LOVING LOCAL: the Aussie movement to support businesses close to home
As the pandemic puts the brakes on businesses, a new campaign called Go Local First is encouraging Australians to shop close to home. Genevieve Gannon investigates.
I s there anything sweeter than farmgate honey or more delicious than a bottle of wine purchased at a cosy cellar door? Is there anything more reassuring than popping in to the local chemist, who knows the family, for a bit of medical advice or chatting about new releases at your neighbourhood bookstore?
As retailers brace for tough times, a new campaign called Go Local First is encouraging Australians to explore the provedores and shops close to home.
Small businesses – whether that’s a stall at the local farmers’ market or your corner hardware store – account for one-third of Australia’s economic output and employ roughly six million people. Keeping those businesses alive in precarious times like these is critical, not just to local communities but the national economy. And according to the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, three-quarters of our local shopkeepers and businesses have recently suffered a decline in revenue of up to 75 per cent.
That’s why Go Local First is encouraging shoppers to forgo big multinational chain stores and instead explore businesses in their local region, maintaining jobs in their communities and keeping their high streets – and the national economy – alive.
At The Weekly, we believe this is a cause worth supporting. So this month we’ve chatted with some of the local business people who are getting behind the Go Local First campaign. To find more, wander down to your neighbourhood shopping centre or visit golocalfirst.com.au
Four Winds Vineyard
9 Patemans Lane, Murrumbateman, NSW
Sarah Collingwood was 21 when she helped her parents plant their dream vineyard on the verdant hills of Murrumbateman.
“It’s such a romantic image,” she laughs ruefully. The backbreaking work of planting the vines turned her off the idea of working in agriculture, so she did what so many young people do and went travelling in search of adventure. But the allure of growing grapes and making wine became irresistible and in 2010 she returned with her husband, John, and helped the Four Winds Vineyard achieve new levels of success.
She cherishes the small community of growers around her. “If our tractors broke down in harvest, there are 15 neighbours we could call on who would come around immediately with a tractor,” she explains.
Six years ago, Sarah and her family were able to crowd-fund an expansion of the Four Winds business. “It was such a good way for us to build connections with people and talk about what we’re doing and how we were doing it,” says Sarah, now 41.
The following year, Four Winds had a chance to give back when a bumper grape season left them with more than four tonnes of spare Shiraz grapes. “Once you spend the whole year trying to grow these grapes, to leave them sitting out there for the birds would break our hearts,” Sarah says. So they reached out to a neighbour who helped them bottle the wine, which they sold to raise money for Companion House, earning $40,000 for refugees in Canberra “who really needed it”.
The winery seemed to have a bright future. But this summer was a challenge. “We had a pretty tough season because of the drought,” Sarah says. “The closest fires to us were about 80 kilometres away but it still meant there was a lot of smoke hanging around and the smoke goes into the grapes.”
The vines didn’t sustain damage but the whole crop was tainted by smoke.
“It was just so disappointing.
We’d worked so hard to get the grapes through the drought and to not be able to pick them was really heartbreaking.”
But with typical rural resourcefulness, the Four Winds team were not about to be defeated. They considered using the grapes to make a verjuice, or a grape jelly. In the end they settled on gin.
“These tough years help you diversify quickly,” Sarah says, and they teach you the importance of community. “We were so worried about shutting down and then getting the business up and running again,” Sarah adds, “but we’ve just found that people are wonderful.”
“To leave them sitting there for the birds would break our hearts.”
From top: The store sells a range of delicious pantry items, including jam, preserves, pickles and relishes; Carol with customers; Mrs Oldbucks is a paradise for tea lovers, with more than 180 tea varieties available.
Shop 4/15-17 Old Hume Hwy,
Berrima, NSW
Carol Brown had been visiting Mrs Oldbucks Pantry in the historic NSW town of Berrima since she was a girl, so when the opportunity to buy the business came up, she didn’t hesitate.
“The memories I have are of the sweet mustard pickles that we used to have on our Monday night salad. And the strawberry jam,” she says, chuckling.
The specialty food store that lies in the largest intact Georgian village in Australia, halfway between Canberra and Sydney, began as a home-made jam shop 44 years ago but now sells local preserves, pickles, mustards, relish and more than 180 varieties of tea. Having started her retail career at age 14 in the glass and fine china department at David Jones (her parents had to buy her a set of fake pearls as per the uniform requirements at the time), Carol has long been passionate about building loyalty with customers and creating a unique and rewarding shopping experience.
For her, seeing the Mrs Oldbucks staff in their mob caps and long skirts as her family drove from Sydney to Canberra on the school holidays is a powerful memory she has kept with her throughout her long retail career.
When her husband became ill and they moved to the Southern Highlands ahead of his double lung transplant in 2005, she found herself once again stopping at Mrs Oldbucks Pantry. Following her husband’s death in 2008, family and friends expected Carol to return to Sydney, but a small inheritance from her mother-in-law enabled her to imagine a different future.
In January 2018 she purchased the store she had so loved visiting as a child, and recently expanded it by opening a tea room next door.
“The support of people was really humbling,” she says. “It was originally going to be a tasting room. My dream is to have customers walking around with a cup of tea and tasting something from their childhood, or if you’re young, something you’ve never tried before, like a pineapple jam. I had those memories from the 1970s. I’m bringing back that experience. It’s those things that people remember.” AWW
“I had memories from the ’70s. I’m bringing back that experience.”