By Sue White
When Millie Fisher and her friend and boss Grace Brennan from rural online marketplace Buy from the Bush jump on Zoom meetings with city dwellers, they often kick off with a comment about the weather. They’re not just making small talk.
“People just look at us blankly as if to say, ‘What are you telling us that for?’ Unfortunately, out here the weather affects the internet. That can definitely be a struggle at times, but we always manage to work around it,” says Fisher.
Working from the bush has its challenges, but lots of rewards, says Millie Fisher.Credit:Clancy Paine
Fisher is speaking of the challenges of working for a digitally-focussed business from rural or remote Australia. A decade ago, she moved from Sydney’s Paddington to a small town called Breeza, five and a half hours northwest.
“Like most city girls in the bush, I moved because I met and fell in love with a farmer. We met at the Orange Picnic Races,” Fisher says.
Fisher enjoyed corporate life and was set on staying in fulltime work, so she made sure to secure a job before leaving Sydney.
“It was a prerequisite for me moving out there. I wasn’t sure of what would be available,” she says. “My now husband was away a lot for work, so I knew I didn’t want to be sitting at home just waiting for him to get back from wherever he would be.”
With no immediate neighbours or local cafe, Fisher’s job was about more than an income – it was a connection to people. Fast-forward through Fisher’s two babies and a move to Warren (about 100 kilometres north-west of Dubbo), Brennan came to lunch and enticed her to join her new business idea: a purpose-driven business that made it easy for regional and rural businesses to sell gifts to urban dwellers, initially as a way of helping buffer the impact of the drought.
Less than three years later, Buy from The Bush has generated more than $9 million in revenue for rural small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
A report from Buy from the Bush and Meta (formerly Facebook) said 57 per cent of rural SMBs believe social media helped their business stay operational during recent crises.
“As businesses continue to adapt through changing conditions, they continue to recognise the value of digital tools to help them build resilience when unexpected challenges occur,” says Alisha Elliott, head of policy programs Australia at Meta.
Meta’s Alisha Elliot.
Elliot says digital businesses can also create offline career opportunities. She recently met jewellery maker Emily Burton in Trangie, who renovated and opened a new shop off the back of the success of her online store.
“This is promising to see,” Elliot says. “Local communities [also] benefit from this extra economic activity.”
Of course, the pandemic has helped more people work in rural regions, by showing employers how much can be achieved by working remotely.
“You could potentially keep your job in the city and move to the country,” says Fisher.
Still, those doing so do need to factor in the real-life impacts of the reliability of internet from the bush – and not just on rainy or windy days.
“Quite often, we will have to postpone meetings, or Grace will be presenting on a panel and then it cuts out, which is of course annoying,” Fisher says.
“But the good outweighs the bad. There are always little bumps in your life and work, regardless of where you live.”
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