North gets a global push
DANIELLE CAREY JUMPED AT THE CHANCE TO HELP STEER ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE FAR NORTH. SHE BRINGS A WORLD OF EXPERIENCE TO THE ROLE AND IS KEEN TO GET THINGS MOVING, WRITES ALICIA NALLY
GROWING up as an “air force brat” has given Danielle Carey a global outlook which has taken her from Cairns to Brisbane and back to the Far North in roles helping Queensland enterprises reach their potential through multicultural and multi-industry engagement.
The Regional Development Australia Far North Queensland and Torres Strait chief executive took the job in August last year after Jann Crase left in June.
After a decade down south, the 46-year-old returned in 2015 to take on the challenge of addressing skills gaps affect- ing regional economic and business growth for the Department of Education and Training’s FNQ branch.
More recently, she shared her formidable talent in roles with Advance Cairns and Study Cairns, and the Skilling Cassowary Coast and Workforce North committees.
“I saw the value and jumped at the chance. There was no deliberation needed at all on this job,” she said.
“I’d seen the work that RDA do and I liked that. We’ve got a board of 10 switched-on, experienced people and we really want to get things moving. There are so many proposals out there that are ready to be taken to the next stage. We’ve got such a wealth of experience to make it happen. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel.”
That board is full of six new faces: Jodie Duigan-George, Julie-Ann Lambourne, Joe Moro, Fred White, Carolyn Eagle and chairman David Kempton.
Rob Giason, Scott Davis, Bill Shannon and Cairns Regional Council’s Brett Moller have stayed on after the leadership changes.
From Adelaide and a family of five – Ms Carey has a younger brother and sister – a love of travel was sparked from an early childhood spent all over the world.
She was born in Singapore, and her father’s RAAF career took the family all over Australia and to St Louis, Missouri, in the US where the teenager completed junior high school.
“I was in Year 6 when I left Australia. It was a great experience but slightly terrifying at the time,” she recalled.
“That was the first time I really got to see how other people lived and that really helped when I went into my international relations role (with Study Brisbane), that idea of being an outsider in another culture.
“I always preferred to do rather than study as well.
“But we did a lot of travel in
America, mum and dad shied away from the glossy Floridas. We went to places not many people usually get to go to, like South Dakota.
“But when it came time for me to start high school my mum and dad sent me back to Adelaide to boarding school.”
After visiting France just once, Ms Carey took a sabbatical back to the country in 2014, spending the best part of a year learning the language, travelling and trying the best champagne and gourmet continental fare.
A plan to return to Adelaide was thwarted by poor weather and a yearning for the lifestyle and friendly faces of the Far North.
Now firmly back in a city she loves, Ms Carey said the best way to get things moving in the region is to talk. A lot.
“I’m a bit of an advocate for bringing everyone around the table and talking it out. By hearing what everyone has to say, you can get everyone to have a vested interest in what you’re trying to do,” she said.
“We’re looking at expanding agriculture up in the Tablelands. We need more water to do that. Once we get the water we need roads to bring food down, we need more flights, more planes, more ships and more capability in the shipping port.
“I’m sure we’d all love to see port upgrades (in Cairns and Mourilyan) yesterday – Townsville is seen as the major port and Cairns the major airport but we need to balance that out.”
But a new assessment tool to be launched this year will help put all that talk into necessary action.
“We want businesses to know we are here to help and we can point you in the right direction. We’re a direct line to Canberra,” Ms Carey said.
“We hope to make commercially available a tool to plot a project’s economic impact against ease of implementations so we can determine whether we can take it on.”
WE WANT BUSINESSES TO KNOW WE ARE HERE TO HELP AND WE CAN POINT YOU IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION WE’RE A DIRECT LINE TO CANBERRA DANIELLE CAREY