Regional Heartbeat: Presence Where It Counts
Serving a regional community from a metro base, without going thin in either place.
I grew up in regional South Australia. Its rhythm sits under my week, even here in Melbourne. My weeks here feel faster, but the choices I trust start from my regional heartbeat. I have also spent parts of my adult life living regionally in two states. My challenge and joy is keeping that regional pulse while living at a city pace.
The hard part is immersion. If I lean too far into the city, I start to make assumptions and my communication speeds up before my listening does. If I sink fully back into regionality, I risk losing the catalyst of urgency my board and studio work need. So I aim to be present where it counts in both places, without spreading too thin.
Two tempos I try to hold
Regional tempo carries longer memory and face to face trust. Metro tempo brings density and reach. Both can be immensely constructive, and both can bite. I often find myself on the metaphorical state borders, in the in between.
Field note: cleavers, and what follows us
In the Adelaide Hills in regional South Australia I kept pulling cleavers from the mulch after the Cudlee Creek bushfire. Now in metropolitan Victoria the same weed threads through our garden. Different postcode, same tangle. I keep pulling. Not because anyone tells me to, but because habit and care form part of our presence in a community.
Community over comfort
Strong community has put me outside my comfort zone more than once. Sometimes it is the inconvenient but necessary shopping trip, the awkward conversation, or the listening when I feel defensive. Choosing contact over comfort is how trust grows in both places.
Present where it counts
I live in Melbourne. Our school that I work alongside as the Board Chair is in the Adelaide Hills.
At the Lobethal Lutheran School Board we work a vertical and horizontal leadership model. The vertical is clear accountability between Chair, Deputy and Principal. The horizontal is local leadership across defined roles so decisions and care stay close to the local regional community. It is not common in our sector. It has suited our context. We did not set out to be novel. We set out to be useful.
What changed for us
It was not more noise. It was a steadier rhythm. Roles are clearer, small decisions move quicker between meetings, and we stay in the governance lane. That has meant steadier support for the Principal. Presence is now a standard we can keep rather than a promise we cannot.
My presence standard
At the end of every meeting I tell the board whether I, the Chair, will be in person or online at the next meeting. Across the year I commit to being in the room for multiple meetings. When I cannot attend a community gathering or an onsite, in person meeting, our leadership model makes clear who should be there through direction and delegation, and I close the loop afterwards. I accept that being present will sometimes be uncomfortable or inconvenient, and I prepare for that.
How I keep presence without postcode
My art studio is not an add on. It renews and feeds my governance work. I keep Alert SA emergency notifications for the Adelaide Hills on my phone. I make regular calls with locals and make home and business visits when invited and appropriate. I read local media alongside metro sources. I buy locally where it matters. I am still building my Victorian circle, slowly and well. I protect studio days so the art keeps feeding the leadership. I also say yes to occasional invitations that stretch me, because community is built in those edges.
How place shows up in the art practice
My experience in landscape at mega scale becomes micro abstractions on the studio bench. I work with wood, paint and shaped forms toward abstraction rather than realistic depiction. Edges and negative space do quiet work. Composition helps decide what belongs and what can be left alone. When composition is clear, consensus comes easier.
When I am spreading thin
I know it when preparation gives way to improvising, when I catch myself translating a community instead of listening to it, and when studio time gets pushed. If two of those show up, I reset the rhythm. I confirm where I will be for the next key meeting, block a studio session, and make the call I have been avoiding. The garden gives me a shorthand: pull what does not belong, bin it for green waste, plant the next small thing.
Belonging at a distance is still belonging. Learn the rhythm of both places. Be present where it counts.
