Nominees for Gold Coast Bulletin’s 2024 Woman of the Year awards, presented by Harvey Norman
While most people steer clear of snakes, Caitlan Hudson specialises in wrangling the Gold Coast’s most ‘misunderstood’ characters. Read her story.
Women of the Year
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While most people steer clear of snakes, Caitlan Hudson specialises in wrangling the Gold Coast’s most ‘misunderstood’ characters.
While most people steer clear of snakes, Caitlan Hudson specialises in wrangling the Gold Coast’s most ‘misunderstood’ characters.
Nominated for the Gold Coast Bulletin Woman of the Year Awards by Harvey Norman in the Environmental Warriors category, presented by City of Gold Coast, Ms Hudson and her husband founded a snake-catching business during Covid-19.
“We found out we both lost our jobs during Covid and I said to him, ‘Why don’t we invest marketing effort behind the business and actually make it a full-time gig and be the Gold Coast snake catchers?’,” she said.
“Within a year, we’d more than replaced his income to find another job.”
Ms Hudson said she loved snakes and it was important to her that they were removed from strife safely.
“We love snakes because they’re a very misunderstood animal,” she said.
“They’re our biggest killer of rats and mice and rodent population control … it’s a balance in the ecosystem.
“People (have to) understand that we’re living in their habitat. We have to live in harmony with them because they are part of our system and the way we live.
“We attract rodents and mice being humans and having homes and restaurants and food, so we make sure there’s a balance in the ecosystem by having people who can conserve snakes and safely relocate them so they can live in harmony.”
Ms Hudson said she’d like to speak to school students in the future to educate them on working with wildlife and conserving it.
“The reason we love it so much and why I have such a passion for it is that we’re doing something valuable for the community,” she said.
“It would be great if I could go into schools and just chat to kids about how cool snakes really are, and the opportunity of working with our wildlife and conserving it and loving it for the future generations to come.
“We want generations ahead to know that snakes are something we can live in harmony with, that Aussies shouldn’t be scared.
“We can live among them and live freely and that they’re not out to get us.
“We really put in the most we can for conservation and better understanding so that future generations coming through have that love and respect for the species and they don’t become endangered.”
The winners of the Gold Coast Bulletin Women of the Year awards by Harvey Norman will be unveiled at a glitzy ceremony at The Star Gold Coast on November 16.
Pru Wilson - nominated for Champions of the Arts category presented by We Are Phoenix
Pru Wilson has worn many different hats in the local arts community.
Taking on roles such as producer, choreographer, dancer, director, photographer, videographer, adjudicator, dance convenor and stage manager, you name it and she’s done it.
And it’s that life immersed in the game that has seen Ms Wilson nominated for the Gold Coast Bulletin Women of the Year Awards by Harvey Norman in the Champions of the Arts category.
Ms Wilson said she worked in London and Melbourne before returning home to the Gold Coast a few years ago.
“I moved back to the Gold Coast in 2017 and made the decision to go more into producing, opposed to performing.
“When I finished school, I lived in Melbourne for nearly seven years, and then London for nearly three and I was performing all through that time,
“When I came back, I felt like I’d had a really good run, and it’s time for me to kind of do the other side of things,” she said.
Ms Wilson said she found producing really rewarding and helping performers reach their potential incredibly fulfilling.
“It’s probably one of the most fulfilling things ever, just watching the journey. I always find that the journey is, like my favourite part, not necessarily the outcome.
“Going on that process and following along and assisting and helping where I can, that’s just incredible to watch,” she said.
Ms Wilson said she first moved away from home because there wasn’t a big arts scene on the Gold Coast.
“I didn’t really think there was any arts here when I finished school, that’s why I moved away.
“It took me a little bit of time, but [when I moved back] I realised there was so much more here.
“There was so much support around it as well, which I think, the Gold Coast is so lucky to have all the support from the city [council],” she said.
Recently Ms Wilson has worked on the AACTA Awards at HOTA, Award winning production Roller Coaster and Those who Rock at HOTA outdoor stage for Everybody Now – a local arts organisation.
Add to that producer and dance convenor for the Gold Coast Eisteddfod, where she herself was once a competitor.
The winners of the Gold Coast Bulletin Women of the Year awards by Harvey Norman will be unveiled at a glitzy ceremony at The Star Gold Coast on November 16.
