Meet the South Coast’s most powerful people
The most powerful and influential people on the south coast are not just changing their own towns, but their nation – and in some cases, the world.
The South Coast News
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The most powerful and influential people on the south coast are not just changing their own towns, but their nation – and in some cases, the world.
Business leaders, artists, sports stars, designers, policy makers and advocates are among the most powerful people on the south coast.
These are the most powerful and influential people from our region.
TERRY SNOW
Billionaire Terry Snow is one of Australia’s richest people, and the executive chairman of Capital Airport Group, which operates Canberra Airport.
Snow became a billionaire in 2017, thanks to a bumper increase in the value of his property around the capital city's main airport.
He invested more than $2 billion developing the airport and building office and industrial parks on the 1,062 acres of surrounding land.
Snow trained as an accountant but worked as a property developer in the 1980s with his father, Bob, and his brother George. After the family business was sold Snow used his share of the proceeds to buy the 99-year lease on the airport for $40 million in 1998.
Snow opened his Willinga Park equestrian centre at Bawley Point on the south coast in 2017.
While Willinga Park aims to attract the best eventing, campdrafting and showjumping competitors from Australia and the rest of the world, more recently the well-manicured park was the evacuation point for many animals as the Currowan bushfire threatened the Bawley Point, Kioloa and Termeil communities in December 2019.
Snow is also the owner of Capital Property Group which is responsible for the development of Denman Prospect, a masterplanned community in the Molonglo Valley in the ACT, the first Australian suburb to have a minimum requirement for solar power generation on every home.
NOOKY
Nowra born and bred Corey Webster, or Nooky as he‘s known in the music world, is a Yuin man quickly making waves in the burgeoning Australian music scene.
His 2019 debut EP Junction Court is named after a place close to his heart and tells the story of being a young, black south coast artist living through the grief of racism, losing his cousin and overcoming addiction while sharing his culture with a wider audience.
His music was inspiring the next generation of artists all along the south coast long before he joined The Herd for Triple J‘s Like A Version and took the stage alongside legendary duo A. B. Original at Subsonic festival.
Nooky has collaborated with Taboo of Black Eyed Peas fame, and even interned at Harvard University, where he worked on a Broadway production.
After last year’s bushfire devastation Nooky threw his own charity event called ‘Coastchella’ in Nowra, and he is also a member of Muggera Cultural Enterprise, a family group sharing Indigneous culture through traditional dance, song and art.
He won the Australia Council‘s prestigious Dreaming Award at the National indigenous Arts Awards in 2016, and signed to the Bad Apples imprint label in the same year.
In 2021 he will be releasing the Lyrebird Park EP, and in true Nooky style, it is named after a Nowra football field where many young south coast dreams are forged.
BARRY IRVIN
Chairman of blue chip company Bega Cheese Barry Irvin has overcome a recent battle with aggressive bowel cancer to oversee one of the company’s biggest expansions.
Since 2000 Bega has grown from a small regionally-based dairy company to one of Australia’s biggest food companies.
This year the company completed its $534 million takeover of Lion Dairy and Drinks, seeing it grow from four to 15 dairy factories, two juice plants, and a joint venture ownership of Canberra‘s Capitol Chilled Foods.
The purchase, which includes big brands such as Dairy Farmers, Yoplait, Big M, Masters and Farmers Union iced coffee, has almost doubled the company, which after restructuring will see the combined group revenues jump to about $3 billion.
In 2008, Barry was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia for contributions to children with disability and the Australia dairy industry, and he is chairman of Giant Steps, an organisation providing services to children and young adults with autism.
Irvin has also received the NAB Agribusiness Leader of the Year and the Rabobank Leadership Award.
In 2017 he oversaw the $460 million purchase of the famous Vegemite brand and a handful of other grocery products from global food giant Mondelez International.
WILLIAM ZAPPA
Star of the 2020 Australian blockbuster The Dry, William Zappa was born in England but now calls the south coast village of Dignams Creek home.
Zappa takes over the screen alongside Eric Bana in the film about a man who returns to his drought-stricken hometown to attend a tragic funeral.
After getting his start in The Sullivans in 1976, Zappa has starred in everything from Mad Max 2 and Head On to A Country Practice, Wolf Creek, Operation Buffalo and Rake.
He calls the south coast home and will feature in this year’s Four Winds Festival south of Bermagui as he explores Homer’s ancient tale The Iliad.
PETER TESCH
Former Australian Ambassador to Russia Peter Tesch calls the south coast village of Candelo home when not hard at work in Canberra.
After leaving his Russian post he was swiftly promoted when he was named Deputy Secretary of the Department of Defence’s Strategy, Policy, and Industry Group.
In the role Tesch provides strategic policy advice to the government, focusing on defence capability and national security issues.
Tesch was just 31 when he became one of the nation’s youngest ever ambassadors.
He was posted to Kazakhstan in 1997 after the capital shifted from Almaty to Astana.
Tesch was Ambassador to the Russian Federation when he opened the Candelo Show on the south coast in 2017, giving a speech on Russians who have served in the Australian armed forces.
In 2018 Tesch was one of 59 diplomats from 23 countries expelled from Russia after Australia expelled two alleged Russian spies.
PHILIP COX
Dr Phillip Cox is one of Australia’s greatest architectural minds, and his latest project has been designing the main street of bushfire devastated Cobargo on the south coast.
From the Sydney Convention Centre and the Australian National Maritime Museum, to the Sir John Monash Centre in Villers Bretonneux, France, the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne and the Sydney Football Stadium at Moore Park, Dr Cox has helped designed some of the country’s most iconic buildings.
While lauded for his work that has spanned more than half a century, Cox has recently had a hand in bringing some of the south coast’s infrastructure into the 21st century.
