Rural Founders Harness The Power Of Connection In The Bush

Determined that geography should not be a barrier to networking: Rural founders harness the power of connection in the bush. Report by Emily Herbert.

For women in the bush, there are layers of bias quietly tucked in the folds of larger regional issues. A lack of access to health care, shoddy internet, no service, limited childcare or none altogether. The tyranny of distance and geography throwing curveballs, before you even get to gendered ideology.

But necessity is the mother of invention and these women wear their aptitude easily, pivoting and changing lanes just as they’d change a nappy or a dirt choked tyre. 
They send their emails from their 4WDs on top of the nearest hill where there’s a bar of service; they work in the wrinkle of time when their babies are napping or have gone down for the night. And they drive five hours cross country to network with other like-minded women and champion each other, as 80 women will do this Thursday at Dubbo’s The Exchange – a social impact start-up helping regional businesses find commercial success.

The Exchange 2022 Women’s Assembly will host a mix of presentations, panels and open forums to hear from a cohort of extraordinary regional female founders and entrepreneurs, including The Exchange’s Jillian Kilby; Mumma-Be founder Caroline Maxwell and designer Emily Quigley from Peggy & Twig.

With a particular focus on the International Women’s Day 2022 theme #BreakTheBias – these three women have been challenging the status quo from day dot.

Jillian Killby wrote to the CEO of Telstra in 2017 to ask to acquire the abandoned former post office and telephone exchange in NSW regional centre Dubbo – combining her engineer training, corporate sensibilities and desire to see regional startups flourish to build The Exchange community. Hosting events and providing desk and office sharing space, Jillian’s vision to break the bias of geography has seen country capacity and confidence grow exponentially.

Meanwhile, midwife and lactation consultant Caroline Maxwell funnels her passion for access to healthcare through her work visiting isolated rural and remote women newly navigating motherhood – empowering women to ask for help when they need it. 

Entrepreneur Emily Quigley will talk to her lived experience launching and fostering her incredibly successful pearl jewellery brand; its commercial success and subsequent employment of other local women a nod to the vibrant viability of businesses operating from the bush.

This is more than another IWD event. For rural women, it’s an opportunity to rub shoulders – in person! – with other founders, social thinkers, mothers, workers, teachers, friends and entrepreneurs who are showing up, leading by example and doing what they can, however they can.