2025 Technician of the Year Winner - Henry Barkley | John Deere

9 Oct 2025 · 1 min

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In this interview, Henry Barkley, a service technician apprentice at Häusler's in Mildura, Northwest Victoria, shares his personal journey from growing up in South Australia's Barossa Valley to becoming the winner of the Service Apprentice of the Year for New Zealand and Australia. He highlights the rewarding nature of building customer relationships, describes his early exposure to agriculture and a pivotal work‑experience stint that sparked his passion for John Deere equipment, and explains his decision to move to Mildura to pursue his career. Barkley expresses gratitude to John Deere, the event hosts, and Voyces Group for their support over the past 18 months, reflects on the pride and relief of winning the award, and offers advice to those considering a career in agricultural service: try it out, persevere through challenges, and enjoy the satisfaction of helping customers keep their machines running.

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The most rewarding part for me, I think, would be the customer relationships. Just being able to get out and meet people and learn about their business and enterprise and be a part of it, I suppose, and just, you know, keep them going. So my name is Henry Barkley. I'm located in Mildura, Northwest Victoria, working for Häusler's, and I'm a service technician apprentice. I actually grew up, yeah, in the Barossa Valley in South Australia, and I was, yeah, pretty well born straight into the agriculture industry. I ended up doing some work experience at my local dealership at the time and, yeah, fell in love with it straight away. Just was amazed by John Deere equipment and just, you know, the innovation and stuff and thought this is the place I need to be. So yeah, got an opportunity with Hoysers and yeah, decided to move to Mildura and take on the rest of my career there. So yeah, absolutely loving it. Yeah, if I won my category, I think I'd be quite excited. It'd be a very proud moment myself, like just how far I've come and with the challenges I faced and stuff. So yeah, it'd be a testament, I think, to myself. Yeah.
So the winner for the Service Apprentice of the Year for New Zealand and Australia is Henry Barkley.
I'd like to thank John Deere and their team hosting such an incredible event this week. I'd love to thank Voyces and Voyces Group for their ongoing support and dedication to me over the past 18 months. It's just been an awesome opportunity, so to grab the win, it was just kind of a really good sense of relief, I suppose. But I think it's been something I won't forget, that's for sure. My advice to, yeah, people looking into the industry, I'd say just give it a go. Yeah, you've got to come try it out. Like, you know, it can be tough, but it can be really rewarding once you help the customer and see their machine back running and being a part of their their business, like, it's just awesome.