Meet the ladies of the laneway: How Woongarra St became hub for businesswomen

Meet the five businesswomen who found their way to single laneway and have created a network you can’t put a price on.

A quick glance along Woongarra St and you might miss it.

But true beauty lies within and that’s exactly what you’ll find if you step into laneway on Woongarra St; it’s abuzz with business, creativity, strength and art.

Five businesswomen have followed their hearts in their industries and their feet in the local business scene to find a home for their work at 53 Woongarra St.

Jane Hart Photography, St. Blonde, Wonderland Movement, Stephanie Partridge Hair Stylist and Amanda Gear Makeup and Brow Artistry are all operating out of the laneway.

While each business is separate, anyone looking to get dolled up and have their special moments captured would have all their bases covered from head to toe with a trip down the laneway.

Jane Hart opened her photography business first about two years ago, before Stephanie Partridge and Amanda Gear moved in, and then designer Lennee Graham opened the doors to St. Blonde and Alexa Young created Wonderland Movement.

With some added lights, chairs, plants and signs, the businesses are working to bring the laneway to life.

The laneway has become a space of women supporting women, providing advice, feedback and plenty of laughs on their business journeys.

Drawing inspiration from one another, they said their businesses had grown because of the network they had cultivated.

With essentially the same clients and offering different services/products, the unplanned dream has been actualised for these business owners.

Ms Hart said all that was really missing was the likes of a florist.

Ms Gear said she and Ms Partridge were stay-at-home mums running their businesses from home studios before they “decided to take a leap of faith” and move to the laneway.

For Ms Young, she’d completed her training and wasn’t set on opening a pilates studio, rather it was about personal development.

Having moved to back Bundaberg towards the end of last year, Ms Young said there wasn’t anywhere she could go to do pilates – so she created a space to do just that.

Ms Young said she “lucked out” when scoring her laneway shopfront.

“You don’t feel like you’re working by yourself even though we pretty much all do work by ourselves,” she said.

Ms Graham said moving to the laneway had been the best thing for their businesses, being able to bounce ideas off one-another and build friendships organically.

“Most of us didn’t know each other and now we’ve got this beautiful friendship that supports each other,” she said.

Ms Graham said in the laneway you never feel alone even though they have their own businesses and battles.

With each businesses an appointment basis, the laneway in the CBD but out of the main foot traffic path works wonders for them.

They said the Laneway on Woongarra Instagram page has helped promote their businesses and also been an avenue for other businesses interested in the laneway a space to reach out.

Ms Hart said the Instagram page had only been active for about two weeks and the following continues to gain followers.

She said the laneway page also provides an insight into the people behind each of their businesses to the community and a place to celebrate achievements, like Ms Partridge winning the Fraser Coast and Wide Bay Brides Choice Award 2021 for bridal hair stylist.

Here’s a closer look at the ladies of the laneway and why they love what they do:

Amanda Gear and Stephanie Partridge

Ms Gear started in the makeup artistry industry about a decade ago freelancing and now she’s predominantly working in the bridal makeup artistry sector.

Recently opening her salon in the Laneway on Woongarra St and adding brow artistry to her repertoire, Ms Gear said she enjoyed making people feel beautiful and being a part of someone’s special day.

“I’m really lucky to be in the laneway community,” she said.

“I really making people feel beautiful and the transformation for that person, but mainly I really enjoy bridal work, being a part of someone’s special day and making them feel beautiful on their wedding day.”

Operating out of the same space as Ms Gear, Ms Partridge has been working for herself for about 10 years and loves hairdressing.

“I freelance every weekend doing bridal work and during the week I’m in the salon doing cutting and colouring,” she said.

“I’ve always enjoyed making people feel good about themselves and it’s really rewarding when people come in and then they leave feeling a million dollars.”

Alexa Young

Alexa Young created Wonderland Movement and opened the doors in the Laneway.

Ms Young said pilates completely changed her life and she wanted to create a space for people to experience the same thing.

Opening the Wonderland Movement pilates, barre and reformer studio in September last year she said the flow-on effects some businesses underwent during Covid thankfully weren’t apparent.

