The Post talks to Kane Bond, founder of Gippslander, a jobs board just for Gippslanders.
Kane Bond: "The big job sites lump us in with Melbourne and fail to showcase the diversity of jobs in our region." Bass Coast Post: Kane, tell us a bit about your own work history.
Kane Bond: I grew up in Victoria and worked in a radio station in Cooma, then I worked in Canberra on a talk station for about seven years. That's where I met my wife. I did a weekend program and filled in for the breakfast person when they were away. It was good fun, but Canberra's cold so we came back to Melbourne.
Post: What brought you to Inverloch?
Kane: About 10 years ago, we bought a tiny little holiday house in Venus Bay. We used to come down pretty much every weekend. We really loved getting out of Melbourne. Then during COVID, when we all got locked down, I said to my wife, we can work from home, let's move to Venus Bay, just so we can escape any craziness that might happen in Melbourne.
We actually had time to look around, spend time in Inverloch and Wonthaggi, and we really liked it. We thought, well, how do we turn our life around and spend more time here? So we bought a house in Inverloch and moved here in 2020. During COVID we got to know the neighbours and people in the community and it was actually a great experience.
Kane Bond: I grew up in Victoria and worked in a radio station in Cooma, then I worked in Canberra on a talk station for about seven years. That's where I met my wife. I did a weekend program and filled in for the breakfast person when they were away. It was good fun, but Canberra's cold so we came back to Melbourne.
Post: What brought you to Inverloch?
Kane: About 10 years ago, we bought a tiny little holiday house in Venus Bay. We used to come down pretty much every weekend. We really loved getting out of Melbourne. Then during COVID, when we all got locked down, I said to my wife, we can work from home, let's move to Venus Bay, just so we can escape any craziness that might happen in Melbourne.
We actually had time to look around, spend time in Inverloch and Wonthaggi, and we really liked it. We thought, well, how do we turn our life around and spend more time here? So we bought a house in Inverloch and moved here in 2020. During COVID we got to know the neighbours and people in the community and it was actually a great experience.
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Post: What were you doing for work?
Kane: I worked for a company where I could work from home, but it wasn't very satisfying because we were starting to grow and like the local community. I started thinking about what I could do that would allow me to survive but also get involved in the local and wider Gippsland community. |
The Post will run the Gippslander's local jobs board on our home page, focusing on jobs in Bass Coast and South Gippsland. Please let us know if you find it useful, either as a jobseeker or an employer. |
I'd always been in roles where I was involved in hiring and recruiting people. I was talking to business owners around Inverloch and Wonthaggi about some of the roadblocks they have when they're looking to hire somebody. It was really about how they can get their job ad seen by the right people. The big national job boards like SEEK really catered towards corporate jobs or just basically Melbourne stuff. On the other end of the spectrum a lot of people were posting in Facebook or social media but five minutes later something else gets posted and your job post has been buried.
That’s how Gippslander started. We started posting jobs in early 2024 and we got some good traction early. We have a good number of employers posting jobs and each month we're seeing more and more local job seekers come in. We don't do remote jobs. It has to be a Gippsland based business or a business that has an operation and people in Gippsland.
Post: But you can put your location on Seek. Why do we need a local jobs board?
Most job sites are built for big cities. They assume everyone lives within 10 minutes of an office tower, can hop on a train to work, and wants to sit in traffic five days a week. That’s not how things work here. In Gippsland, a “short commute” could mean a drive through rolling farmland, not an hour on a packed freeway. A “local job” might be in a town 20 minutes away. National job boards don’t get it.
They lump us in with Melbourne and fail to showcase the diversity of jobs in our region. They make it harder for local businesses to reach the people who actually live here. They need workers who already know the region, understand the local lifestyle, and aren’t just applying for a job they’ll leave after six months because they didn’t realise how far away it was.
Post: What trends are you seeing in local employment?
Kane: There's a much bigger demand for support workers and community and social services roles than I anticipated. Where I think we do really well, it's not really looking at lawyer jobs or corporate kind of roles, it's more for somebody who wants their first job or wants to return to the workforce after looking after kids for years. They're the jobs that we've been good at filling.
