A Joint Initiative Between     Heart of Wisconsin     Business & Economic Alliance and     Community Foundation of     South Wood County

About Breaking News Program Dates Feedback Donate Contact Industry Cluster Message Board		Enterprising Rural Communities Study Tour 2004 – Australia November 16, 2004 Al and Aaron are breakfast chefs extraordinaire! This morning they got up early and prepared an “American Style” breakfast for the crew before we headed out. I woke up just as the sun was rising and spent a few minutes capturing the incredible sun rise out by the lake. After our wonderful breakfast, we boarded the bus and headed toward the Tin Horse Highway. But not before stopping at the sign we’d all become familiar with, an icon representing our journey to Australia. As the beautiful countryside rolled by, David explained that the town of Kulin wanted to capitalize on the stream of tourists visiting Hyden, yet come up with an attraction that was distinctly unique. Beginning around eight miles out of town, wonderful folk art sculptures populate the side of the road. Vic slowed the bus down so we could get a good look. The Tin Horse Highway leads into Kulin, home of The Bush Races. The community has invested in its young people with a playground, sport complex, skateboard park, and water park. We continued along the road, taking in the peaceful, rolling farmland. The bus pulled off the road, heading up a dusty drive to deposit us at the home and farm of Mary and Michael Nenke. This is also the home of Cambinata Yabbies. Yabbies are fascinating creatures. They are smaller than a lobster, yet larger than a crayfish (or crawdads, as we called them in Texas). And unlike lobsters or crayfish, they aren’t commonly harvested from lakes or the ocean, but live very happily in farm ponds--those murky, muddy, watering holes used by cattle in the field. Except that in Australia they’re not called ponds, but dams, because they’re generally built at the base of a hill to catch and hold the rare, precious rainwater. Mary and Michael farmed for years in the traditional way—cows and wheat. Yet they needed a revenue stream to supplement and stabilize their income. Yabbies were the answer. Many farm dams contain yabbies and there is a ready market for them, primarily with restaurants. The opportunity presented itself to Mary to collect the yabbies from area farmers and sell them locally while building a wholesale business, distributing them to far flung markets. Mary built the business by working primarily with other farm wives. They would deliver the yabbies to her and she acted as retailer and wholesaler. There were many challenges and much experimentation to develop systems that ensured the yabbies were top quality, and delivered to the end customer alive and healthy. The Nenkes now have more than 700 farmers supplying yabbies to them. Of these, 90% of the farmers are women that are nurturing and raise yabbies for extra cash. Each farm averages 20 dams. Mary and Michael say that one of the secrets to their success is building customer relationships. And running an efficient operation. They use all of the waste on the farm to fed chooks (chickens) that average 4 kilos each. Waste water is used water to grow other products such as hydroponic tomatoes. This business has now grown to support the parents and 3 sons (with various business degrees, all paid for with yabbies). After touring their yabbie facility we gathered in the Nenke farm house for a wonderful lunch of steamed yabbies, baked chicken, yabbie pate, homemade bread, and yabbie shortbread cookies, all prepared by Michael and Mary. The lesson learned from this business was another success story supporting regionalization and branding, quality assurance is necessary as is keeping the business philosophy on a personal, customer-oriented level. And equally as important, yabbies taste better than crayfish or lobster. Our appetites sated, a warm feeling in our hearts from the time spent in Mary and Michael’s cheerful and welcoming farm house, we headed down that dusty path to Albany and a visit with Steve Birkbeck at The Sandalwood Factory. The oil extracted from the sandalwood tree is used in a number of products: Cosmetics, incense, fragrances, and aromatherapy to name a few. The Sandalwood Factory extracts the oil, packages and sells on site its own lines of products, and exports the oil. Steve believes that entrepreneurship is all about “identifying the barriers and working through the cracks.” He says the toughest money to make is the first half million. This was just one more example in a theme we are hearing – think big! A serial entrepreneur, Steve continues to look at value added opportunity. True value adding can happen in many ways – both in production and with a cultural connection. The Sandalwood Factory works closely with indigenous people in the harvesting and nurturing of the sandalwood supply. He believes that the benefits of ethical corporate conduct support regional economies, versus global economies. The uniqueness of the Sandalwood Factory is the strong connection to indigenous culture and nature both in the US and Australia. Maintaining high quality, thinking big, and mixing in with the big guys has created Steve’s success. He sells his product with ethics and tells the story of its relationship to the indigenous people of Australia. When working with retail sales, Steve creates the total experience for mind, body and spirit. He offers sessions in yoga and relaxation using all senses. As a group, we were experiencing the total experience. That evening we visited Gilbert’s Winery a beautiful little winery found on the scenic highway between Albany and the town of Kendenup. An enterprising business, the winery features a wonderful restaurant and excellent wine. Dinner that evening consisted of regional salmon and steak supporting regional products. The theme of creating an experience – making customers comfortable was top notch. The sun had long since set and a beautiful moon was shining as we made our way back to Albany. It was the end of another busy day with the promise of another day of adventure when the sun rose again.
		Copyright © 2005, Community Progress Initiative, South Wood County & Town of Rome