“Like any sort of form of exercise you can do anything in any way, I think it comes down to pilates as a fundamental physiologically is so good for your body and the way that it breaks things down to micro movements that move micro muscles essentially,” she said.

“It’s low impact but high intensity, so you’re still really feeling your muscles working.

She said having the right space and teachers were really important too.

Ms Young said the name Wonderland Movement came from a desire for her business to be named after a place that represented somewhere you could go to feel good about your body and move in a way that was good you.

Ms Young has also recently brought the preloved clothes night markets to the laneway with much success.

The next preloved market is August 5, from 5-7.30pm.

Lennee Graham

Ms Graham has always had a love for sewing and her Nan was involved in the ‘rag trade’ in Sydney.

“She had run many factories and she was quite a big part of that many, many years ago,” she said.

“It had skipped a generation with my mother, and then I seem to have fallen into it quite naturally.

“I just love the idea of constructing pieces and really figuring out how things come together.

“I feel like as a designer it’s really important to understand how you build a product; it’s great being able to draw pictures and stuff like that but if you don’t understand how things are put together it can become quite a challenge when you’re putting it to pattern.”

When it comes to design, Ms Graham said she draws inspiration from anywhere and everything.

“I couldn’t say that there’s one particular thing that inspires me,” she said.

She can be inspired by something someone actually says to her, or the shape of beautiful flower.

“I never really have a plan and I find it really hard to have a plan, things will just come at me, I don’t go looking for it,” she said.

Ms Graham said the story behind St. Blonde was about making amazing garments that reflect our lifestyles.

While she loves the bridal industry Ms Graham said it can sometimes be generic which is why she enjoys bringing a non-traditional take.

She said style was currently changing and she’s excited to be working along the lines of shorter numbers, more suits and tailored looks.

Ms Graham said when she found the alleyway she didn’t anticipate it would become what it was today.

“I really just wanted a space that wasn’t home again and be able to bring clients to a private area that’s my little world,” she said.

“And it’s ended up being a lot bigger than that.”

Brisbane Fashion Month has asked her to be a part of their Brisbane Ekka show which will run for two weeks in August.

“Thousands of people will be viewing the show and it’s Queensland biggest and free runway viewing so anyone can watch it,” she said.

“To be asked to be a designer in that is quite a huge deal, I’m very honoured to participate.

“It’s a really exciting moment for St. Blonde.”

In light of all that’s been happening in the world, Ms Graham said the amount of support she had received was amazing.

She said the business had grown, and while it was hard to get fabrics she was lucky to be able to do small manufacturing in the local community, providing a product from start to finish.

With high hopes of growing the business further, Ms Graham believes this brand can be built from Bundaberg, particularly with the advantages of the internet.

She said it would be great to have a small factory set up where she could employ and train other locals how to sew and the basics of pattern making.

“I would love to get to that point and I can see that vision for St. Blonde in the near future,” Ms Graham said.

“I have no fear anymore, yeah there’s been times when I’ve hit the rock bottom and I think that being able to pick yourself up and start again is a really great thing – lots of lessons are learnt in that.

“It’s only up from here.”

Jane Hart

Ms Hart first got behind the lens about ten years ago, taking photos of her baby and other friends and family and she was met with a lot of love.

“People loved them and said maybe you should start a business, so that’s where it started and here I am,” she said.

Photographing everything from pregnancy, newborn children, cake smashing, weddings, engagements, you name it, she’s capturing it.

“I love making each session personal to them, I try to make it fun and not so much of a chore,” she said.

“A lot of the dads don’t always enjoy being there, but I try to make it fun so they enjoy themselves as well.”

Ms Hart said her photography style was minimalistic.

“I don’t like to have too much going on in the background, I think sometimes things can date so I like to keep them clean and fresh so that when people look back at them say in 10 years time, hopefully it’s still relevant and current,” she said.

She said being in the laneway and meeting the ladies of neighbouring businesses had grown all of their businesses.

For more information about each of the businesses in the Laneway on Woongarra, check out their social media pages and websites.

View the web story here.