A Friend of Mine by OAK Magazine

It’s time to explore our own backyard in this special travel episode to Halls Gap in the Grampians, Victoria. The Grampians National Park is a three hour drive northwest of Melbourne. It's home to an incredible mountain landscape dotted with small towns such as Dunkeld, Stawell, Halls Gap, Wartook Valley and Beaufort. Be it outdoor adventure, indulgent food and wine, cultural experiences or simply...

It’s time to explore our own backyard in this special travel episode to Yarragon in West Gippsland, Victoria. With an unmistakable village feel, glorious heritage buildings and a deluge of shops to potter and browse, Yarragon’s charms extend well beyond a leg-stretch on the highway. Just 90 minutes east of Melbourne, Yarragon is a place where you can slow down and recharge the batteries, powered b...

Nicole Gleeson is quite simply a healthcare hero. When she isn’t working as a clinical nurse specialist at a large tertiary hospital in Melbourne, Nicole is disrupting the first aid training scene through her business Rhythm First Aid. Nicole is determined that your postcode should not define the level of first aid training or access to resources you receive. Since 2018, Rhythm First Aid has been...

This special episode was recorded live for our In Conversation with Laura Hall event held online to celebrate Rural Women's Day. Hat maker Laura and her label Phylli both hit their stride after moving to Scone in country NSW. Despite only being in business for two years, Laura has attracted an impressive celebrity following including Delta Goodrem, Matt Damon and Chris Hemsworth's wife Elsa Pataky...

Happy International Rural Women’s DayWith COVID restricting so many events and further isolating rural communities, International Rural Women’s Day is an important date for us to take a moment to celebrate and shine a light on the success of rural women. In celebration of Rural Women's Day, OAK Magazine would like to introduce you to some special rural friends from rural Victoria, NSW and Queensla...

Happy International Rural Women’s DayWith COVID restricting so many events and further isolating rural communities, International Rural Women’s Day is an important date for us to take a moment to celebrate and shine a light on the success of rural women. In celebration of Rural Women's Day, OAK Magazine would like to introduce you to some special rural friends from rural Victoria, NSW and Queensla...

Happy International Rural Women’s DayWith COVID restricting so many events and further isolating rural communities, International Rural Women’s Day is an important date for us to take a moment to celebrate and shine a light on the success of rural women. In celebration of Rural Women's Day, OAK Magazine would like to introduce you to some special rural friends from rural Victoria, NSW and Queensla...

Brooke McAlary, the internationally best selling author of SLOW, and has released a new booked titled CARE: the radical art of taking time. The book was created out of necessity during the height of the global pandemic at a time when ‘care’ seemed most important in our lives. If you look back over the past 18 months, there has been an overwhelming nature of ‘big care’ - the Black Summer bushfires,...

This special episode was recorded live at our In Conversation with Samantha Wills event held in Bendigo earlier this year. In March, my dream of hosting a keynote speaker in my home town became a reality all thanks to the wonderfully kind, creative and inspiring Samantha Wills. Samantha travelled from Sydney to Bendigo so that 85 people could sit close to home and listen to her stories of business...

After a lifetime of working in corporate, Kerry McCuskey retired and with her family's encouragement, chose to pursue her passion for creating a beautiful blend of tea. Kerry launched her very first business Tea Associates in June 2020. The Bendigo local has been obsessed with tea from a young age, so every part of the Tea Associates journey has been carefully considered. The products are lovingly...

When Bec Connolly became a mum after a difficult fertility journey, she knew she didn’t want to return to full time work. A qualified skin therapist, Bec set up a therapy room in the home in Geelong in 2015. However it wasn’t long before the self-confessed “skin-nerd” was taking the next step, and formulating products of her own. It was a long and difficult search to find a small batch manufacture...

A bonus episode with Johanna Clark from Pink Nade. Johanna is someone you could talk to for hours, and on so many different topics. And that's what happened when I interviewed Johanna for her podcast episode. Once we finished the official interview, I kept recording and we kept talking. What came post interview was such goodness it was too good to waste. Cue a bonus episode. Johanna talks about th...