His contributions in Bermagui include the design for the Fishermen’s Wharf for the Fishing Coop, the Sound Shell for Four Winds and the redesign of the town’s Woolworths with support from Bega Valley Shire Council.
Cox also opens his coastal retreat ‘Thubbul” near the Murrah, south of Bermagui, for the town’s famous Sculpture Bermagui festival.
“While NSW people tended to drift north in search of escape, there was very little drift south,” he said.
“The far South Coast was pretty much the playground of the Melbourne rich.
“Bermagui is a beautiful place. It has been largely forgotten and unsubdivided.
“From a selfish point of view I’m happy with that.”
CODY WALKER
South Sydney Rabbitoh five-eighth and fullback Cody Walker hails from the south coast town of Nowra.
The father of two dived into the representative scene in 2019 having played for New South Wales and the Australian Prime Minister’s XIII, as well as captaining the indigenous All Stars team.
The proud Yuin and Bundjalung man also does a lot of charity work, particularly within the indigenous community.
The Walker family is making waves in the football world, with Walker’s younger brother Ryan making the Penrith Panthers squad and his cousin Shannon is a prominent Gold Coast Titan.
TURIA PITT
The wonder woman from Milton-Ulladulla is an inspiration for people across the globe through her sheer willpower to overcome incredible adversity.
In 2011, age 24, Turia was an ex-model, fitness junkie and successful mining engineer when she was caught in a freak firestorm while competing in a 100km ultra-marathon in Western Australia. She was choppered out of the remote desert barely alive, with full thickness burns to 64 per cent of her body.
Surviving against overwhelming odds is the least of her achievements.
Turia has gone on to thrive in the ultimate story of triumph over adversity.
The best-selling author and influencer, with almost one million Instagram followers, is one of Australia’s most adored women.
While her brand and story has gone international, she has never forgotten her South Coast roots.
In the aftermath of the ‘black summer’ bushfires Turia and a friend used her social influence to encourage people to Spend With Them after the terrible summer.
KAI OTTON
Hailing from the south coast town of Tathra, Kai Otton took the small hamlet to the world stage.
Otton began surfing at the age of 12, after his father swapped his bodyboard for a surfboard and he never looked back.
After breaking onto the world tour in 2007 at the age of 24, Otton took out the Rip Curl Pro in Portugal when he beat Julian Wilson, and ended the year ranked number seven in the world.
He honed his skills on south coast waves, and after failing to qualify for the 2017 World Tour, he retired and moved back to his hometown.
OSSIE CRUSE
Now in his 80s, Uncle Ossie Cruse has been fighting for human rights for decades, taking his voice as far as to the United Nations.
In 2017 he made the trek to Uluru to attend the First Nations National Constitutional Convention. There, he reconnected with friends he had not seen in half a century.
He served for 13 years on NSW’s Aboriginal Advisory Council during the 1970s and ’80s, and was chairman of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council from 1996 to 1999.
At the international level he has served on delegations to the Commonwealth Heads of Government and the United Nations. For his efforts in improving cultural understanding he has been honoured with an MBE and AM.
He has worked alongside co-founder of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra Michael Anderson, and was recently made a fellow of the University of Wollongong. During the ceremony Professor Paul Chandler said he was “outstanding ambassador for cultural integrity”.
“Pastor Ossie Cruse has dedicated his life to the advancement of Aboriginal people and the survival and sharing of Aboriginal culture and knowledge, uniting generations in intercultural understanding and respect,” he said.
Ossie is a pastor at the Aboriginal Evangelical Church and continues to realise his dream for a youth camp at Jigamy Farm which has just received millions in funding from the state government.
LINDY HUME
Opera and festival director Lindy Hume was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia this year for her service to the performing arts, especially opera.
Hume calls the south coast town of Tathra home, and is the current artistic director of Tasmania’s Ten Days on the Island festival and the south coast’s Easter Four Winds Festival.
Hume has directed a number of Australian festivals and opera companies over the last 30 years, including Opera Queensland, Perth International Arts Festival and Sydney Festival, and is renowned for her innovative approaches to putting on new productions.
As a director, she has created more than 50 major opera productions across Australasia.
In Europe she has directed productions including La bohème, which was telecast live throughout Europe.
She made her American debut with The Barber of Seville at Houston Grand Opera; and in recent years she has directed new productions for Seattle Opera, San Diego Opera, Leipzig Opera, Royal Opera Stockholm, New Zealand Opera, Pinchgut Opera, West Australian Opera, Opera Queensland and in 2021, the Welsh National Opera.
FRANK MOOREHOUSE
Writer Frank Moorehouse was born in Nowra and has won major Australian national prizes for the short story, the novel, the essay, and for script writing.
Perhaps best known for his Miles Franklin Literary Award for his novel Dark Palace, his work has been published in the United Kingdom, France and the United States and also translated into German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Serbian, and Swedish.
He has been active in the defence of freedom of expression and was arrested in the 1970s while campaigning against censorship.
Moorehouse has been a chairman and a director of the Australia Copyright Agency, created by publishers and authors to co-ordinate the use of copyright, it distributes millions of dollars annually to Australian writers.
He has been president of the Australian Society of Authors and a member of the Australian Press Council.
Moorehouse was also an organiser for the Australian Journalists' Association.
COREY TUTT
Former Shoalhaven Zoo zookeeper Corey Tutt is now known nationally as the founder of Deadly Science, an initiative providing science books and early reading material to remote Australian schools.
Tutt was named last year’s NSW Young Australian of the Year for his work in science education, and was nominated for Young Australian of the Year.
In 2020, Deadly Science began assisting with rebuilding schools affected by devastating bushfires on the south coast.
Tutt provided schools which had been damaged or destroyed by fire with essential books and resources.