Rural Financial Counsellor

Some of the toughest conversations in rural Australia happen at kitchen tables, not boardrooms. If you can sit at that table and help a farmer who is facing financial hardship see a genuine path forward — we want to talk to you.

The Rural Financial Counselling Service NSW Southern Region Limited (RFCS NSW) is a not-for-profit providing financial counselling to farmers, fishers, foresters and individuals experiencing or at risk of financial hardship.

For 40 years, RFCS NSW has been delivering free, unbiased, independent and confidential financial counselling across central and southern NSW. The program is jointly funded by the Australian and NSW Governments and administered through the federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

About the role

We need a Rural Financial Counsellor to deliver vital support to farmers in the NSW Riverina region. 

Based out of our Wagga office, you’ll join a small, dedicated team making a real difference every day. We need a counsellor who can quickly read a client’s situation, understand their financial position, map out the options available, and advocate strongly on their behalf — with one goal in mind: helping clients get back to sustainable financial health.

A typical day

No two days are exactly the same, but here’s what you can expect:

• You might start the morning reviewing a client’s file before heading out on the road – because in this role, a good chunk of your work happens on-farm, not behind a desk. You understand the vastness of NSW and don’t mind the drive.
• Sitting down with a client, you get straight to the heart of things: what’s really going on financially, what’s urgent, and what can wait. You’ve either done this kind of commercial assessment work before with agricultural clients, or you have personal financial counselling experience and you’re genuinely keen to learn the agricultural side – either way, you bring a Diploma in Financial Counselling (or a university degree and a willingness to complete your Diploma in Financial Counselling).
• Back at the office, you follow up on the commitments you made yesterday – because when you tell a client you’ll chase something up, you do it. You keep them in the loop on where their file stands, because uncertainty is often the hardest part of financial hardship. Your case notes are accurate, current, and properly stored, because you take both compliance and client privacy seriously — not as a box to tick, but because you’re handling people’s livelihoods.
• In the afternoon you might meet with your colleagues over teams – they are based all over the state or you’re out and about again.  It might be a community event or outreach session, building the relationships and partnerships that mean the next farmer or small ag business in trouble knows where to turn. You genuinely enjoy this part; you know that trust in rural communities is built face-to-face, over time.
• And in between it all, you keep enhancing your skills – attending supervision, taking part in professional development and building the knowledge that lets you show up for your clients when it counts.

Sound like you? Contact john.beer@rfcsnsw.org.au