1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:03,040
Speaker 1: There's always so much happening around the place. And I

2
00:00:03,200 --> 00:00:05,880
Speaker 1: tell you Wash, I was very excited to see over

3
00:00:05,920 --> 00:00:10,840
Speaker 1: the weekend that beautiful, well known territorium was recognized on

4
00:00:10,880 --> 00:00:14,480
Speaker 1: a national stage. Many of you will know my next

5
00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:18,520
Speaker 1: guest Estelle Cornell, from a Laura Garden's nursery. She was

6
00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:24,600
Speaker 1: named Champion Small business Woman Icon at the inaugural Australian

7
00:00:24,760 --> 00:00:28,720
Speaker 1: Women's Small Business Champion Gala dinner over the weekend and

8
00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:31,840
Speaker 1: she joins me on the line right now. Good morning

9
00:00:31,880 --> 00:00:33,320
Speaker 1: to Ustelle.

10
00:00:33,640 --> 00:00:37,000
Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. I still haven't slept, would you believe.

11
00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:41,279
Speaker 1: I was so excited when I saw that vote are

12
00:00:41,360 --> 00:00:46,199
Speaker 1: you well? Firstly, you look absolutely beautiful in the photo,

13
00:00:47,479 --> 00:00:51,360
Speaker 1: but then I thought, how wonderful and how deserving for

14
00:00:51,440 --> 00:00:53,320
Speaker 1: you to pick up that national award.

15
00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:57,360
Speaker 2: Well, it certainly blew me away. I was one of

16
00:00:57,440 --> 00:01:01,440
Speaker 2: ten finalists in the whole of Australia. I would hate

17
00:01:01,480 --> 00:01:03,800
Speaker 2: to be a judge on any of the award categories.

18
00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:07,160
Speaker 2: I think there was over the many, many categories. Of course,

19
00:01:07,160 --> 00:01:12,200
Speaker 2: there was about three thousand, eight hundred entrance and then

20
00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:14,240
Speaker 2: it got down to about two and a half thousand

21
00:01:14,319 --> 00:01:17,399
Speaker 2: receives in shortlisted that's over all the categories. I'm not

22
00:01:17,440 --> 00:01:20,160
Speaker 2: sure in my actual category. I'm hoping to find out,

23
00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:22,679
Speaker 2: but that's not important at the end of the day.

24
00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:26,280
Speaker 2: It just goes to show that, you know, we're all

25
00:01:26,319 --> 00:01:29,600
Speaker 2: playing girls doing a playing job, and here we are.

26
00:01:30,880 --> 00:01:33,640
Speaker 1: I thought it was wonderful. I was so tough to

27
00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:38,120
Speaker 1: see that you'd taken out this national award. Estelle, how

28
00:01:38,120 --> 00:01:40,080
Speaker 1: did you feel when your name got called out in

29
00:01:40,120 --> 00:01:42,520
Speaker 1: front of more than one thousand guests there?

30
00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:48,840
Speaker 2: Well, like yourself, it's actually surreal, Katie, because I know

31
00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:52,120
Speaker 2: you're in the award, and I was actually privileged that

32
00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:54,800
Speaker 2: I was a finalist, so I guess I didn't expect

33
00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:57,360
Speaker 2: anything else other than that. I thought, wow, you know,

34
00:01:57,640 --> 00:01:59,680
Speaker 2: to come away to Sydney and be a finalist with

35
00:02:00,160 --> 00:02:03,600
Speaker 2: nine other amazing business women in the country, that is

36
00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:08,639
Speaker 2: a winner for me, and that is, you know, fantastic.

37
00:02:08,960 --> 00:02:09,320
Speaker 1: Yeah.

38
00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:11,840
Speaker 2: And then when they went through all the finalists on

39
00:02:11,960 --> 00:02:14,160
Speaker 2: the big screen and then they yelled out my name,

40
00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:16,920
Speaker 2: I just put my hands in my head in my

41
00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:19,520
Speaker 2: hands and actually had a bit of an emotional fear

42
00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:21,960
Speaker 2: because I thought, oh my god, oh my god. I

43
00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:23,560
Speaker 2: didn't think I was going to win. I haven't got

44
00:02:23,560 --> 00:02:26,600
Speaker 2: a speech. Bah blah blah.

45
00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:30,919
Speaker 1: That is that makes it even better, Estella, I love that.

46
00:02:31,200 --> 00:02:34,600
Speaker 2: Oh wow. And of course Jessica Rowe was the MC. Well,

47
00:02:34,680 --> 00:02:37,440
Speaker 2: she was a hoot all night, so full of energy.

48
00:02:38,560 --> 00:02:43,600
Speaker 1: Oh how incredible now, estlle, we know why you are incredible,

49
00:02:43,639 --> 00:02:45,880
Speaker 1: and we know about the wonderful work that you do.

50
00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:48,000
Speaker 1: But tell me a little bit about what you were

51
00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:49,040
Speaker 1: recognized for.

