“I stand on the shoulders of giants,” said a humbled Rebel Black when asked about her nomination for the NSW Regional Woman of the Year Award. 

Lightning Ridge-based entrepreneur wears many feathers in her cap, running syntropic farming workshops, renting out food trucks to kickstart local businesses, and starting THE Rural Woman, to name just a few. 

It’s her recent work campaigning for funds for women in business, however, that Ms Black believes scored her a finalist spot in the upcoming awards. 

Backed by her team at THE Rural Woman, a recently transitioned co-operative that connects driven rural women through an online community, Ms Black has advocated at the state and federal level to provide pathways for procurement opportunities for women led enterprises. 

“We’re advocating on behalf of women who are struggling to get access to finance to create new pathways for access to business funds through micro financing,” Ms Black said. 

Since their campaigning began, The Greens announced at the federal level that would be adopting the policy recommendations put forward to them. 

With her hand constantly in the building of local enterprises and community success, Ms Black’s involvement was inevitable. 

“I live in a geographically isolated community and have seen the struggles firsthand of remote and isolated women in small business,” Ms Black said. 

Through her own enterprises, Ms Black has tried to offset some of the limitations that create barriers to entry for local business owners. One of her recent ventures, The Buumble Truck, allows under-resourced potential business owners to hire the food van for use. 

“Barriers to entry for business owners in small towns can often be the cost of rent. We’ve created a couple of opportunities over the years for the hire of spaces where we either do it at no cost or low cost,” she said.

“We often negotiate with our partners that if they aren’t making any profit, then we’re not either…If the rates are too high for people, they either won’t start or they won’t succeed in the long term because they can’t afford to keep the doors open. That’s why we see such a high churn rate of businesses in rural communities,” Ms Black said. 

Picking a favourite business that she has started over the years, Ms Black said, would be like picking a favourite child. 

“I feel really passionate about the work that we’ve done through THE Rural Woman…I tend to be a starter of things, so prior to THE Rural Woman, my churn rate of businesses was about two years. Whereas THE Rural Woman is now into its eight year and I feel really proud that I’ve made it that far,” she said. 

Much like her career, rural life is core to who Rebel Black is, a fitting candidate for the Regional Woman of the Year. 

“Where I live is who I am as much as who I am is where I live. I couldn’t imagine moving anywhere other than in a rural or remote community. ” she said. 

“It’s lovely to have your work recognised and acknowledged in this way, but for me, it’s given a platform for the expression of the incredible work of overall women,” Ms Black said. 

“It’s also for me an acknowledgement of the incredible women who’ve come before us and paved the way for us as our generation, and the work that we’re doing collectively, to do the same for the coming generation. It’s really inspiring.”

Ms Black and her mother will attend the NSW Women of the Year Awards ceremony next week in Sydney, where the winners will be announced. 

The awards are part of NSW Women’s Week from Monday, 7 March to Sunday, 13 March.