Day my life changed: How Operation Flinders changed Kim Vanstone’s life

The bullying Kim Vanstone was subjected to as a child was horrendous. Then a surprise trip to the Aussie outback helped her confront her past and create a bold new future.

Marketing Manager Kim Vanstone at Operation Flinders on Yankaninna Station. Picture: Brad Fleet

In 2015 Kim Vanstone was a fortnight into her new job as head of marketing at a business advisory firm when she was handed an assignment which would change her life.

I was asked to fill in for my boss and hop on a plane and head to the middle of nowhere.

The following week, I was on a small aircraft, flying over the red dirt.

We landed in Leigh Creek, and I was just terrified; I hadn’t known what to pack or what to do, or where I was going.

We drove over an hour to Yankaninna Station and I remember being so shocked at what I saw.

It was this huge base camp, filled with volunteers, facilitating this amazing program for young people from challenging backgrounds, Operation Flinders.

We went out into the field, on to the property, and visited teams from different schools, including Murray Bridge High.

Marketing manager Kim Vanstone at Operation Flinders on Yankaninna Station. Picture: Brad Fleet

I remember sitting there going, “My God, these kids remind me of my friends growing up and the things I experienced” … I’m originally from Murray Bridge.

Some of them were talking about how their parents were drug addicts, or they didn’t want to go to school because they were bullied.

My mum is Asian and my dad is white, and there was a lot of racism and bullying at school when I was a kid.

I was severely bullied to the point where I had to go into teachers’ classrooms at lunchtime to hide from other kids.

Kids would put dead mice in my schoolbag.

I remember one day, a whole class wrote a letter about how I shouldn’t be here anymore, and not just at the school, but on this planet.

I had an amazing mum and dad and moved between schools, because of the bullying, before I was sent to an all girls’ school in Adelaide.

I remember talking to these kids at Operation Flinders and going, “I see you, I get it.”

They would tell me, “I don’t want to leave here, because there’s so much going on at home”, “This person’s taught me how to tie a knot”, “This person held my hand as I walked up a hill” and “My parents don’t even know we are here, because they don’t care about me. They signed the consent form, but have their own struggles” – some of the extreme cases.

That day, I grew up really quickly, and I found purpose …

I was saying to myself, “Everyone needs to know about this huge thing that’s happening nine hours from Adelaide.”

When I got home, I struck a deal with my boss, and said, “Every second Friday, I want to spend half a day helping Operation Flinders.”

There were only six staff members at the foundation at the time, so it was a really small organisation, but still helping over 500 kids a year.

I did that for two years straight before I gave notice at the business advisory firm.

Operations Flinders participants Shanae and Dakota and Kim Vanstone. Picture: Supplied

My boss said, “I bet you have a job with Operation Flinders” and I said, “Not yet!”

I connected so deeply with the foundation that every week I called the CEO at the time and asked him for a job.
(After three months Kim had a part-time position in admin and payroll. Within a week she was made full-time, and her role soon morphed to include her skill set.)

Coming from a marketing-comms background, and especially PR, you’re trained to look at brand and image, you’re selling something.

But Operation Flinders was about a story and the story was meaningful … thousands of kids’ stories.

My job was to connect the public to the person, not the public to a product.

In my eight years on staff, I have learnt so many skills, from changing flat tyres to learning to read complicated maps and navigate across a huge station from memory.

Five years ago I started flying planes as a hobby because I figured it would get me to the station faster!

Kim Vanstone. Picture: Supplied

Kim Vanstone. Picture: Supplied

I wear my heart on my sleeve, and it’s a real privilege to engage with a young person, sit at their level but also be a role model, an adult who respects them.

Even though I’m not on the front line as a social worker or volunteer, knowing I have this tiny role in a huge machine is really significant to me.

When the kids arrive at Yankaninna Station, they’re greeted by the volunteers and, through our funding, they are all given a sleeping bag.

People ask, “Why do you keep the tags on them?” and it is because some of these young people have never received anything brand new in their life, either because they’re from such poor families, or they’re one of five, six or seven siblings, or they’re just not cared for.

These young people get to unwrap this gift, on the side of the road, that’s theirs to keep.

Years later, we find out that they use it as their quilt at home, that it is the only thing keeping them warm at night … the sleeping bag with the Operation Flinders logo is cherished.

I have also got the best office, a 634 square kilometre office.

We cruise around in utes and we’re out in the bush. We wear boots, don’t wash our hair for days, and we come back smelling like campfire smoke.

At what other place can you be a marketing manager and do that? It’s the best.

Originally published as Day my life changed: How Operation Flinders changed Kim Vanstone’s life