Safina Ireland of Calrossy Anglican School said she was "pretty happy" after the news was revealed yesterday.

Having grown up on a cattle property at Walcha, the 18-year-old said she hoped to take over the family farm one day.

"I like that I [was able] to apply all the practical and theory aspects of home life into school life," Safina said.

"It's an interesting subject and I'm passionate about the industry."

In fact, Safina started at Calrossy half way through year 10 so she could do primary industries and agriculture for her HSC.

Safina said she and a couple of close friends had studied together "so we could bounce off each other", and her teacher Geoff Nielsen had also been instrumental.

"He had extra lessons leading up to the HSC that he offered to all of us," she said.

"I tried pretty hard for the HSC - I sat down in the holidays and did a minimum of four hours per day; I worked really hard towards it, so I'm just really happy with myself."

Calrossy principal David Smith said the school was "over the moon".

"We're delighted we've also got one of our girls achieving such success in what is, in many ways, a male-dominated subject," he said.

"It's very exciting and I've got to say I think this is coming on the back of some very, very good results in the past few years."

Mr Smith said a common denominator was the "outstanding teaching" of Mr Nielsen.

"I think, with all the stuff going on in the curriculum review, it shows that teachers with a deep knowledge of their subject are worth their weight in gold," Mr Smith said.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said finishing first in a course was an outstanding accomplishment.

"These students have worked extremely hard and put in countless hours of effort and study, and they should be very proud of their remarkable academic achievements," she said.

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