yourself as someone with relevant project delivery, primary industries, regional, government, or community engagement experience. |
| Primary industry, agricultural, community engagement, or government relations knowledge | Address the qualification or equivalent experience requirement early. Explain the background you bring and why it is relevant to drought resilience, farmers, regional communities, or government program delivery. |
| Project delivery experience | Use a concrete example that shows how you coordinated work, delivered milestones, managed risks or issues, and produced a practical result for customers, stakeholders, or the department. |
| Collaboration across agencies and teams | Show how you worked across teams, agencies, delivery partners, or community stakeholders. Make the relationships and coordination task easy to understand. |
| Strong organisational skills | Explain how you managed competing priorities, deadlines, communication points, reporting, meetings, or program activities. Include scale where possible. |
| Communication and information sharing | Give evidence of written and verbal communication across multiple teams, especially where clear updates or shared information helped delivery. |
| Ability to manage self | Show how you worked independently, set priorities, followed through, and kept work moving in a busy or changing environment. |
| Comfort dealing with uncertainty | Use an example where the pathway was unclear and you worked through the problem with practical judgement, consultation, and action. |
| Travel and regional delivery readiness | Confirm your NSW Driver Licence and willingness to travel, and connect this to any field-based, regional, stakeholder, or program delivery experience. |
| Closing paragraph | Reinforce your interest in supporting drought resilience and regional NSW through DPIRD and the Farm Business Resilience Program. |
What the panel will want to see in your examples
- Relevant primary industry, agricultural, community engagement, government relations, or equivalent experience
- Project delivery examples with clear outcomes
- Collaboration across agencies, teams, or regional stakeholders
- Clear communication and information sharing across multiple groups
- Ability to stay organised and effective when the pathway is uncertain
- Confirmation of the NSW Driver Licence and willingness to travel requirement
More NSW Government jobs to compare
If this role is not quite right, you can compare more current opportunities in our weekly NSW Government jobs roundup, or use our NSW Government jobs guide to understand how to find roles and prepare a stronger application.
Help with your Project Officer – Farm Business Resilience Program application
Project Officer – Farm Business Resilience Program applications are strongest when the cover letter is grounded in real delivery work. Show the project environment, the people involved, the uncertainty or coordination challenge, and the practical outcome you helped deliver for farmers, regional communities, or government program objectives. You can read the full job ad again before finalising your application.
If you want a practical starting point for government application writing, use the free NSW cover letter template to shape your cover letter around the role requirements and your strongest evidence. If you want direct help shaping the cover letter, resume or CV, and targeted-question response plan, Team 3Thirty also offers professional application writing support from a government hiring manager.