WORDS: GABRIELLE HALL
PHOTOS: JOHN KRUGER
As a business woman and busy mum of three, Cassie Fuller spends plenty of time in the car commuting to and from the family farm, 50 kilometres north of Clare.
It is relished opportunity to catch up on the day’s school news from the kids, maybe even clear her head after a busy day, it is also where Cassie brainstorms some of her best ideas.
It was there, travelling the familiar path home, that she pulled together her own experiences and devised a plan to create a collective workspace for others just like her.
People needing a small office space where they could create their own business identity, somewhere to be proud of, somewhere even just to check into for a few hours a month to sort out the family admin away from the bustle of home life. And Gleeson Collective in Clare was born.
The Collective is a co-working space in the centre of Clare where tenants can rent office space long- term, short-term, or even just rent a ‘hot desk’ or boardroom for the day.
Cassie, who has established her own new business as a qualified draftsperson, is also a fully-qualified and experienced property valuer who saw a need for small business spaces in the Clare Valley.
“It was an idea I had in the back of my mind for many years,” Cassie said.
“When I was working as a property valuer, working regionally across the state, and working solo most of the time, if I ever needed an office space outside of my home, I’d maybe ring the local accountancy firm and see if they had any space available to rent.
“You’d just tack yourself onto the end of some other businesses space.
“And while that was always really great, you never felt like you had your own space and that sense of ownership in a place that is collectively everyone’s.”
The concept of shared office, or co working, spaces is taking off around the country, however Gleeson Collective is a first for the Clare Valley and a leap of faith for Cassie.
Cassie said the idea of a collective office space bubbled away, until she was spurred on by a podcast from the founder of a similar space in Grenfell, New South Wales.
Her story resonated with Cassie who sought out the business owner to get an insight into how it could work in Clare.
“The population of Grenfell was slightly less than Clare and I thought, if she can do it successfully there, we can do it here,” she said.
Call it serendipity, but at the same time, a building came up for sale and Cassie immediately saw its potential.
“This property at 12 Gleeson Street in Clare was for sale and my husband, Leigh, and I looked through it,” Cassie said.
“He said definitely no, there’s too much work to be done on it, and I said definitely yes because it’s an 1870s cottage – one of the earliest built in Clare – and I have a huge affinity with old spaces and just couldn’t let it go.”
Formerly a semi-industrial space used by Clare Print in most recent years, the property was also once a family home, and Cassie fell in love with its charm.
“I love old buildings, growing up in an old farm house, and the thought of repurposing something for modern use really appeals to me,” she said.
“A lot of the drafting work I do now is with old buildings and I love the challenge of enhancing what some might see as flaws, but I see as character.”
Cassie and Leigh – along with their children, Lewis 10, Evie, 8, and Grace, 6 – spent 12 months gutting the interior of the building, replacing roof trusses, flooring and adding a new slab in the centre.
“Fortunately, being farmers we did have access to heavy machinery, and it was a lot of hard work,” Cassie said.
“Leigh and I, with help from Leigh’s dad, had to work out a way to get into the centre of the building and then jackhammer out the floor, and I’m pretty sure it was at this point that my father-in-law was really questioning what I was doing and thinking it was insane.”
Throughout the renovation, locals were keen to know what was planned for the cottage, and many were pleased it was being given a new lease on life.
“We had a lady pop in one day and ask what we were doing, she was worried the building would be demolished,” Cassie said.
“She had lived there as a child, along with, I think nine siblings, all part of the Salter family.
“It really was like almost a sense of responsibility to the community to do something here with this old building.
“It was like it belonged to the community as well, and we haven’t really felt that before, nobody sees what you’re working on out at the farm.”
It took loads of hard work, many weekends, lots of problem solving and crunching of numbers, but the outcome is fresh and welcoming.
“We were really specific about the brief, we wanted it to be a really nice, inviting space, almost like a home so that people come in and have that sense of ownership and want to come to work because it’s nice and it’s warm and it looks good,” Cassie said.
“We wanted space and lots of light, a place that is comfortable and inclusive.
“We really encourage people to become part of a work community, and create almost a little business hub of its own where people can chat in the kitchen, have someone to say ‘hi’ to when they arrive at work, and really have a sense of place.”
Cassie is keen to also encourage others into ‘having a go’ at their own business, particularly women, and has plans to expand the outdoor shed area into a larger, useable space suitable for workshops, group interactions or any activity that required a “blank” space.
“It’s a goal of mine to see women in particular, but men too, to succeed and have confidence to put themselves out there and have a belief that they can succeed in their own business,” Cassie said.
