Struck Oil couple have great instincts to share skills

Web series is the newest of Rocky Instinct's projects designed to get children off the couch and drag their parents back outdoors.

Jessie and Malachi Conway of Rocky Instincts and Ky Furneaux stuntwoman. Picture: Jann Houley

MALACHI Conway used to work as an industrial abseiler which involved mastering complicated knots and cordage to safely dangle on the outside of buildings to clean and repair them.

Now he visits schools around the region reconnecting young people with the kind of skills their ancestors used to live on the land.

Rockhampton Regional Council announced last week that Rocky Instincts won a $5,000 regional arts development funding boost to further develop workshops in such traditional crafts as knotting and fire-making, weaving and trapping.

traditional fire making tools. Picture: contributed

Jessie Conway was delighted to learn of their business' second coup last month, having won The Morning Bulletin Best in Business Awards prize for Recreation/Entertainment on November 9.

Mrs Conway admits they took a risk in swerving off the workaday job path to set up their own passion project.

"I spent six months full-time learning how to run the business from administration and bookkeeping to marketing," said the Struck Oil ex-town planner and mother to four-year-old Micah.

Her husband agreed.

"She's the brains; I'm the rocks and sticks," Mr Conway said.

Since 2015, the couple have been retraining to run their own business.

The Morning Bulletin Best in Business Awards prize for Recreation/Entertainment. Picture: contributed

They acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which they run their seminars and film their web series: The Gangulu from what is now called Mt Morgan and the Darumbal people of Rockhampton and the Capricorn coast.

"We work closely with Aunty Christine Hatfield, Aunty Bino Toby and Uncle John Waterton so they can help us preserve their traditions," said Mr Conway, whose company's logo is Yesterday's Skills/Surviving Today.

Mrs Hatfield of Darumbal Enterprises reckons "it doesn't matter if you're black, white or brindle."

"All our ancestors from the early cavemen to early Australian settlers had country skills that have nearly been forgotten," she said.

"Rocky Instincts employed two young indigenous gentlemen straight out of school which has been really good in keeping them on a good track."

Earlier this month the couple gained an extra set of capable hands when Australia's answer to Bear Grylls arrived for a visit.

Stunt woman Ky Furneaux, star of Naked and Afraid: Swimming with Sharks, had been chatting on Instagram with Rockhampton's own survivalists while recuperating in Melbourne from a torn hamstring.

She decided to hop on her motorbike and ride up north to spend some time lending her expertise to Rocky Instincts' local endeavours.

10-part web series, Being Human, will air via YouTube and Rocky Instincts' website on December 14. Picture: contributed

Mrs Conway and Ms Furneaux attended the Project Booyah graduation last week to congratulate nine young women who camped out with them as part of their police-led program.

Ms Furneaux and Mr Conway travelled around the region filming a 10-part web series, Being Human, which will air via YouTube and their websites on December 14.

It's the newest of Rocky Instinct's many projects which are designed to get children off the couch and drag their parents back outdoors.

"We're proud to offer a range of products which make practising traditional skills more accessible to everyone," Mr Conway said.

"The best reward is when we're showing kids how to do something, such as making fire, and the parents start pushing forward, all excited to see something that their grandparents probably knew how to do."

Originally published as Struck Oil couple have great instincts to share skills