08 Apr 2020
Words ResortBrokers Informer Issue 97

DIVERSIFY or PERISH

We all know that life in the Outback is only for the tough, the resilient and the slightly crazy and when you speak with the operators of Curtin Springs, you realise that a healthy combination of all three of these traits is needed in this part of the world.

Set on more than a million acres, Curtin Springs is a very special part of the world owned by the Severin family which has made this remote place not just their home, but turned it into a thriving diversified business which embraces the pastoral and tourism industries. Recently they have also included the art sector.

When you consider that Curtin Springs began as one of Australia’s most remote cattle stations more than 60 years ago, it’s hard to believe this is now a vital hub in central Australia.

“The potted history is that in 1956, my father-in-law Peter Severin came out with his wife Dawn and my husband Ashley, who was then just a baby, to take over Curtin Springs Station with 1,500 head of cattle,” Lyndee Severin explains.

“Curtin Springs at that point was literally the end of the road. There was a two wheel track that led to us and less than a two wheel track that went any further out to the west from here.

“Peter and Dawn took over the station. They had an inch of rain just after they arrived. They thought that was a pretty good omen but then it didn’t rain again for nine years!

“But in those early years for Pete and Dawn, where we are now didn't exist for anyone else.

“The first year they were here, six people drove down the road. The second year, nine people. Ayers Rock (Uluru) is just to the west of us but in the 1950s it was not a tourist destination.”

Through the 1960s, “The Rock” started to attract visitors and Curtin Springs was in a great location just 100 kilometres away to capitalise on the passing traffic. There were no roadhouses or any other accommodations and initially the station provided petrol and meals and eventually it was the first Wayside Inn developed in Central Australia.

Now, it’s a million acre cattle station with 27 accommodation rooms, campground, fuel store and provides homestyle meals for visitors. It also provides private guided walks, Curtin Springs Walks, and tours onto the station. Its newest income stream is paper and jewellery, literally made from local grasses.

“We were certainly the first station to diversify in this sort of way. Now most pastoral properties in this part of the world are diversified in some way,” Lyndee Severin says.

“We chose to go into tourism and that's fairly normal now. Most primary industry businesses in the developed world have got some diversification either vertically or horizontally into their region. And we're no different.

“That diversification means that we've been able to survive those peaks and troughs in the rain cycle and be able to manage the station in a highly sustainable way to be able to work with those seasons.”

So how did the idea of paper manufacturing and jewellery made from paper come up as an idea for an additional income stream?

Lyndee says the idea began forming around 10 years ago when the tourism side of their business took a hit during the GFC which also coincided with the rapid rise in popularity of RVs and caravans.

“And then people were going to the supermarkets and buying their food, and they're looking after themselves, which is totally understandable. We had lost utilisation in our rooms, so from over 60 percent utilisation across the year to under 20 percent.

“How do we encourage people to stay in accommodation? How do we sell more meals? How do we tell that story of our unique landscape?

“How do we show people our commitment to that landscape and how you can run production hand in hand with protection? You don't have to lock up land to imply that's the only way to look after it.”

It was simply an ‘off the cuff’ comment from a scientist who was studying the decomposition rate of feral camels as part of a project to see whether there were any carbon implications that led to the idea.

“He said ‘Oh, they make paper out of the spinifex, don't they?’.

“I went ‘I've got no idea. No idea’.”

“So, when the concept of Curtin Springs Paper came up. We thought ‘Oh, that could answer some of those questions’.

“We started to mull that around and realised it was  totally doable and sustainable. We're taking very small parts off the grass plants. We're not digging up the plants. We're taking the top two thirds off any plant, keeping the root system.

“We've got a million acres, there's plenty of grass. And even in the driest times, you've still got plant material (fibre) that you can use.  There's basically no impact on the landscape at all because we're taking a very small amount of material, as we cut it all by hand.

“There's not much damage you can do with that on a million acres, let me tell you. We started making the paper and the concept was to be able to show them what we are doing.

“Our tours allow us to have a conversation with visitors about the landscape they are visiting. Our Curtin Springs Paper tours run at 10.30 and four o'clock every day. And we'll run those for one person to be able to then go and have that conversation with them.”

From that, Curtin Springs began making items like bookmarks and book covers. The idea of turning their natural fauna into jewellery hit them when one of Lyndee and Ashley’s daughters returned home.

“She came into the office one day and shut the door and said ‘Mum, I need to talk to you’. Now when an adult daughter does that, that conversation can be either heartbreaking or expensive,” Lyndee said.

“But she said: ‘I think that we can use the paper. I think that I can use the paper to make beads and then use the beads to make jewellery. I think that we can value add to what we're doing by taking it in that direction’.

“That's what she's done. So, we've got two permanent collections with different price points and level of complexity. The third collection is more art based. She she's been involved in things like Eco Fashion Week Australia, Sustainable Couture and Wearable Arts.

“Curtin Springs Paper and the jewellery collections have given us a profile in the art sector.”

In conjunction with that, Curtin Springs also runs an Artist in Residence program which has already had three international artists and 15 Australian artists.

“It means that we can spread our customer base, from purely a business point of view, across into that art sector as well.

“The whole plan was to develop Curtin Springs as a destination in its own right and not simply a support service for people going through to visit the national parks, though this is still a really big part of our business.

“Our land management practice is very strong. The diversification of businesses is very strong and we've had to do that to be able to survive.”

You don’t need to be a Bear Grylls to survive and thrive in the Outback but a positive attitude, backed up by the willingness to ‘have a go’ is definitely needed, Lyndee says.

“You've got to be flexible. You've got to. Part of the strength that we have here is I'm married to a man who goes ‘Okay, well let's just try’. His father is the same, and they've had to do that.

 “I will start off in a direction and have a list and the boys just go and make it happen. And certainly from the Curtin Springs Paper point of view, it's now an integral part of the business.

“They've done things, tried things over the years. Not everything works, but it's never going to work if you don't try.”