“I was born on Beaudesert QLD and we moved to Sydney when I was two. I grew up mostly in Appin, between Campbelltown and Wollongong. Eventually I went to Wollongong Uni, it took me a while. I was working in a fashion company in their accounts department so I started at Tafe but couldn’t finish because I wasn’t attending due to always working. I started working on their data base and then onto Data Base Management.
I went to Uni when I was 20 and had a mid life crisis because I was working too much and not having a life. I moved back in with Mum and Dad into their garage and went to Uni full time doing Accounting and IT.
I started to get bored with full time study and started back with the company that I left in Sydney. There was lots of partying, what else does one do at Uni? We were always at the pub, seeing great bands, it was heaps of fun.
I ended up meeting my husband Michael there. We went overseas in 2014 because we both graduated at the same time. He was doing Fluvial Geomorphology. We went travelling and when we returned Michael had an offer to do a PhD at SCU. That’s what brought us here. A year before that we drove through Alstonville after going to Woodford and thought, wouldn’t it be amazing to live here. Six months later we were here.
We lived here for 9 years, Michael finished his PhD and we had two kids River and Flynne. Michael couldn’t work down here so he got a job as a Consultant in Brisbane and moved up there. Six months later we all moved up. I was still working down here as Multitask’s Finance Manager. I started at Multitask in 2005 as a Casual in the accounts department. Eighteen months later I put in their new IT system and managed that for a few years. I was then their Finance Manager and moved up to Brisbane three days a week and here two days. My old CEO retired so I ended up in that role.
Multitask was completely hammered in the 2022 flood as was the rest of Lismore. Before the flood we had Club Lane and our main building was in Molesworth St, the old St Annes nursing home. It was falling part but it was functional with heaps of bathrooms, wheelchair friendly and a big hall out the back with a commercial kitchen. So maybe 15 years ago one of our support employees was sick of food trucks coming to our site selling really bad food so decided that they make their own lunches as a business and sell to other businesses delivering food and catering as well but it was never customer facing.
Then the flood happened. We lost about 10 million dollars in one night. We lost all our buildings in the CBD and our two buildings in South Lismore, we lost all our cars, all our equipment, our payrolls, everything gone. After the flood we got one building with two power points up and running in 4 weeks, no lights and no air-con. We needed to get our services running for people with disabilities because if they are out of routine for too long, it’s really disruptive for them and then there’s issues with their families. We opened up that building and the second flood hit.
We ended buying Woodlark St then we bought the old Planet Music building for Head Office. We fixed Club Lane up. Keen St came up for sale so we bought that too. We weren’t covered by insurance but we were able to secure a Grant which helped with all this. All our buildings are now a lot more flood ready.
Here we are in Sprout which we started to replace the catering out the back. This building used to be the Rural Bank then the CBA and the building has really good bones. We used to rent it out to Red INC after we owned it. I came up with this idea to open a cafe. I was looking for somewhere to provide training and employment for people with disabilities in a kitchen environment and dealing with customer service. I wanted to make sure that the community is involved so we turned it into a gallery space as well so local artists can display. We want to rotate the art every month so the space is for any artists who would like to show their work.
We will be teaching all types of hospitality skills. It’s a great menu. We worked with Ryan from Lion and Lamb to come up with the name and he put me in contact with Kate Stroud who has done all the signage and artwork on the walls. All the plants were donated by one of our customers.
The courtyard out the back is not done yet. We have our flood storage out there but we want to make a great space for Mums and Dads with kids. We also have our workshop where people can come in to run classes, they can hire the space and it’s not expensive. This isn’t just for disabilities. It’s open to all.
sprout.asn.au