Charlotte Caughlan - nominated for the Champions of Sport category presented by Harvey Norman
When Charlotte Caughlan moved to the Gold Coast she desperately missed her old running group so much that she created her own one.
Ms Caughlan left Sydney nine years ago to come live on the Gold Coast.
Nominated for the Gold Coast Bulletin Woman of the Year Awards by Harvey Norman in the Champions of Sport category, Ms Caughlan is passionate about helping people realise their potential.
“I’ve seen people that could probably run five kilometres at park runs to moving to 10km runs, half marathons and even full marathons.
“I’ve always kind of had this value of, I’m happy to believe in you before you believe in yourself, and so it’s amazing when I see them achieve those big goals,” she said.
As the co-founder and director of the Coffee Runners, Ms Caughlan said she had built a “pretty awesome community”.
“It’s a social connection, seeing what they’re physically and mentally capable of doing, the friendship groups, I just love fostering all of that.
“It’s for everyone,” she said.
“I’ve had a few people reach out saying they’ve been kind of part of our page for a little while, but have been nervous to turn up.
“I alway encourage them to come out because there’s no intimidation, it’s very much a group environment where people really support each other and believe in each other,” she said.
Ms Caughlan’s running group is also a three-time Club Challenge winner of the Fisiocrem GC30 Main Beach, with more members entered than any other club at the 2022, 2023 and 2024 events.
“We’ve also won the club challenge three times at the Gold Coast running Festival at Robina.
“It’s funny, we’ve won a few little events, which is nice because in a couple of them, we’ve been given prize money and so that’s usually our end-of-year spending money,” she said
Ms Caughlan’s group generally runs on Thursday and Saturday.
The winners of the Gold Coast Bulletin Women of the Year awards by Harvey Norman will be unveiled at a glitzy ceremony at The Star Gold Coast on November 16.
Cleo Massey - nominated for the Wellness Warriors category
Cleo Massey made a big splash on Australian TV screens in the wildly popular series H20: Just Add Water but admits she no longer feels defined by that role.
Nominated for the Gold Coast Bulletin Woman of the Year Awards by Harvey Norman in the Wellness Warriors category, actor turned business owner and public speaker, Ms Massey said she hopes to guide and inspire everyone she interacts with through her business.
“I like to create a really safe space for everyone, the non-judgmental atmosphere, whether they’re my in-person events or online.
“It’s such a beautiful space to be where these women just share some really personal things that not only it doesn’t only help them when they get answers and advice from other people, from me, but it helps other people to not feel so alone,” she said.
Ms Massey is the founder of Pass Around the Smile, a blog and store designed create positivity, inspiration and self love, and said she fell into it almost accidentally.
“After [H20] I was auditioning all the time, and the constant rejection and competitive nature of the industry just really started to get me down.
“I was just craving hope and positivity and guidance and stuff that made me feel good and I kind of realised that all that was making me feel that way was what I was learning and reading about, self love and meditation, self development, the law of attraction, manifestation like that was lifting me up.
“I decided to write about it on a blog, and slowly but surely, people started to resonate with and like what I was writing,” she said.
Ms Massey said eventually the blog got bigger and she was able to expand.
“I got invited to speak at an event about the topics that I wrote about on my blog and I spoke at this event, and it was like a fire lit up inside of me,” she said.
“From there, I started my own Pass Around the Smile courses and events where I would speak and teach about self development, spiritual development, manifestation.
“I would hold women’s circles, meditation nights, and my community slowly was growing and then I decided I wanted to make my own deck of cards, because I always loved oracle cards. From there, it just kind of snowballed, and I’ve worked really hard with Pass Around the Smile, but at the same time, it’s never felt like work, because I think there’s just so much passion is behind it.
“Pass Around the Smile started off as a blog about the law of attraction and it seems woo-woo but there’s so much science that backs it. The law of attraction is like the placebo effect in medicine, it’s literally science, it’s energy attracting energy so I love to talk about the science behind it all.”
Ms Massey, who recently had a daughter, said she believes women are stronger when they’re together.
“We all feel the same things, we all go through the same things, we all need help, we all need to be inspired from time to time.
“I think when we can lift each other up, it’s just it’s so powerful, my only hope for [my daughter] is that she has beautiful friends and a beautiful community around her, because I think it is the most important thing,” she said.
Pass Around the Smile sells oracle cards, clothing, crystals, journals, meditations and courses alongside Ms Massey’s blog.
