It's an end of an era for this man.

Peter Shearer.

After 22 years at St Joseph's School in Clare, Peter has decided to step down from the top job at the end of 2024.

Peter has touched the lives of many people across the regional South Australia working in Catholic schools in Jamestown, Yorketown, Loxton and finally Clare.
Originally from Cherryville in the Adelaide Hills, Peter didn’t care much for the classroom, preferring to be outside playing sport or working on his next-door neighbor’s cherry and lemon orchard. At one point his dream was to become a silversmith!

In this episode you’ll hear about Peter’s early childhood, his first teaching post at St James at Jamestown - a period he describes as a baptism of fire. His posting to Yorketown where he was the first male teacher employed at the school. This was followed by his first Principal gig at Saint Alberts at Loxton, where he literally built a new school.

This man doesn’t do things by halves. That drive and determination hasn’t waned over the last 22 years at St Joseph’s, Clare because he went on to build a middle school and made many other positive changes during his tenure.

Peter speaks about the absolute joys of his career, what has kept him in the job all these years, but also the heartbreaking challenges that he’s experienced along the way.

Enjoy Peter Shearer’s story.

St Joseph's School, Clare: https://stjoclar.catholic.edu.au/
Wykari Wines: https://wykariofclare.com/

To Peter, being a current parent at St Joes, it is sad to see you go, but thank you for all you’ve done in continuing to provide a strong and vibrant Catholic school community in Clare.
Annabelle

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In this episode you’re going to meet Kate Mensforth. We all call her Miss Kate, she’s the woman that's built a soaring business providing children across the Clare Valley and mid north of South Australia access to the world of dance.

Kate is the brains behind the Clare Valley School of Dance offering all modes of dance ballet, jazz, ACRO, contemporary, hip hop and even ninja kids, appealing to dancers on a recreational level but also giving them the chance to compete on the statewide stage.

Starting with 50 students in 2018 to now over 300 students, 2 campuses and 4 teachers, the business continues to grow.

This episode takes you back to Kate’s early beginnings in dance with the Johnny Young Talent Team in Western Australia, which ignited her passion for dance and performance. She then moved to Adelaide and discovered classical ballet which took her dance career to a whole other level. You’ll hear her journey from her days at Xcel Dance Studios, Footsteps Dance Company, ballroom dancing at Dance Corp, teaching at Geelong College , meeting the love of her life, Luke, at the Havelock, and then her entry into the primary teaching world which drew her and Luke up to Clare Valley in SA’s Mid north.

But this creative journey in dance has come with some serious challenges for Kate. A couple of years into establishing Clare Valley School of Dance, Kate was diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumor, followed with a diagnosis of an extremely rare auto-immune condition in her pituitary which has continued to plague her health for the past 5 years. But these experiences would have stopped most people in their tracks - but not Kate. Even during her lowest times, not once did she consider closing the doors on her beloved dance school, in fact her determination has not wavered as she continues to live out her childhood dream and create dreams for hundreds of young dancers in the Valley.

The words Amazing, Inspiring and Passionate are over-used in this day and age, but these words I would truly describe Kate Mensforth.

Enjoy!!

Clare Valley School of Dance - https://www.clarevalleydance.au/
Xcel Dance Studios - https://www.xceldancestudios.com.au/
Footsteps Dance Company - https://footstepsdancecompany.com.au/

Voice it - https://voiceit.me/

My name is Annabelle Homer, I am a former ABC broadcast journalist and presenter. I now run my own business specialising in podcasting for organisations, voice coaching and public speaking training for individuals, groups and corporates. I also MC professional events and record and produce audio memoirs for families. Reach out if any of those services interest you.

This episode is about a man who had a entrepreneurial seizure.

What was a one-man-show in agribusiness consulting, now is the Chairperson of a multi-national company called Pinion Advisory. A leading-edge national agribusiness, water and environment consulting firm with tentacles reaching across Australia and into America.

It all started in South Australia's Clare Valley.

Before Pinion, Dave Heinjus founded Rural Directions in 1997, one of the first agribusiness consultancies in the state. It started with just him and he manages over 100 people on his team. After 23 years, he led the merger integrating Rural Directions with 3 other Australian agri-consulting companies to form Pinion; Macquarie Franklin, Sunraysia Environmental and Hydroplan.

In this podcast, you’ll hear his journey from his early days working as a contractor with the Department of Agriculture, branching into self-employment with Rural Directions, the late nights, the ongoing study, balancing all that with a young family to then chairing a multi-national company.

But let’s start with Dave’s early days growing up on the family farm on the western edge of the Barossa , a farm that he still manages.

Enjoy this journey – a journey he reflects back on and can’t believe he is where he is today.

Pinion Advisory: https://www.pinionadvisory.com/
Voice it: https://voiceit.me/

About Voice it:
My name is Annabelle Homer. I grew up on a cattle station in Central Queensland and now live in the Clare Valley in South Australia with my young family. Before children, I was an experienced broadcast journalist with the ABC travelling across the country reporting on rural issues, (The Country Hour) presenting state-wide radio programs
( Late Afternoons) and reporting for ABC TV shows ( Landline and Behind The News).

I have also completed 12 years of AMEB Speech and Drama in Queensland.

I started Voice it in 2020 specialising in public speaking training which has morphed into podcasting for organisations, private audio memoirs for families, media and interview training for organisations and MC'ing events. Thank you for tapping into Voice it and I hope you stay with me as I bring you more episodes featuring the very talented business minds of the mid-north of SA.