My conversation with Sarah Dimitrievski is fast-paced and solution focused, just like Sarah!  Sarah has had almost 30 years in the manufacturing and construction industries, is passionate about the role of women in both of these industries, the power of the regions, and how AI and AR could be an opportunity to unlock potential for rural Australia.

She is a woman on a mission to solve the housing crisis for regional families and takes a no BS approach to solving the problems associated with it. With 4 young children, Sarah and her husband run Chandolin Constructions based in Bathurst, NSW and are focused on not just building homes, but building communities.

This is a cracker of a conversation - and comes with a language warning !

Thanks for listening to another episode of Big Fish, Little Place - a podcast by The Connection Table. We hope by sharing this story today that you feel inspired to go big, from your small place, or support those doing so!

To find out more about The Connection Table’s mission to get more rural Australians a seat at the decision making table, head to our website www.theconnectiontable.com 

This conversation has so many “tweetable moments” as Oprah Winfrey would say! Renae Kunda and her husband Roy are Cape York Motorcycle Adventures, in far north Queensland.  With insights like “regional people learn to adapt without panic” and “we don’t wait for perfect, we create it” there’s no surprise that their business has been leading and creating a whole new industry for the last 35 years.  Renae has now authored two books, uses her curiosity to find new communities and wants to ensure women’s voices are being heard.  This episode will fly by! Enjoy!

Thanks for listening to another episode of Big Fish, Little Place - a podcast by The Connection Table. We hope by sharing this story today that you feel inspired to go big, from your small place, or support those doing so!

To find out more about The Connection Table’s mission to get more rural Australians a seat at the decision making table, head to our website www.theconnectiontable.com 

Sam Marwood and I crossed paths many years ago as he kicked off Cultivate Farms.  Since then his passion for young people to own farms hasn’t dimmed.  As the 5th of 6 children, at 8 years old he had a rude shock finding out he wouldn’t be handed the family farm! 

He has strong convictions around the role that nature plays in Aussie farmers being paid for the good quality food they grow, and wants everyone to know that there has never been a better time in history to pursue ideas and create businesses in the regions as there is today - you can imagine how excited i got around these topics during this episode! Enjoy!

Thanks for listening to another episode of Big Fish, Little Place - a podcast by The Connection Table. We hope by sharing this story today that you feel inspired to go big, from your small place, or support those doing so!

To find out more about The Connection Table’s mission to get more rural Australians a seat at the decision making table, head to our website www.theconnectiontable.com 

There is so much to dig into in this episode!  Matt is a Churchill Fellow having travelled the northern hemisphere to regional communities who had brought themselves back from the brink.  He calls Beechworth home and started the Asutralian Centre for Regional Entrepreneurship or ACRE to support communities across australia. 

We discuss how communities can buyback community assets, how we can all agree that we want opportunities for our kids to prosper in place, and MAtt shared a quote I’m bound to use again - that we have to stop expecting the regions to make strawberry jam out of horse manure!  We’ll definitely be getting Matt back, so here’s his first instalment!

Thanks for listening to another episode of Big Fish, Little Place - a podcast by The Connection Table. We hope by sharing this story today that you feel inspired to go big, from your small place, or support those doing so!

To find out more about The Connection Table’s mission to get more rural Australians a seat at the decision making table, head to our website www.theconnectiontable.com 

My guest today is Dan Redman, a 4th generation wine maker from Coonawarra, a town of 30 residents on the SA/ Vic border.  I loved this conversation and the way Dan described his family business, how he knew he always wanted to be part of the wine industry, and what he and other wine makers do in their region to ensure that they all succeed.  This really is a conversation about how when people work together, the benefits are genuinely shared.  Enjoy my conversation with Dan.

Big Fish Little Place is a podcast by The Connection Table. This podcast showcases that great people can impact the world from anywhere across Australia!

To find out more about  The Connection Table’s mission to get more rural Australians a seat at the decision making table, head to our website

⁠www.theconnectiontable.com⁠

Many people may know Mallacoota as a result of the horrific fires that decimated the region at the end of 2019.  Images of the coastal community on the NSW/ Victorian border went around the world as a result of the fires.  This conversation with Paris focuses not so much on the fires, but the catalyst for change and growth in the Mallacoota community as a result - the establishment of the Wilderness Collective, and the focus on year round employment rather than 6 week tourism contracts.  

Big Fish Little Place is a podcast by The Connection Table. This podcast showcases that great people can impact the world from anywhere across Australia!

To find out more about  The Connection Table’s mission to get more rural Australians a seat at the decision making table, head to our website

⁠www.theconnectiontable.com⁠

Today’s episode has me talking with Ash Watt, one of the co-founders of Why Leave Town - a business all about holding our money in the main street of our rural and regional towns.

Ash is a great example of someone who grew up regionally, did some time in the big smoke, and then returned to live regionally.  Ash has been a paid beer tester, started a backyard cricket club with a mate, and is a classic example of a bush kid who has followed his hunches and is solving problems for regional Australia, while enjoying the ride! 

Enjoy this conversation with Ash Watt.

Big Fish Little Place is a podcast by The Connection Table. This podcast showcases that great people can impact the world from anywhere across Australia!

To find out more about  The Connection Table’s mission to get more rural Australians a seat at the decision making table, head to our website

⁠www.theconnectiontable.com⁠

Liz Moss now calls Karratha home, incidentally Australia’s most expensive suburb, overtaking Bondi recently.   Working for Pilbara Innovation Partnerships, Liz speaks to me today about what building trust across the Pilbara region looks like, what happens when genuine place-based activity occurs and what she would do again in a public/ private partnership opportunity.  Liz talks honestly and passionately about the Pilbara and Karratha, where becoming a local, involves owning a boat!  

Enjoy this conversation!

Big Fish Little Place is a podcast by The Connection Table. This podcast showcases that great people can impact the world from anywhere across Australia!

To find out more about The Connection Table’s mission to get more rural Australians a seat at the decision making table, head to our website⁠⁠ www.theconnectiontable.com⁠

Today with my guest Tracy Cooper, we talk all things change - what’s changed in rural leadership since the 90s, how do we handle chosen and unchosen change, how is it altering how we lead organisations, corporations and even families, and lastly why we still need to focus on the health care sector across regional Australia.  There’s so much in this episode, let’s get into it!

Big Fish Little Place is a podcast by The Connection Table. This podcast showcases that great people can impact the world from anywhere across Australia!

To find out more about  The Connection Table’s mission to get more rural Australians a seat at the decision making table, head to our website

⁠www.theconnectiontable.com⁠

Through my work I have had the chance to take a contract with Welcoming Australia.  This is how the delightful Ken Dachi and I crossed paths.  In today’s interview, Ken will talk about how he arrived in Leeton in the Riverina of NSW via Kenya and Europe; he’ll share his unique perspective on privilege and how we can use it to act and to do good, as well as his hopes for the future of regional Australia and the work he does.

There’s also a great story about how he and his wife chose Leeton as home, and what google images had to do with that!

Enjoy!

Big Fish Little Place is a podcast by The Connection Table. This podcast showcases that great people can impact the world from anywhere across Australia!

To find out more about  The Connection Table’s mission to get more rural Australians a seat at the decision making table, head to our website

⁠www.theconnectiontable.com⁠