In the heart of the Australian countryside, Donna’s journey began, shaped by the vast landscapes of Queensland, where her father worked as a station manager in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Her early childhood unfolded in this rugged outback, with her family leaning on the services of Dr John Flynn, the renowned doctor of the Royal Flying Doctor Service. It was a life that rooted her deeply in the rural world, and she later carried those ties into adulthood when her family moved to New South Wales, settling on a farm with cattle and sheep.

Donna’s path to The Woolshed Australia, her clothing business, was as unyielding as the terrain she grew up in. Life was not always generous. Since 2004, Donna has largely been a single mother to her five children. In her words, hard work has been not just a necessity but a defining theme of her life. “The symbol of a woolshed is emblematic of hard work,” she explains, tying it to both the Australian economy’s deep roots in the wool industry and her personal history.

By 2017, Donna had purchased a small farm in the Central West of New South Wales, a harsh yet fertile region known for its extreme weather and prized Merino wool. 

An experiment with converting a disused horse stable into an Airbnb yielded success, but it was the cold winters that pushed her in a different direction. “It was more than a little ironic that I couldn’t find any decent knitwear to keep my family and I warm during winter,” she recalls. That irony sparked the idea for The Woolshed Australia. Armed with retail experience and $5,000, she opened her first store in the small town of Molong, on the Mitchell Highway, in April 2018. Stocking a mix of Australian, New Zealand, and Irish heritage garments made from Merino, possum, and alpaca, Donna recalls the beauty of those early days.

But by October of that same year, tragedy struck. During the biggest field day in Cabonne Shire, Donna received the devastating news that her eldest daughter had taken her life after a long battle with depression. A single mother left grappling with unimaginable grief, Donna faced the choice of giving up or carrying on for the sake of her remaining children. “It was the mother in me that galvanised me to carry on,” she says. “I gave myself the pep talk I needed. I have to make the right choices, I have to be strong, I must not give up. My children deserve the best me.”

Returning to work, she leaned on the support of her community in Molong.
It was this resilience and the kindness she encountered from the people around her that helped her not only keep The Woolshed Australia open but also expand it.

By August 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Donna had relocated The Woolshed Australia to the Gold Rush town of Kyneton, Victoria. The town’s historical architecture and artisanal spirit appealed to her, and with the same tenacity, she opened her store on Piper Street. “The INCREDIBLE generosity and kindness of community members,” she notes, were pivotal to this new chapter.

The landscape of Australia remains a significant source of inspiration for Donna. She tears up when reading My Country by Dorothea Mackellar, and the wide skies and natural beauty of her home are woven into the fabric of The Woolshed Australia. The store also doubles as an art gallery, with works by Miodrag Jankovic, an Australian landscape artist, hanging on the walls. “These works take my breath away,” she says, deeply moved by the natural scenes they depict.

Running a business in the wool and natural fibres sector comes with its own set of challenges, particularly as Australian manufacturing has been on the decline. “It’s more expensive, but it’s worthwhile knowing that the wool in these garments supports local farmers, wool brokers, mills, manufacturers, and designers,” Donna explains. And yet, Australian wool is revered worldwide, often found in the most luxurious garments produced in Italy and beyond.

Sustainability is also central to Donna’s ethos. She is a firm believer in stocking natural fibres like linen and silk, which regulate body temperature and are biodegradable. She works with suppliers on an indent basis, ensuring only enough stock is produced to meet demand, avoiding the wastefulness of overproduction that plagues the fast fashion industry.

As for the future of The Woolshed Australia, Donna’s vision is clear: continue to offer quality products, serve the community, and, perhaps most importantly, give back. Each year, she donates up to $20,000 in value to her local Kyneton community, contributing to initiatives like the Kyneton Kindness Collective, which provides daily meals to those in need.

In Donna’s world, kindness is a form of currency, and it is her community, not just her business, that she tends to with the same care and dedication that has marked her life from the beginning.

The Woolshed Australia
2/14 Piper Street, Kyneton
@thewoolshedaustralia
thewoolshedaustralia.com

Story by Mahmood Fazal
Photos by Chris Turner