We’ve got some of the bigger employers like supermarkets, Anglicare and the Salvation Army, but I'm really focusing on coffee shops and farm hands and those kinds of roles that are under represented when it comes to advertising jobs. They're never going to pay $500 to post their job on SEEK and that's where I really want to try and focus on the smaller employers.
I got an email a week or so ago from somebody who was looking for a cleaner in Phillip Island. There's a high demand for cleaners and fortunately they got a couple of applications after posting an ad and found someone within the first couple of days.
What I'm trying to do is open up a different … not a different market but a different audience for an employer to find staff. One of the things that has really taken off is that we offer job alerts. So if I'm interested in working in retail in Wonthaggi, say, I can set up a job alert and I'll get an email when a retail job comes up. I kind of like email because there's so much noise on social media. Using email has actually been quite successful.
Post: What’s the advantage of an online job site over newspaper ads?
Kane: I think it can be quite complementary with newspapers. Depending on the job, you might try a few avenues. I think probably the big advantage is that younger people are more likely to look online
Post: But Gippslander is more than job ads …?
I'm also trying to make it a place where you can find help on how to structure your resume or write a job ad and also other places where you can promote your job in Gippsland.
Post: So you’ve actually built your own job. Congratulations!
Kane: That's what I'm aiming for. I hope within the next few months it will be. After doing this, I can't go back working for a Melbourne corporate company because this gives me so much more satisfaction when I hear stories of employers that have found somebody or somebody who's found a job through my platform. A job is such an important part of people’s lives. When you can connect two parties together that’s a great feeling.
That’s how Gippslander started. We started posting jobs in early 2024 and we got some good traction early. We have a good number of employers posting jobs and each month we're seeing more and more local job seekers come in. We don't do remote jobs. It has to be a Gippsland based business or a business that has an operation and people in Gippsland.
Post: But you can put your location on Seek. Why do we need a local jobs board?
Most job sites are built for big cities. They assume everyone lives within 10 minutes of an office tower, can hop on a train to work, and wants to sit in traffic five days a week. That’s not how things work here. In Gippsland, a “short commute” could mean a drive through rolling farmland, not an hour on a packed freeway. A “local job” might be in a town 20 minutes away. National job boards don’t get it.
They lump us in with Melbourne and fail to showcase the diversity of jobs in our region. They make it harder for local businesses to reach the people who actually live here. They need workers who already know the region, understand the local lifestyle, and aren’t just applying for a job they’ll leave after six months because they didn’t realise how far away it was.
Post: What trends are you seeing in local employment?
Kane: There's a much bigger demand for support workers and community and social services roles than I anticipated. Where I think we do really well, it's not really looking at lawyer jobs or corporate kind of roles, it's more for somebody who wants their first job or wants to return to the workforce after looking after kids for years. They're the jobs that we've been good at filling.
We’ve got some of the bigger employers like supermarkets, Anglicare and the Salvation Army, but I'm really focusing on coffee shops and farm hands and those kinds of roles that are under represented when it comes to advertising jobs. They're never going to pay $500 to post their job on SEEK and that's where I really want to try and focus on the smaller employers.
I got an email a week or so ago from somebody who was looking for a cleaner in Phillip Island. There's a high demand for cleaners and fortunately they got a couple of applications after posting an ad and found someone within the first couple of days.
What I'm trying to do is open up a different … not a different market but a different audience for an employer to find staff. One of the things that has really taken off is that we offer job alerts. So if I'm interested in working in retail in Wonthaggi, say, I can set up a job alert and I'll get an email when a retail job comes up. I kind of like email because there's so much noise on social media. Using email has actually been quite successful.
Post: What’s the advantage of an online job site over newspaper ads?
Kane: I think it can be quite complementary with newspapers. Depending on the job, you might try a few avenues. I think probably the big advantage is that younger people are more likely to look online
Post: But Gippslander is more than job ads …?
I'm also trying to make it a place where you can find help on how to structure your resume or write a job ad and also other places where you can promote your job in Gippsland.
Post: So you’ve actually built your own job. Congratulations!
Kane: That's what I'm aiming for. I hope within the next few months it will be. After doing this, I can't go back working for a Melbourne corporate company because this gives me so much more satisfaction when I hear stories of employers that have found somebody or somebody who's found a job through my platform. A job is such an important part of people’s lives. When you can connect two parties together that’s a great feeling.