Caroline also works for the Greater Good
President Tom, Caroline Robinson, Graeme Fardon and Ray Philp
Rotarian Graeme Fardon enjoyed the opportunity of hosting Caroline Robinson when she recently visited Applecross Rotary. Graeme knew and admired the work that Caroline was doing in the eastern Wheatbelt when he was CEO of the Shire of Quairading and Caroline had established the Wheatbelt Business Network. Past President Ray was excited to see her too because they used to meet when both were members of the Regional Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
Caroline’s parents migrated to Kalamunda from Kenya and Caroline Bush went to school at Perth College. In 1990 she received the first John Curtin Undergraduate Scholarship awarded by Curtin University, which enabled her to undertake a Commerce degree and Graduate Diploma of Education at no cost, and paid the expenses associated with a semester of Study Abroad. While undertaking the Diploma she was required to spend two periods of teaching practice and undertook the first at Wesley College. The second period was a longer one and for some reason she chose to spend it at Southern Cross District High School. So off she went in her little car, and when she got to Merredin she called her father and asked if Southern Cross might be a bigger place than Merredin. Ah, no it isn’t! What had she been thinking when she decided to go there for 6 weeks! Oh well, it’s only for 6 weeks, she thought.
Think again Caroline. On her first night in the small town of Southern Cross there was a social evening at the local pub, and it was there she met her future husband, Ian Robinson. After graduating and getting married she moved onto the family farm he managed, 80 km towards Hyden from Southern Cross.
However major changes were continuing throughout the Eastern Wheatbelt. Populations were shrinking as neighbours bought out neighbours, farm size expanded, increased mechanisation was underway, and new cropping techniques were adopted. Permanent farm labour became a thing of the past with seasonal labour used to work on the expanded farms during seeding and harvest.
Fewer people meant school populations were shrinking too, small businesses closed and the main streets started to look very sad - no cafe, no IGA, no hairdresser. Pubs stopped offering accommodations, and reduced bar hours meant the only staff were the owner/managers.
However Caroline could see huge opportunities everywhere, even as all this doom and gloom thinking was prevalent.
Caroline set up a business, 150 Square (https://150square.com.au/), so named because the wheatbelt covers an area for 150 square kilometres. Its eastern border stretches from Mingenew to Esperance, so it’s not surprising she drives 90,000km a year undertaking various consulting projects.
The philosophy underpinning the business? "People drive the growth and inspire the innovation that helps our communities thrive. That’s why, across our services, our focus is leveraging our experience, knowledge and networks to develop your organisation through people-centred strategic solutions."
A lot of what happens is sometimes so annoyingly obvious:
- Example 1: get the main sporting groups together, say football, netball and hockey. Schedule the fixtures so they play all sports on one day in one town this weekend, and another town next weekend.
- Example 2: the cafe is closing. Find a small group of volunteers who agree to keep it open and use the funds generated to employ some women who can’t find a local job One case Caroline cited had employed 20 women in this way over the past few years.
Caroline’s presentation was very motivating, and as she reminded us at the end - 150 Square works for the greater good of the community, and so does Rotary!
Video of Caroline's presentation ... click here