She came, she saw, she conquered, and now she’ll never leave. What was a long shot treechange for Sue Molyneaux and her family has been a sure-fire regional success.
The family landed in Griffith not knowing a soul, but soon Sue Molyneaux was part of a lively, life-enhancing town in the heart of the Riverina, 575 km away from her home of Sydney.
She is passionate about Griffith and its future and now enjoys life on a 15ha property outside town where she learnt from Murrumbidgee Irrigation on how to “alum” channel water for drinking. Sue is human resources manager at Casella Wines, one of Griffith’s biggest employers.
Some liken the carpark at Casella Wines at Yenda just outside Griffith to any large carpark you would see at Sydney airport, so large is the business. The manufacturer of Yellow Tail wines about five years ago bottled its 1 billionth bottle of Yellow Tail wine, having been started by the Casella family back in 1969. Its wines are sold around the world.
Mrs Molyneaux has become part of the Casella story. She says working in a regional area gives you confidence and builds up family values. Often when a worker joins Casella, the business will do anything to find the spouse or partner a job in Griffith as well, and they are shown around town like welcome visitors.
She quickly learnt about all the intricacies of living in Griffith, with references to top block, middle block and little block at first confounding her - especially for a city designed by the great architect Walter Burley Griffin, who also designed Canberra.
“I came from Sydney and I didn’t know a soul, the biggest thing was when I arrived for the interview, I walked down the main street, people said ‘hello’, people were helpful,” Sue told the Next Crop Forum in Griffith.
“We didn’t know which areas to live in, real estate agents said ‘look here’ or ‘this is good’. We went out for dinner, the food had taste, it was all wonderful.
“We made a decision to move here, and yes I got a job (for a different winery at that time) and we made our decision based on how we were treated that first day we came here.” Now you couldn’t shoehorn the Molyneauxs out of Griffith.
“People say there is a clique in Griffith. I say I’ve never seen it, never experienced it. It is a great place to be. Some people said ‘oh you’ll be isolated’, but I reply we have four or five flights out of Griffith a day, I said we’re not isolated at all.”
Mrs Molyneaux prefers video conferences to going back to Sydney.
“To get me back on the Rex plane to go to Sydney, I won’t go, I’d rather do a teleconference or what else, because I don’t like going back to Sydney anymore even though I lived there most of my life.
“It is great living here, yes there is a housing issue at the moment, and people are struggling to get a rental, but people are putting rentals up now because they know there is a shortage and council is releasing more blocks, but it is a great place to live, it’s wonderful.
“When people consider moving here I give them my own personal story so they know it’s real. When they come here we look after them, we take them round, we show them the different types of schools that we’ve got, I take them up main street and tell them what ‘top block, middle block and little block’ means. We do need to get more people here and I struggle on how we can do it. We need to really promote it, we’re doing grow our own, the private hospital is fabulous. It’s a great place to live and a great place to bring up kids.”
Griffith City council says Griffith is a “vibrant, cosmopolitan city with a population of 26,000 people”. “The city’s unmistakable Italian heritage is evident in the great range of rustic cafes which dominate Banna Avenue”.
On August 26, the town celebrates salamis with its annual “Festival of the Sausage”.
John Ellicott
journalist and author
journalist and author