52
00:02:51,040 --> 00:02:54,960
Speaker 2: Well, I guess being a businesswoman icon forty two years

53
00:02:54,960 --> 00:03:00,200
Speaker 2: in business, I'm hoping that sort of means something. So

54
00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:05,880
Speaker 2: to recognize the territory and their opportunities. All businesses have

55
00:03:06,040 --> 00:03:09,240
Speaker 2: their ups and down and I guess it's easy. I

56
00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:12,600
Speaker 2: remember I went to one of the Chief Minister's budget

57
00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:15,880
Speaker 2: releases a few years ago, and the fellow who sat

58
00:03:15,960 --> 00:03:18,480
Speaker 2: next to me we introduced each other. Oh, he said,

59
00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:21,720
Speaker 2: you're the lady that's had You're the lady that's had

60
00:03:21,760 --> 00:03:24,840
Speaker 2: cyclones and breaken entries. He said, why don't you just shut?

61
00:03:24,919 --> 00:03:28,440
Speaker 2: Why don't you just sut the place? And my heart

62
00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:31,960
Speaker 2: sank and I thought, are you heerious? I put my

63
00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:34,400
Speaker 2: heart and soul in and he must have saw the

64
00:03:34,440 --> 00:03:37,960
Speaker 2: look on my face and he probably thought about it later.

65
00:03:38,040 --> 00:03:40,960
Speaker 2: Because the look on my face was just, oh my gosh,

66
00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:45,560
Speaker 2: I could never do that. You know. My family were

67
00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:49,600
Speaker 2: raised and raised up in the Laura Gardens and it

68
00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:53,040
Speaker 2: was an opening to make an extra few dollars way

69
00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:56,040
Speaker 2: back when my husband wasn't well, and I gave it

70
00:03:56,080 --> 00:03:58,640
Speaker 2: a go, you know. And I guess coming from the

71
00:03:58,640 --> 00:04:02,080
Speaker 2: background from my mother and father in the trucking industry

72
00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:06,800
Speaker 2: in Queensland. Between those two and my husband, they taught

73
00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:10,320
Speaker 2: me tough love. They taught me so many great principles

74
00:04:10,320 --> 00:04:13,560
Speaker 2: in life. If you don't work, you don't eat. You know.

75
00:04:13,680 --> 00:04:15,440
Speaker 2: We were kids thrown up into the top of the

76
00:04:15,520 --> 00:04:18,000
Speaker 2: stock crates to clean the stock crate. That didn't matter

77
00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:20,479
Speaker 2: whether you're a boy or a girl. Mum taught me

78
00:04:20,480 --> 00:04:22,839
Speaker 2: how to do general alleges as a ten and eleven

79
00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:25,680
Speaker 2: year old girl. It was just a part of our upbringing.

80
00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:28,520
Speaker 2: And then I came to Darwin, and I mean everyone

81
00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:31,800
Speaker 2: knows Porky. He's very famous. He's got an oim himself

82
00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:34,800
Speaker 2: for all the charitable work he's done. And you know,

83
00:04:34,839 --> 00:04:38,000
Speaker 2: it just evolves from that that never ever, you know,

84
00:04:38,320 --> 00:04:40,719
Speaker 2: get up, dressed up, show up, my mother taught me.

85
00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:42,680
Speaker 2: But never ever give up.

86
00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:47,880
Speaker 1: I love that, Estelle, I absolutely love that. And you know,

87
00:04:48,200 --> 00:04:53,599
Speaker 1: forty two years in business, that is incredible. How have

88
00:04:53,720 --> 00:04:58,039
Speaker 1: you had to evolve and change over those forty two years?

89
00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:04,120
Speaker 2: Forty two years? Well, my main project was to be

90
00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:07,599
Speaker 2: a good mother and a good ambassador and a good

91
00:05:07,680 --> 00:05:11,120
Speaker 2: leader for our industry. Whether I was escorting an over

92
00:05:11,160 --> 00:05:14,320
Speaker 2: dimensional load out of the wharf, whether I was doing

93
00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:17,039
Speaker 2: a talk to the senior citizens in the garden center

94
00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:20,000
Speaker 2: or having a children's group at a Laura. You know,

95
00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:23,479
Speaker 2: we have to be the people that encourage the next

96
00:05:23,520 --> 00:05:28,080
Speaker 2: generation and the generation before that. We have got lots

97
00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:31,760
Speaker 2: of obstacles yet to go. But everybody in business, if

98
00:05:31,800 --> 00:05:35,080
Speaker 2: you're listening, I know it's tough. I know we can't

99
00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:40,560
Speaker 2: find stuff, but find people teach them. There are people there.

