General News
8 February, 2023
Warracknabeal in new CEO's DNA
Jason Minter might have lived locally for just a matter of weeks but already Warracknabeal “feels like home, if that makes sense”, the new Woodbine CEO says. “I’m from a small country town as well: Red Cliffs, just outside Mildura,” Mr...
Jason Minter might have lived locally for just a matter of weeks but already Warracknabeal “feels like home, if that makes sense”, the new Woodbine CEO says.
“I’m from a small country town as well: Red Cliffs, just outside Mildura,” Mr Minter said.
“It’s very similar in terms of the size and so forth.
“There’s a good feel here.”
Mr Minter arrived in Warracknabeal last month to take up the reins at Woodbine.
The move was quite a change both for Mr Minter and for Woodbine itself, which had been under the stewardship of Bernie O’Connor for the previous 12 years.
Mr Minter took charge at the end of January, having spent a couple of weeks settling in and preparing for a handover from his predecessor.
His career first in child protection, then in aged and disability care for 16 years and most recently as a director of health services has taken him up and down the east coast.
“I’ve traveled quite a bit across Australia: throughout northern Victoria, right through to Sydney and Maroochydore in Queensland to set up aged care and disability support services in those locations,” he said.
“Now, finally I’ve come on board with Woodbine.”
Perhaps part of the reason he has felt such an immediate affection for the Wimmera is genetic.
Mr Minter’s late grandmother, Alice McDowell, spent her entire life in the area.
“She was born here, with her family, at Sheep Hills,” he said.
“Unfortunately she’s passed away now, 101 years later, after a good, good innings.
“It’s a bit of an exciting time for me, coming back after many years to live in Warracknabeal.”
He said the atmosphere of Warracknabeal suited his persona.
“Having worked in many different places, from cities to rural and remote and regional locations, it’s like home.”
A keen fisherman, Mr Minter said was looking forward to joining locals throwing a line into Yarriambiack Creek.
“I’m determined to try it out to see how it goes,” he said.
“That and yabbies – I love yabbies, being a country boy.
“I hear there are many dams here bit I need to be very careful about entering without permission.”
Mr Martin is also a passionate Bombers man – an interest he shares with Mr O’Connor.
“It’s quite interesting.
“It was ironic to find out Bernie was an Essendon supporter too.”
His adult children haven’t relocated to Warracknabeal, his daughter working for Headspace in Sydney while his son completes his business and accounting degree at university in Melbourne.
That hasn’t detracted from his sense of belonging, however.
“It feels like home, even though I’ve been here four weeks,” he said.
“I’m settling in really well.
“I’d like to thank the community for their welcome.
“It’s been an honor and a privilege to come here and, hopefully, together we can make it even better.
“The staff and the community are lovely.
“They’ve all been very inspirational: everyone has an idea and they’re always prepared to have a conversation.
“It’s great.”
Mr Martin will have conversations aplenty in his new role as Woodbine continues to reinvent itself in order to provide the best possible standard of service to its clients.
“We call them ‘participants’,” he said.
Woodbine currently has about 160-170 staff in 120 full-time-equivalent positions.
It supports 115 participants – people with disabilities – across three sites: Warracknabeal, Echuca and Horsham.
The legacy he has inherited from Mr O’Connor includes not only an extremely healthy set of accounts but also the fruits of an ambitious building campaign in the past five or so years.
“My role is to follow in those footsteps: to consolidate this year and to finish the builds and see where that takes us,” he said.
“We want to set up some opportunities for the organisation so I’ll work very closely with the board to strategically plan what we need to look at over the next five years.”
In the short term, Mr Martin is overseeing a transition in the type of residential living provided by Woodbine.
“It’s a move from very poor accommodation into state-of-the-art for five participants,” he said.
“We’ll have staff living in the facility as well: one staff member at a time who’ll be awake all night.
“It’s what we call an ‘active night’ as opposed to a sleepover.
“And every room of the new build has its own toilet and shower.
“They’re like a set of suites rather than a group home.”
The assisted accommodation facility stands behind Woodbine’s main building – a structure originally known as a “hostel” but today called a “lodge”.
It is part of a $1.2 million renovation and construction project.
“This is the new way,” Mr Minter said.
“It’s something the town, the community and the participants can be very proud of.”
Woodbine maintains relationships with various services, including schools, and operates supported-working programs in areas such as gardening, cleaning, cooking and catering.
“We’ll need to review each of these their own space,” Mr Minter said.
“We need to be very mindful of the funding requirements and what that needs look like for the participants, the staff and the community going forward.
“These are questions we need to look at in more depth over the next 12 months.
“For me, it’s early days of course.”
Mr Minter has hinted that he brings to the position his own ideas for development.
“Watch this space,” he said.
“I'll work through the board, which has a mandate to look at governance and opportunities for the organisation.
“That’s a conversation we’ll have during our strategic planning as we work out where to next over the next between one and five years.”
Mr Minter is full of praise for Mr O’Connor and his leadership in the past 12 years.
“It’s certainly a set of shoes to fill,” he said.
He has been quick to prop the door open metaphorically for the departing CEO, saying: “I don’t see this as Bernie giving up his time with Woodbine, because there’s an opportunity for him to look at other ways in which he can contribute to the organisation, if he wants to.”