Seeing a need for competition in the market in Karratha, I commenced the Pilbara Echo with an aim to support local small business and community groups with affordable advertising options.The secondary aim of the newspaper was to be fully independent - trialling a newspaper without the need for journalists, written entirely by submissions from the public. Our first publication was a mere 16 pages A4 size - and just 4,500 copies.We now cover the entire Pilbara region from Exmouth in the west to Port Hedland in the East with a strong focus on our home territory of Karratha. We now produce 14,500 copies weekly and have in excess of 3,000 unique visitors a week viewing the newspaper online. Prior to the GFC, we also produced a glossy Pilbara Property Guide liftout to cater for the booming property market in the area.We have sponsored many events and community groups over the years, including the inaugural Red Earth Arts Festival, Red Dog Festival, local dance schools and sporting clubs.

From humble beginnings on a banana plantation in Carnarvon, we began making carton labels and fruit stickers for the growers of Carnarvon.Demand for our design and printing services spread up the coast to Exmouth, Karratha and Port Hedland.We eventually re-located to the booming mining town of Karratha and refocused our products to cater for the growing number small to medium size enterprises setting up in the Pilbara region. After negotiating a deal with Konica Minolta to install a production printing facility in-house we no longer had to outsource work to Perth, improving turnaround times for our clients. By 2008 we were a fully self sufficient, full service commercial printing venture servicing almost 2000 clients in the area, including the likes of Rio Tino, Woodside, Chevron, Fortescue Metals and the Shire of Roebourne. At one stage we were open 24 hours a day to cater for demand.2009 we were finalists in the Telstra business awards, coming second place for WA best micro business.In 2011 we ventured into Signage and digital large format printing, installing the first outdoor Latex printer in the region.By 2013 we had outgrown our brand and joined forces with Australia's largest printing group, Snap Print Design Website, further increasing our professionalism and product range.

Managed the creation of advertising and page layouts for the weekly newspaper.

At the young age of 17, I applied for a position as a weekend sports photographer - to no avail. Preferring to work late nights I ended up as a production trainee and shortly after production manager.In a time of change when the internet first became accessible to businesses, I was one of the first to utilise digital technology to transfer files to our printing facility at Rural Press Collie.I pioneered the first fully online newspaper in the 1997, where readers around the world were able to view the newspaper in its entirety online - well before ipads and iphones were around, and before most households had personal computers. Maybe I was a little too early for this concept!The relationships I formed during this time continue today - I still have a close connection to Rural Press / Fairfax, it's staff and the Advocate's original founder.