100
00:05:40,640 --> 00:05:43,040
Speaker 2: We need to get out and teach them and help

101
00:05:43,120 --> 00:05:46,640
Speaker 2: them get involved into your community and all the events

102
00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:49,880
Speaker 2: that are around us. The morning of the cyclone, I

103
00:05:49,920 --> 00:05:52,240
Speaker 2: had a lady walk in. We had cyclone markers and

104
00:05:52,279 --> 00:05:54,839
Speaker 2: I lost one point eight million dollars worth. You know

105
00:05:54,880 --> 00:05:57,680
Speaker 2: that was a tough one because I wasn't twenty five. Yet,

106
00:05:58,440 --> 00:06:01,120
Speaker 2: as you evolve and you get old, say okay, I've

107
00:06:01,120 --> 00:06:02,760
Speaker 2: just got to pull the boots up and put the

108
00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:04,760
Speaker 2: big girl and he's on and get on with this.

109
00:06:05,320 --> 00:06:07,719
Speaker 2: But you know, the morning of the cyclone, I had

110
00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:11,880
Speaker 2: beautiful people through the community who bought their rakes and

111
00:06:11,960 --> 00:06:15,640
Speaker 2: their gloves, and they came to the nursery and I said, oh,

112
00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:18,120
Speaker 2: I help you. We're not really open, we're not here

113
00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:20,520
Speaker 2: for that. Are we here to help you? Well? I cried.

114
00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:23,039
Speaker 2: I think every time somebody walked into the garden center.

115
00:06:23,400 --> 00:06:25,799
Speaker 2: And then about two hours into it, somebody else walked

116
00:06:25,800 --> 00:06:28,360
Speaker 2: in and said, oh, hello, I'm from such and such

117
00:06:28,440 --> 00:06:31,000
Speaker 2: group and I'm here to pick up a I was

118
00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:33,760
Speaker 2: hoping you could donate something for our raffle next week.

119
00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:36,320
Speaker 2: And I'm thinking, have you not got eyes in your head?

120
00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:40,520
Speaker 2: And I felt like crying, But you know what, I

121
00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:43,960
Speaker 2: rubbled her all the broken glass us, the statues. I

122
00:06:44,040 --> 00:06:46,320
Speaker 2: found a little water feature. I wrapped it up for

123
00:06:46,400 --> 00:06:49,320
Speaker 2: her and blessed her on her way. You know, But

124
00:06:49,480 --> 00:06:53,440
Speaker 2: that's what you do in business. It's all about our community,

125
00:06:53,520 --> 00:06:57,400
Speaker 2: our society, and it is so so important. It's not

126
00:06:57,480 --> 00:07:02,120
Speaker 2: about me, it's about all of us. And I'm bringing

127
00:07:02,160 --> 00:07:06,599
Speaker 2: this statue home to the Northern Territory, to all the

128
00:07:06,680 --> 00:07:10,240
Speaker 2: amazing business women. This isn't just for me, this is

129
00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:13,760
Speaker 2: for all of you, Welle.

130
00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:16,480
Speaker 1: We are so incredibly proud of you, and you know

131
00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:20,760
Speaker 1: you're such a generous person. You do so much for charity,

132
00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:25,400
Speaker 1: you run incredible businesses. But you're a really wonderful human

133
00:07:25,400 --> 00:07:27,120
Speaker 1: and I love the way that you said even at

134
00:07:27,120 --> 00:07:28,880
Speaker 1: the start of that, you know, over a forty two

135
00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:31,920
Speaker 1: year period, you know, when your main priority as well

136
00:07:31,960 --> 00:07:34,360
Speaker 1: was being a good mum and trying to juggle everything.

137
00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:38,440
Speaker 1: You are an incredible person. I think it's wonderful for

138
00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:42,080
Speaker 1: you know, it's the Northern Territory should be very proud

139
00:07:42,080 --> 00:07:42,920
Speaker 1: of you this morning.

140
00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:47,480
Speaker 2: Well, I certainly hope so, Katie, because it's quite an

141
00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:50,520
Speaker 2: emotion of time. My phone hasn't stopped the messages coming in.

142
00:07:50,600 --> 00:07:53,400
Speaker 2: I'm thinking, oh, don't tell me too many things. I'll

143
00:07:53,400 --> 00:07:54,440
Speaker 2: get a pet, I'll get.

144
00:07:58,120 --> 00:08:02,440
Speaker 1: I enjoy it. You're so hard and you are so

145
00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:07,240
Speaker 1: deserving Stelle. A big congratulations from us to you, and

146
00:08:07,760 --> 00:08:09,840
Speaker 1: I think all of the Northern Territory will be so

147
00:08:09,960 --> 00:08:13,320
Speaker 1: incredibly proud to hear that you've taken out this national award.

148
00:08:14,160 --> 00:08:17,080
Speaker 2: Oh thank you. Well, I'm coming home and it's Christmas, hip,

149
00:08:17,160 --> 00:08:20,040
Speaker 2: business and for everything Bluren, you name, it is happening.

150
00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:24,760
Speaker 1: Good on you. STLL lovely to talk to you and

151
00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:26,360
Speaker 1: we'll talk to you again very soon.

152
00:08:27,280 --> 00:08:29,800
Speaker 2: Thank you Katie, have a great day you too.

153
00:08:29,960 --> 00:08:30,960
Speaker 1: Thank you so much