“Nick’s Dad was in partnership with Richard at the Lismore Vet Clinic and he was ready to retire so Nick bought into the Veterinary Practice so his Dad could retire and we bought the building too. We needed to find a home and I found our beautiful old house in Keen St. It needed a lot of work but had the best bones.
I remember one night I was invited to a mum’s night at St Carthages and I was thrilled. One of the women there who had a couple of wines said…Tanya I really like you and I said…Thankyou, that’s really nice of you to say that. She said, Yeah the first time I saw you I thought you’d be so far up yourself. I said, I’m really pleased that you could be bothered to find out who I really was (laughs).
Hugo was in Year 1 and I had just sat down with a cup of tea and I had this moment where I’m watching Oprah on TV…what has happened to my brain? I had Chris Lodge asking if I was ready to come back to work but I wasn’t at the time. There were two positions advertised in television and after doing press, cinema and radio I wanted to see what that looked like. I applied for both positions and I got both positions. One at Channel 10 and one at NBN. I took the NBN job and worked there for 13 years.
When Hugo was in Year 12 I felt like I needed to have a year at home with my last child doing their HSC. I asked Hugo if he’d like me to stay at home for that year. He sad – No! (laughs) We were doing up our house downstairs so it gave me an opportunity to project manage that. One day my ex boss Robyn at NBN called saying she was thinking about leaving her job and asked if I was interested in going into business with her. I said – What would that look like? She said – We could form an agency. That’s where Rest Media was born. Robyn and I book media for our clients anywhere in Australia. We do TV, Press, I’ve done billboards In Bourke St in Melbourne, trams, the Darlinghurst theatre company promotions in Melbourne, etc. We have music agencies that have bands that travel, we collaborate with production houses and we have great relationships with all the networks. It’s lots of fun. That’s kind of completed my career for me. At no stage did I ever think I’d work in media as I never really had a plan but when one door closes, another opens.
I have been so lucky in my life. I’ve worked hard but I’ve also been very lucky and since being in Lismore I sat on the Trinity board for 11 years which was wonderful. I learnt so much in that role. Before the flood I was involved with NORPA with some of their fundraising. I loved that, the performers and the creatives of our community. I also did some volunteering at the Art Gallery for about three years and I loved that too. I sit on the board at Our Kids and they do amazing work in our area purchasing Paediatric equipment for Special Care nursery from Tweed Heads to Grafton. It’s been lovely to re-connect with Grafton because we’ve been working with businesses down there for them to raise money. We purchase the equipment to put into the Paediatric Unit in Grafton. To be able to buy equipment as well as approve extra training for Midwives and Paediatric Nurses so that they can learn how to use the equipment and we incentivise them to stay in our community and not to move to QLD where they get paid more.
I just wanted to tell you a little story about David (Davio) who passed away last week. You know he was always on his bike. We always called him Santa and I know he didn’t like it but we loved him. One Christmas he dyed his beard brown because he didn’t want to be called Santa, as he drank his coffee in the window at The Mecca. Anyway, I was driving up Keen St, stopped at the T intersection, Dave was coming up beside me and I turned left and he clipped my car and came off his bike. All his vegetables scattered all over the place. These people came running up and said, We saw what happened, we’ll be witnesses for you. He said – Aww F@#k off! I’m alright. I’m helping him with his veggies and I said, Are you ok? He said- I’m ok, it’s just my bike chain. He said, I know you! and I said, I know you! and we hugged each other and we both sobbed. I went to Farmer Charlies and saw one of the floor managers and said – Do you know Dave who looks like Santa on the bike? I put a voucher there for him to get his vegetables and a voucher at the Mecca so he could get coffees. He came into the clinic and said to Nick…Please tell Tanya I’m ok.
Through the floods we lost everything in the business (clinic) but we didn’t lose our home. There are moments where you think…Is it worth continuing? But you look at the people who work for you and their families and how important it is that they have an income moving forward, you just plow through and we just have to take a hit and be gracious that we have 10 more years in our work life. They become our family and there is so much of our community that is so big hearted and so generous. Through all of that we are in an amazing place. For those who look at Lismore and say we are not that pretty. We don’t need to be! We have heart and soul like no other community ever. It’s the one thing that holds me here. I think we are such a generous community, not only from the heart but people put their hands in their pockets and often people who don’t have it are some of the most generous.”