Max's Island

In her later teen years, Jayne Bryant was given a positive affirmation that she was good at singing and performing. It came from a comment made by her brother, to her dad, whilst they were on a family summer holiday. From that moment she had the confidence to really focus on this passion and ultimately make the decision to postpone the completion of her University Science Degree and venture to Mel...

Being a lover of pets, and dogs in particular, is something familiar to many of us on Max’s Island. However, few of us go so far as to dedicate a big part of our lives to making sure ALL dogs have the best possible life. Karen Rhodes was introduced to Homer at the Shenton Park Dogs Home many years ago and that relationship became deep and loving through a mutual bond between them. Homer was a big,...

Barry Mone is just like any dad … he’ll do anything for his children. Since late 2017, when his son Charlie had just turned 8, Barry and his family have been on a crusade. Around this time, through a series of circumstances and even observations of others … including a lady who they met at the local park … Charlie was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) — an incurable and ultimately f...

Charlie Gunningham was a little uncertain about the long term future of his teaching career in the late 1990’s. But, like many changes in life, there was a sequence of events … some unplanned and generally not expected, that eventually catapulted his professional life from teaching to something totally different … the tech world of digital real estate. This mixture of influential events included c...

Estelle Blackburn OAM, is an acclaimed journalist with a career that has included working for WA Newspapers, the ABC and as a media advisor for Carmen Lawrence, Western Australia’s first female State Premier. However, for this Walkley Award winner, perhaps her greatest achievement has been the impact made on the lives two men, wrongly imprisoned for crimes committed by Eric Edger Cooke, WA’s last...

Pat O’Donnell is a couple of years through her graduate degree at Notre Dame University in Fremantle WA. Like many new university students, she started with an initial subject choice, but also like many, that has now evolved and a double major is likely to result…there’s even talk of an Honours year and additional studies. This current journey and the planned outcomes sound typical of any new stud...

Brooke Jones experienced a strong career, which was most recently within the health policy and research sector in WA. With the necessary academic qualifications, she was a knowledgeable policy maker. This allowed her to be involved in the monitoring and implementation of key programs to support those in our society. However, this career was interrupted with her becoming a mother. As can often be t...

We are all confident in what we believe and know that our life experiences are true to us. Thanks again to all the regular listeners to Max’s Island for your loyal support.   Continuing our reflection of recent special moments on Max’s Island … in this episode we’re highlighting another important Value we like follow on the island.  In this second BONUS episode to start our 2024, we will hear stor...

For this years reflection of special moments on Max’s Island we are highlighting the important Values we follow on the island. So … to begin with this year … we’ll feature some stories from last year, where visitors to Max’s Island truly reflected one of these values. In this BONUS episode we will hear stories that embrace the value “Believe in Everyone” … we know the world is full of individual p...

David Maddocks recently travelled to New York with many “diehards” to see the final Kiss concert at Madison Square Gardens… all dressed in their favourite black Kiss t-shirts. This was Kiss concert number 69 for David and it delivered exactly what he expected…lot’s of pyrotechnics … lots of familiarity and as usual … and finished with “Rock’n’Roll all night”. The Kiss army was out in force at the...

Laura has 4 children who have never been to school, that is, in the formal sense of learning. But this does not mean they haven’t experienced an education process that has prepared them for life and their future endeavours. Initially through specific circumstances and then from a deliberate desire and a belief in her eyes to give her children the best opportunities to learn, Laura has chosen to ho...

After suffering from a work related head trauma, Mark Ewing developed an acquired brain injury that needed to be managed as he attempted to return to work. But this was challenging when colleagues kept saying “you look fine to me” … and his manager even said “if you don’t recover, you will be dismissed”. It took the astute recognition from his GP, of his real condition, for things to change … fina...

Rutchi Kaushal was embedded in her chosen career in accounting and finance … and behind the closed door of her CBD office, she had the confidence and skill to successfully be herself and achieve peer recognition. However, whilst always maintaining this professional outlook and persona, there was a hidden desire to something different. Something that was a true reflection of who she was … what her...

