How long have you been living in the area?
I've been here now for just over a year. I started off on Dinner Plain and was up there for most of that year, now I've moved to the base of the mountain.
What do you do for a living?
I'm a venue manager of Porepunkah Pub. I've had multiple small businesses throughout my years, mainly around hospitality and/or events and marketing. I specialise in marketing and hospitality; I've been doing it for 15 years now.
What are your hobbies and interests?
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One of the reasons why I moved to this area was that being an old mining town there's so much fossicking to do out here. I'm not big on gold, but I love crystals. I'm out here, doing a lot of fossicking and getting to know the area – where the good spots are, where the bad spots are, and the secret spots that no one knows about. It's so rich in minerals out here; anyone that has an interest in fossicking or geology, this is a great place to start.
What do you like about the area?
I come from a small community and then lived in the city for over 10 years. So for me, coming back to a small community is something that I wanted to be a part of. And I'm interested in transit towns. I like the rural aspect, but six to eight months of the year you're quite busy because you have those transit people coming through.
Where would you take visitors to showcase the area?
I would take them to spots along the Ovens River, there are a lot of community spots here like the memorial parks. Mount Buffalo is absolutely beautiful, Mount Beauty is amazing. And having a fair bit of knowledge about the huts on Hotham and Dinner Plain, I would love to promote Dinner Plain a bit more. It's such a wonderful, unusual place in the world. I'd love more people to know that Dinner Plain is there and there's a community wanting to look after people and be a part of things.
Is there anything you would change about the area?
The only thing I would change is bring more youth into the area and create more community events to make a hub for the locals. A lot of businesses cater for the demographic that comes through during the transit times. I suppose bringing those two things together, doing more for the local community and targeting that demographic in the offseason is really important in my eyes.