Carina Napier- nominated for the Stars of Tourism category presented by Experience Gold Coast
The car industry is generally heavily dominated by men but Carina Napier said she’s earned her stripes.
Nominated for the Gold Coast Bulletin Woman of the Year Awards by Harvey Norman in the Stars of Tourism category, sponsored by Experience Gold Coast, Ms Napier – who is the general manager of Norwell Motorplex – said she had to work hard to earn respect in her field.
“When I was new to the industry and I was learning, I’d be sitting at a table and I wouldn’t be acknowledged.
“At first people would ring [Norwell Motorplex] and they wouldn’t want to speak to me, they’d want to speak to Paul Morris because he’s won Bathurst, he’s got the credentials.
“I’ve had to earn my stripes in this position that I’m in, and now people ring him asking for me and I’ve been able earn that respect on my own,” she said.
Norwell Motorplex is a purpose built driver training facility and is Australia’s leading multi-use motoring venue equipped with driving facilities including a 2.1km track circuit, skid pan, 4WD track, mechanical turntable, conference facility and workshop.
Ms Napier said she is extremely passionate about tourism and bringing visitors to the Gold Coast.
“We have been the chosen facility to launch vehicles, so these car manufacturers fly people in from all over Australia, New Zealand, and even we had people from China and Thailand.
“People get flown here to get their first opinions on the GWM car and what these people do is they fly their families in so they’re having a holiday and a vacation on the Gold Coast while they’re having a car launch here at Norwell.
“It’s bringing all these businesses that wouldn’t come to the Gold Coast unless our venue was here.
“An example of that was Sony this year did their new camera launch with all their influences, they booked out the whole QT for five nights.
“Usually they go overseas for this event, but they came because they wanted to tick off motorsport,” she said.
Ms Napier said she was honoured to have been nominated for the Woman of the Year awards.
“I just feel really, really grateful for the acknowledgment more than anything … to be recognised and be part of an all female group is really special, I’m really touched,” she said.
Nominations have now closed for the 12 categories in the Gold Coast Bulletin Women of the Year awards and the gala presentation night will be held on November 16 at the Star Gold Coast.
Melissa Inglis - nominated for the Professionals category
The powerhouse partner of a leading Gold Coast litigation firm admits the building and construction industry, from a lawyer’s perspective, is still “male dominated”.
However, Melissa Inglis says she is thankful for the incredible male mentors she had when coming through the ranks.
“I was really fortunate that my best mentors were males and that wasn’t a deliberate choice, it was by chance that I found myself in firms where I had really fantastic males that I looked up to,” she said.
“I did have a lot of other women around me, and we supported each other and championed each other.
“I was lucky enough to find it wasn’t about whether I was male or female, and it wasn’t about whether I was going to get married and have children, it was about my work ethic and it was about my focus and my diligence in what I did.”
NOMINATE BY 5PM SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21
Having started practising law as a 20-year-old, Ms Inglis is now a partner and part-owner of Rose Litigation Lawyers and has been nominated for the Professionals category for this year’s Gold Coast Bulletin Women of the Year Awards by Harvey Norman.
She told the Bulletin that she was originally going to pursue property law but started in litigation and never looked back.
“My specialty is in the property litigation, body corporate work, and then the building and construction space as well.”
Ms Inglis said it was encouraging that more women were entering her field.
“More and more women are coming into the legal profession. I think the statistics are something like 62 per cent of new admittees into the profession are female,” she said.
“There’s also been a huge increase in the amount of women who are either builders or tradespeople or are heavily involved in the contract administration and business side.”
As for the Gold Coat professional community, Ms Inglis said: “I think the best thing that we can do as leaders and women on the Gold Coast is really focus on not just supporting one another, but really being there to lift each other up.
“When you see an opportunity that you can give some time back to a junior person on your team, do it.
“To be able to give that opportunity to get some work experience and give my time and share the knowledge that I could is something that’s really, really valuable.”
NOMINATE BY 5PM SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21
Ms Inglis has previously also held a range of community roles. Between 2011 and 2018, she held the position of vice president of Young Professionals Gold Coast, a not-for-profit organisation.
She has also previously held roles on the Queensland Law Society’s Early Career Lawyers subcommittee, made contributions to the monthly QLS ‘Proctor’ publication and held a committee position with the Gold Coast chapter of Women of Influence.
Nominations for 12 categories in the Gold Coast Bulletin Women of the Year awards by Harvey Norman close on September 21 – you can self-nominate.
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