In the first episode of Latitude 40 Season 2, Jacqui Cooper sits down with Flinders Mayor Rachel Summers for an honest and heartfelt conversation about community, leadership and life on a remote island.

From accidentally moving to Flinders Island after confusing it with Bruny Island, to becoming Mayor, Rachel shares her journey, the challenges facing the island, and the power of community spirit.

This episode explores volunteering, housing, ageing well, infrastructure projects and what the future of Flinders Island could look like — all grounded in the people and stories that make this place so special.

What we talk about in this episode

• Finding home on Flinders Island
• The realities of remote island living
• Honouring a friend through community fundraising
• Stepping into local government and leadership
• Why volunteering is declining — and how it could change
• Major infrastructure projects shaping the island’s future
• Housing, workforce shortages and ageing well
• Voluntourism and visitors giving back
• Protecting what makes Flinders Island unique

Show notes and links

Flinders Council - https://www.flinders.tas.gov.au

Don’t try to change this place; let this place change you - The Islander Way Story - https://www.furneauxcollective.com/islander-way

Guest

Rachel Summers
Mayor of Flinders Council and long-time community member passionate about transparency, participation and the future of the island.

About Latitude 40

Latitude 40 is a podcast by the Furneaux Collective celebrating the people, stories and spirit of the Furneaux Islands. Each episode shares conversations with locals who help shape life on the island.

Send a text

If you'd like to provide feedback on this podcast, we'd welcome your comments at crew@furneauxcollective.com

Debbie and Josie speak with Ben Backhaus about his family business, Bush Pharmacy, where Ben distills essential oils grown and harvested on Flinders Island. You can almost smell the aromas as Ben describes the range of oils. Ben attributes the unique properties of the oils to the geographic isolation of the Island created by the separation of the land bridge to the Australian mainland. Ben sees the support of the Island community as instrumental in allowing his business to develop and bloom.

Tourism has a future on the Island according to Ben, but he also recognises the strong ownership Islanders feel towards their home and their desire to share it with people who come to visit, who appreciate and respect the Island as much as locals do.

You can go to the beach, and there's no one going to be there for a few kilometres. You know, you have that isolation, you have that pureness and I think that, plays in a way, of the place thriving as well as people were considerate of this.

Ben's love for the Island is evident when he speaks of his return from an overseas trip and his exhillaration upon returning to the wild terrain, the isolation, the beaches and the smell of the ocean breeze.

Show notes and links
Bush Pharmacy | http://www.bushpharmacy.com | @bush.pharmacy
Kunzea ambigua | https://www.anbg.gov.au/gnp/gnp8/kunz-amb.html
Melaleuca ericafolia | https://austplants.com.au/Melaleuca-ericifolia/
Leptospermum scoparium| https://www.anbg.gov.au/leptospermum/leptospermum-scoparium.html
Smokey Tea Tree | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptospermum_glaucescens
Flinders Islannd Blue Gum | https://www.inaturalist.org/guide_taxa/179365
Separation of land bridge from mainland | https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/separation-of-tasmania
Furneaux Distillery | https://www.furneauxdistillery.com.au/flinders-island-single-malt-peated

This podcast is created for Designing Tourism by Debbie Clarke and Josie Major from GOOD Awaits. Audio Production is by Clarrie Macklin. Check out their podcast: https://www.good-travel.org/goodawaitspodcast
Music by Judy Jacques, The Mesmerist; Wybalenna Prayer from Making Wings © 2002 with kind permission of the artist.
Extract from the Islander Way read by Jana Monnone co-created by the local community with Brand Tasmania as part of the Flinders Island brand story.
Original photography by Sammi Gowthorp.
The Islander Way project is funded by the Tasmanian Government. We also acknowledge our partners, Flinders Council, Visit Northern Tasmania and The Tourism CoLab and the support of Flinders Island Business Inc.

Send a text

If you'd like to provide feedback on this podcast, we'd welcome your comments at crew@furneauxcollective.com

In this espisode, Josie and Debbie talk with Mel Telfer: dental assistant, ambulance service volunteer, school teacher, truck driver, and a maker and the driving force behind The Purple Swamphen, the makers' co-op on Flinders Island.

To outsiders Mel's life might look daunting but for her, the multiple roles she fills provide opportunities to feel purpose, structure and function in her life. Mel talks about her connection to the Island community, and the honour she feels to serve in her varied roles.

Mel's need to create drives her to make and inspires others: "I feel like being creative is so much a huge part of being human."

Mel talks about the different makers who have embraced circular economy: salvaging found objects, creating new products and increasing their usefulness.

"We've got a few different makers ... one particularly works with plastics and ropes she finds on the beach, and she'll turn them into either artworks like a wall hanging and a lighthouse made out of different bits of plastic from the beach, or she'll make cards or key rings from the beach rope. So she's really starting to explore what she can do with all this kind of waste products that keeps washing up. Yeah, I've got another maker who will use baling twine from the hay bales to crochet baskets."

Show notes and links
The Purple Swamphen | https://thepurpleswamphen.com.au/about/
The Purple Swamphen instagram page | https://www.instagram.com/thepurpleswamphen/
Kangaroo Island | https://southaustralia.com/destinations/kangaroo-island

This podcast is created for Designing Tourism by Debbie Clarke and Josie Major from GOOD Awaits. Audio Production is by Clarrie Macklin. Check out their podcast: https://www.good-travel.org/goodawaitspodcast
Music by Judy Jacques, The Mesmerist; Wybalenna Prayer from Making Wings © 2002 with kind permission of the artist.
Extract from the Islander Way read by Jana Monnone co-created by the local community with Brand Tasmania as part of the Flinders Island brand story.
Original photography by Sammi Gowthorp.
The Islander Way project is funded by the Tasmanian Government. We also acknowledge our partners, Flinders Council, Visit Northern Tasmania and The Tourism CoLab and the support of Flinders Island Business Inc.

Send a text

If you'd like to provide feedback on this podcast, we'd welcome your comments at crew@furneauxcollective.com