oUR MOVITVATION

My name is Josephine Cashman and I am a proud Australian. I am honoured to be a descendant of the Warrimay Aboriginal people from the New South Wales, mid north coast whose land extended from north of Forster to Port Stephens, into Gloucester and the Barrington Tops. According to oral history, Warrimay lands were originally bounded by four rivers, the Hunter River to the south, the Manning River to the north and the Allyn and Patterson Rivers to the west. The Warrimay tribe was comprised of 18 clan groups (ngurras) with their lands fallingl within the area of the Maiangal ngurra and the Warrimay people spoke the Gathang language. Traditionally my people used Stockton Bight to travel between the northern and southern parts of our land, known as Birubi Point to the north and Stockton to the south. 

I have sustained a continual connection with my land and I am equally proud of my Colonial ancestors who have been in Australia for more than six generations, living on the mid north coast of NSW. One colonial ancestor, William Henry Ralston McClymont was born in Newcastle on 30 August 1828 and was amongst the first Europeans born in Australia. His family established the first Newcastle Inn. Henry Carmichael was William McClymont's stepson and he belonged to the group who founded adult education in Australia. He established the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts in 1833 and the Newcastle School of Arts in 1835. In 1838 he moved his family to the fertile farmland of the Hunter Valley and planted vineyards on his property at Porphyry Point, near Seaham. These vines were to become the finest on the Williams River and soon became well known in the colony. My Carmichael ancestor helped establish and was President of the Hunter River Vineyard Association and became a leader in the NSW wine industry.  

Martyn has worked across the Asia Pacific region for more than 15 years as a finance executive in positions of CFO, COO and Management Consultant. He has experience across multiple industries including cloud software, human capital, management consulting and airport infrastructure. He has developed and mentored finance and operation teams across Asia Pacific and built multiple shared service centres supporting the region.  Martyn has been instrumental in the development of the cloud accounting software vendor SAASU.com and the IOT software vendor Simble.com. He has assisted multiple software companies through mergers and acquisition activities including sale and eventual listing on the ASX. Martyn advised and assisted Cairns, Mackay and Queenstown Airports to raise $700 million in bank funded debt and has developed strategic plans and assisted executive leadership teams with 30 year airport master plans. Martyn also advised the Solomon Islands government on leading the aviation reform agenda to transform its State owned airports into private corporations. Martyn has worked with multiple Indigenous tourism businesses in the Northern Territory and has been a trusted advisor to Josephine. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Canberra and is a qualified Member of CPA Australia and he is an ASIC registered agent.