Cynthia Bartolomei and her husband decided it was really important for their family to experience a journey around Australia together. So taking their two boys out of school, with the blessing of the headmaster, they chose to follow the sun and head north from Perth WA in April 2021. This was just when WA was being locked down due to the pandemic … and whilst getting into WA was not possible, actu...

In her own words, Jay Wood got a “bop on the head” in a motor vehicle accident. But this was really serious … and resulted in a major “invisible injury” … a catastrophic traumatic brain injury. The symptoms are so unique and specific to Jay it often makes it difficult for her to acknowledge how her behaviours are perceived by others. Nonetheless, she honestly believes she didn’t lose her essence f...

Suzie Aries … actor, performer and someone with a positive outlook on life. Her world was shattered following the removal of a “mass” from her body and the realisation she had to acknowledge the diagnosis of cancer. Her acting career was still at the forefront of her life focus, even when the cancer treatment resulted in losing her hair and having to deal with the physical and mental challenges of...

Paul Hansen is a confident, well educated and strong professional, who has built a successful career for herself in organisational development and leadership. This has been both as a senior manager in major mining companies and as an independent consultant in the sector. So it came as a shock, when once a ‘new’ manager of her team adopted an adversarial approach that featured a high level of perso...

Tara Ulrich went on a years travel following high school. This gave her a chance to reflect on the career expectations she had to be an Auslan interpreter … and those encouraged by close friends and family. Whilst this expected career direction was something she new well, was emotionally close to and was something she could easily do … she had doubts. Did she really want to do this. On her return...

Stefan West is a solo artist from Melbourne Australia. Pulling from his own life experiences he uses music as a canvas to paint the experiences of his own life. His previous project, The Velvet Addiction, saw many successes with the likes of national airplay on Triple M, Rebel Fm and MTV. During his visit to Max’s Island, Stefan continues to openly share his past experiences with drug addition, me...

Shaun Williams was well entrenched and purposefully building on the foundations he had already laid in his corporate life. Then, following a chat with a friend at a party, he became aware of a “nature quest on Noongar Boodja”, run by Claire Vanderplank from Partnering with Nature. He researched, prepared and finally made the decision to do it. So, not long after the suggestion was made to him, Sha...

James Hoare was born with a brain injury called hydrocephalus and had 4 brain surgeries before he was 7 years old. However, that didn’t hold back his inherent competitive nature to try challenging and exciting past times during his life. He started mountain climbing in 2011 with Mt Kosciusko then Mt Kilimanjaro in 2013. After Mt Kosciusko he created the goal of being the first person with hydrocep...

Clare Allen has been a successful C-Suite executive for many years. Her intensity to performing at the highest CEO level comes from self-confessed personality traits … but also has been complimented by strong philosophies toward life and work balance. The heavy spiritual influence in her life was highly influential when she chose to re-assess her approach to work following a series of serious, rel...

Dylan Lamb had a recent experience that he finds difficult to explain. This mentally challenging episode may have been influenced by drugs … it may have been influenced by his state of mind at the time … or it might have been influenced by deep mental health characteristics. No-one really knows. This event lasted for just over a week, but it saw him become paranoid around his business and social n...

Sally Grandy and her family’s relocation to Perth Western Australia came from a promise of a job, a new opportunity and the thought that “their stars were aligning”. But, it didn’t happen the way it was meant to. Literally 1 week before leaving the UK … the job offer was withdrawn. Nonetheless, they still qualified for a visa to travel, so they decided to take the risk and within 3 days of landing...

Shane Landers is an educator … a leader in his community. He is passionate about leading young people to become educated and to use this to become meaningful contributors in society. So, when he had the opportunity to be a relief Principal at a remote community in northern Western Australia, he jumped at it. This was the chance for him to push himself, contribute to his education network and most...