OCM: Wynetta, thanks for taking some time out of your busy day to tell the team a little bit about yourself. Perhaps you could just start by telling us a bit about where you were born and raised.

Wynetta: I was born in the small regional town of Innisfail, about 80km south of Cairns and was raised not far from there in Babinda, what was then a sugar town. I went to Babinda State School that had both the Primary and the High School connected. My dad worked at the local council and mum was a cleaner at Babinda Hospital.

OCM: Whenever I drive through Babinda, it looks like it’s stopped in time. It’s very quaint.

Wynetta: It has changed over the years. The mill is no longer there, which is quite sad. It was a major employer and also the heart of the community as well. They used to have the sugar festival every year that coincided with the crushing season, with floats and processions, so it really was the heart of the community.

You could always tell when it was crushing season. The locos would be going by, and that was back in the days when they used to burn the cane, you could smell the cane fire from far away. It was just a really busy time. Babinda is also known for its famous bakery with their wonderful cream buns. But when the mill did close, it really impacted the community, but it has slowly revitalized since.

OCM: Tell us about your mum and dad.

Wynetta: My Dad’s family connections are from Boigu Island in the Torres Straits. He also has Asian heritage from Malaysia and Indonesia. Mum’s connections are from Horn Island, she also has South Sea Island connections from Vanuatu, and there’s also some English heritage in her family line. Dad came down from Torres Straits to Babinda when he was quite young and that’s where he met Mum.

OCM: Who did he stay with there?

Wynetta: We had other family in the region, including some of dad’s brothers and a sister. The men worked in the cane industry, doing a lot of cane cutting – very, hard work. He met my mum at the picture theatre and they went on to get married. I’m the youngest of four siblings: I have an older sister a brother and another sister then myself. My two sisters still live in Babinda, and my brother and I live in the Cairns area.

Mum and dad are still in Babinda. They both turned 81 this year, and they’ve really lived a good life, a really humble life. They have worked hard and are now retired. They’re very family orientated and have always supported us kids and our families.

OCM: Who or what would you say were your influences growing up?

Wynetta: I think my parents and their work ethic. Like I said, they were very humble. They did their job, earned their pay, and looked after family. We had struggles and challenges, but just that work ethic growing up is what they’ve instilled in me – do your job properly and do the best that you can. Mum’s now the oldest in her family, so I do look up to her a lot. She has a hearing disability, which she had from very young, so just seeing how she’s navigated her life with those challenges. She’s not a CEO or high profile, but she has stood her ground and maintained who she is and has always been a strong pillar.

After schooling, I did a traineeship at what used to be called the Deeral Aboriginal Corporation, where they were making artifacts. It was a little Co-Op where I learned a lot about business and processes. I had some really good influences there, such as Kathy Ware who was the coordinator at the time and is the aunty of Barry Doyle, who used to be the QIFVLS Chair.

OCM: And where did you go after that?

Wynetta: I went to the Innisfail Johnson TAFE, and did a certificate training in business and really enjoyed that. From there I basically was looking for work. I had a few odd jobs. At the time the CES (Commonwealth Employment Service) used to have the job boards, so you used to go in and walk up and down looking at the job cards on the boards – and one day I saw that there was a job going on Green Island. They wanted a site clerk and you didn’t need experience, and they were going to do on-the-job training. So I applied for it and was successful. I was green as, so shy and naïve, in an environment full of construction workers but I was fortunate that I had really good leaders like Don Gordon, the site manager.

OCM: Was this when they were building the Green Island infrastructure?

Wynetta: Yes, we saw the whole redevelopment of the day trippers, and that’s also when they built the accommodation as well. To get to work we had to catch a ferry from Cairns to Green Island every morning and back again at the end of the day. A Japanese company called Daikyo owned Green Island then, and for you to buy anything from their stores you had to use their own Daikyo currency. I was on that project for two years, which started my career in construction. I ended up spending a good 10 to 15 years in that industry.

When I started with QIFVLS, it was in the role of Project Officer, assisting with whatever projects they wanted me to work on. I was really blessed, QIFVLS, gave me opportunities to work in different roles and really get to know and understand the business. From Project Officer, I moved into the position of Executive Assistant to the CEO, who was Colin Ford at the time. Colin was QIFVLS very first CEO and was here for about two years.

From there I stepped into a community development role. I was a Community Development Manager, then General Manager, Acting CEO and then finally CEO. There were probably about four CEOs over that period. The organisation has obviously evolved over time but it was really good working with each of the CEOs, because they each brought something different and I had the opportunity learn from all of them, so I’ll be forever thankful for that.

I do think it’s good for people to be able to move across different areas within a business, but it’s the adjustment from one role to another, which isn’t something that people might be fully cognisant of. Moving from the GM role to the CEO role is very different and you do have to separate the two. The Board was really supportive and helped me navigate that transition.