Johanna Clark embodies the ethos of women supporting women. Kindness, inclusion and confidence is at the core of her statement earring business https://www.pinknade.com.au/ (Pink Nade) located in the tiny rural town of Warracknabeal. Pink Nade is Johanna’s fifth business having started with Joey Jelly Bean, and then a signwriting business, clothing store and the local Australia Post contract with...

Incy Interiors was founded in 2011 by interiors enthusiast, Kristy Withers. The business was born from a surprisingly difficult search for her son Oscar’s first “big boy bed”. Kristy left her role with eBay, and using her corporate marketing experience she launched Incy Interiors, debuting a range of retro style iron beds and cots. The stylish range has since expanded to encompass around 70 produc...

Meet best friends in business, Celeste Robertson and Sarah Scott who describe their partnership as a “once in a lifetime bond”. The dynamic duo from Geelong own @naturalsupplyco which stocks the best curated range of natural, organic and zero waste products. In the past six years, they’ve found success in running their business purely online. Yet in the midst of a global pandemic, they decided to...

Seeing a gap in the market, Nerida Hansen pitched her idea to support independent artists and designers to a major retailer, but they weren't interested. Believing in herself and her vision, Nerida left her job and started representing independent artists. She turned her dream into a reality and launched her first collection of digitally printed fabrics in 2017. Her business - Nerida Hansen Fabric...

Kimberley Furness has always known words are her thing. What she didn't know was the pathway she would follow to become a creator and editor of her own magazine. While starting a print magazine might seem like too daunting of a quest to attempt, Kimberley launched OAK Magazine in just six weeks, and now three years later represents an exciting new chapter for regional media in this country. Kimber...

Ashley Morales is best known as a makeup artist having launched her business 10 years ago. She has worked on special events, commercial photoshoots for well known clothing brands and her Instagram photos have been shared all over the world by international brands. Ash’s work came to a grinding halt in March when COVID-19 impacted events and weddings - her main source of income. With time to spare,...

Kate Newman knows what it takes to build an award winning business. In 15 years of business, Kate and her husband Todd have won over 30 awards with their Central Victorian building company https://www.toddnewmanbuilders.com.au/ (Todd Newman Builders). But there is one award that Kate savours the most ~ the prestigious Regional Women’s Business Award presented to her last year at the Bendigo Busine...

Kate Marshall took seven weeks leave from her job as a kindergarten teacher to homeschool her three children during the first lockdown. What she didn’t expect was to rediscover her love of painting and successfully launch her business From The Paint Shed. Leading up to this point, Kate was experiencing a stressful time at work; feeling overwhelmed, overworked and undervalued. The short hiatus gave...

Karen Hollenbach is the founder of Think Bespoke and revered as the 'LinkedIn Lady'. In 2010, as a mother of two pre-schoolers, Karen took a brave step from corporate career professional to business owner in an effort to carve out a more flexible career, enabling her to leverage her skills and be present for her boys. What began as a resume writing service, grew into LinkedIn profile writing for j...

Dani LoCastro is no stranger to redundancy. In her almost 10 years with one of Australia’s big four banks, Dani was made redundant six times. In November 2019, Dani chose to make it her final redundancy package and walked away from the finance sector. With a burning desire to ignite the passion and potential inside people, Dani stepped into the role of soul purpose coach and launched her business...

With over 20 years of graphic design experience, Annette McDonald has created the ultimate secret weapon for professional looking DIY design. What began as an internal tool to take the cost and stress out of creating promotional material for hospitality clients, has turned into a tech company that is often compared to one of the most successful start-up unicorns in history (aka Canva). After succe...

The role of teaching is demanding. It's relentless. There is a huge number of pressing elements that contribute to a teacher’s mental load every day. Over the past five years, Lill Daley has experienced first hand the mental load of being a school teacher - and decided to do something about it. Lill created a set of affirmation cards out of a personal need for self kindness and positivity, especia...

For as long as she can remember, Michelle Cail has always had a camera in hand. Michelle’s business Gingerhouse Photography, was born at a time when her life was becoming more and more enriched with moments and milestones that needed to be captured. When Michelle finally followed her passion and stepped into her business full time not everything went to plan. Bookings slowed and doubt crept in. Bu...