Why aren’t we investing more in the GOOD news stories and creating a positive narrative for our community? Let’s do it in March!
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With an increasing number of remote workers and home-based businesses operating in rural and regional areas, it is not surprising how little we know about who is operating in our own back yard.
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Despite being created in response to adversity, these social media platforms are pure gold and full of so much positivity. I encourage you to use them to plan your next trip, buy a gift, or just to learn more about our awesome rural businesses and communities.
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Understanding the difference between a ‘clean’ and a ‘dirty’ flood is not part of the usual volunteer learning but incredibly this has been the experience of the Greens Gunyah Museum volunteers in Lockhart NSW.
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Thanks to the ongoing efforts of an incredibly strong-knit community Lockhart in the Riverina region of southern NSW has farewelled 2019 on a high and is already enthusiastically planning for the next decade.
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Like many rural agricultural towns Sea Lake in northern Victoria’s Mallee district has visibly struggled with a declining population in recent decades. While the big dollars are still in cropping, a new generation of diverse small businesses are now popping up in this township thanks to Lake Tyrrell’s sunsets and Silo Art.
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When Ross Williams left his hometown of Sea Lake in 1986 for a career, he never envisaged himself returning. Twenty years later he was back discovering new opportunities for himself and his community.
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A local pub is considered integral to every rural Australian town providing an important social meeting place. In April 2017 when the Sea Lake Hotel burnt down and the only other pub in town was closed, action was clearly needed. Local resident, John “Bull” Clohesy picked up the phone and started calling a long list of people.
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Shopping local is great but shopping rural is even better this holiday period according to rural business advocate Kerry Anderson. “Every dollar spent in a rural town has a multiplier effect and helps keep businesses alive and retain jobs for rural people,” says Kerry, author of Entrepreneurship: It’s Everybody’s Business.
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30 years ago in 1989 the internet came to Australia. For the younger generation this may seem incomprehensible. How could you possibly exist without basic life necessities such as Google, Netflix and Snapchat? But for those like me that survived our early decades without these tools it is interesting to reflect back on how much has changed in the way we work and play.
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With every announcement of a grant program opening for applications, the hopes of community groups rise across Australia. But are we demonstrating the collaboration and community wide benefit that grant providers are looking for?
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It’s never too soon to instil a sense of civic duty in our young people and remind them that it is up to us to take charge of our own destiny.
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Building a successful business takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Sometimes it can take up to five years and longer to get established, but every savvy business owner understands that you can never truly get comfortable.
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Helenmary Macleod grew up on a farm and married a farmer but she always loved the idea of selling things to make people happy. Being regularly off farm, especially during cropping in summer, wasn’t an option but then came the idea for Skibo Australia.
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Change is constant and all rural towns need to be prepared to innovate and adapt. Or we could just do nothing and complain. The choice is ours to make.
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Speaking about rural entrepreneurship at an event I was recently asked an interesting question: Are rural people more entrepreneurial than city people? Instead of being compelled to justify to my city counterparts that rural entrepreneurs are equally worthy of celebration, I was being asked to judge whether they are, in fact, more entrepreneurial.
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Ever dreamed of starting a business? Suzanne Carroll of Gisborne in central Victoria woke up on the morning of 30 October 2015 and told her husband that she was going to start a business called Cool Clutch selling ‘cool by nature and cool by name’ handbags for women. And she did. True story!
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As part of the Creative Innovation 2019 Asia Pacific Conference in Melbourne 1-3 April, Kerry Anderson’s mission was to remind everyone of the importance of our rural towns and share ideas on how we can all give our support regardless of where we live.
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Managing Director of Wine in a Glass (WIAG), Michelle Anderson-Sims, is the first to admit that starting a business from an idea is a long, hard learning process. ‘I had lots of failures along the way but learnt from them all. Some lessons you pay a higher price to learn than others,’ she says. This successful company has made its mark on the Australian wine and entertainment industries and is rapidly expanding throughout the world.
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Who said manufacturing is dead in Australia? While it can be challenging in a global marketplace and extended dry seasons, Grizzly Engineering is living proof that long term success is possible. Their ground-breaking technology is made in Swan Hill from start to finish and they survived the 2002-2010 drought years with a bold initiative.
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