Success stories: Victorians’ creative pivots and incredible life changes to survive lockdown

From a plumber turned dumpling tycoon, to a footy star using their wedding money on a kids sports academy, these are the epic pivots Victorians made to survive in a year like no other.

Ben, a plumber by trade, didn't allow himself to get bogged down during the COVID crisis, instead got busy making dumplings. Picture: David Caird

Across the country and the world it’s been a year like no other, but for some COVID has been the catalyst for making the biggest decisions of their lives. From beginning a business to starting a family, finding love or a new purpose, meet some Victorians have triumphed during the adversity of 2020

These are their success stories.

THE PLUMBER-TURNED-DUMPLING KING

What does a plumber call his new dumpling business?

Just Dumps, of course.

Carnegie plumber Ben Wong is only 26 but he’s well on the way to fulfilling his childhood dream of becoming a “dumpling tycoon”.

Wong is usually flat out running Platform Plumbing, but a few slow months during Melbourne’s lockdown took him from dumps to dumplings.

“When the second lockdown came we couldn’t go to anyone’s houses unless it was an emergency so it was a pretty quiet time,” Wong says.

“During COVID, I spent hours sitting at home watching Breaking Bad and folding dumplings. My friends started buying them and it took off from there.”

With batches of several hundred dumplings quickly selling out, Wong and his partner Ben Odewahn, a financial industry worker, had to get serious. Wong got his food licence and council permits to enable him to produce the food from home. This is where his day job came in handy: “Our small kitchen now has six sinks so we’re fully compliant,” he says.

Now Wong is producing 50 to 60 packs a week from scratch from his family recipe. He makes both the wrappers — which he calls the “signature element” — and the filling.

The catchy name isn’t putting too many people off, he says.

“But it’s funny, some people really detest it — usually those over the age of 60.”

The next step is to try and get supermarkets to stock them, especially those in rural areas.

“I love dumplings and I’ve been to every dumpling store in Melbourne over 10 years, so it would be a dream and a half to bring dumplings to the country,” Wong says.

It’s been a big year for Ben and Ben and their dog, who is a cavoodle called Benji.

The dumplings can be ordered through justdumps.com

AFLW Collingwood player Sharni Layton and her fiance Luke Norder have postponed their wedding due to the pandemic and instead put the money into moving to Frankston where Sharni has set up a footy Academy. Picture: Alex Coppel

FROM WEDDING BELLS TO FOOTY SIREN

Sharni Layton was shocked by how easy it was planning her Hawaiian wedding at the start of this year.

“We were going to have it where Jurassic Park was filmed and we did it all within five days of being in Hawaii,’’ the Collingwood AFLW star says.

“We were thinking this is going to be the best. It was funny in the lead up, people were saying it’s so stressful and it wasn’t at all.”

But then COVID-19 hit and Layton and fiance Luke Norder had to rethink everything.

With the money they saved from cancelling their overseas wedding they decided to buy a house in Frankston, and Layton, also a former top-flight netballer, was able to start a sports academy for children.

“We rescheduled the wedding for November back in April and we postponed again to a New Year’s Day wedding in Melbourne,’’ Layton says.

“We decided to be real adults and we pulled the trigger and bought a house.

“The amount of people who have said to us, ‘we wish we bought a house instead of blowing it on a wedding’, is pretty amazing. It’s a silver lining.”

Norder builds solar farms and is home every second weekend, which gave Layton time to work on a new project. The Layton Sports Academy is based in Frankston and she already has 30 children signed up.

“It’s a really untouched area for netball and football and I’ve had a lot of interest,’’ Layton says.

“It’s a bit of a drive to get to training (at the Holden Centre in inner Melbourne) but it’s worth it because I have that space when I get home and now lifestyle has taken priority.”

Jake and Jim started dating at the very start of pandemic in March. They went into lockdown and decided to move in together and move to Daylesford. Picture: Rebecca Michael

SWAPPING CITY FOR SPA COUNTRY

When Weekend catches up with Jake Fenton and Jim Cocks they are busy baking a loaf of sourdough.

“We’ve been growing yeasts and everything,” Fenton says.

Pre-pandemic back in February, the idea of spending the day baking together would’ve seemed not only unlikely, but impossible, as the two had not even yet met.

But fast-forward eight months and they are happily filling their new home in Daylesford with the heady scent of freshly baked bread, loving their new life having made the move out of Melbourne in September.

The duo had just started dating when Melbourne went into lockdown in March. By the time the city was locked down again in August, talk had turned to moving out of the city and in together.

“I had been pondering the idea of getting out of Melbourne for a while,” Cocks says. “I guess for me, the hopes of finding a partner, it’s a lot easier to do that in the city. So I found the partner, and thought time to get out.”

Like many usually city-based workers — Fenton, 39, is a change manager while Cocks, 33, is a business coach — the new-found ability to work remotely opened up the possibility of moving to the country.

“The biggest thing for me was corporate work, needing to be in the city,” Cocks says. “Now with COVID, a lot of businesses started to realise people are more productive when they work from home.”

Having often visited the region for the annual Chill Out festival, the duo swapped their one-bedroom flats in St Kilda and Sandringham for a three-bedroom house with “a massive backyard” for less than half the rent they were paying in Melbourne.

Having quickly settled into and loving their new life in the country, the couple are now looking to buy their own home together in the region.

indy and John Casey decided to move their family from Canterbury to Eltham after the first lockdown, something they had never considered before. Picture: Tim Carrafa

THE TREE CHANGERS

When lockdown mandated Melbourne stay at home, one family began thinking about moving to a different one.

Cindy and John Casey faced challenges familiar to many this year — two children to homeschool, the working-from-home juggle and a job in the food industry lost to lockdown — but they also found themselves re-evaluating their life.

So they opted for a tree change, swapping Canterbury’s 20-minute commute to the CBD for Eltham, a leafy outer suburb in Melbourne’s northeast.

Cindy says being stuck in the house together made her and her husband, who found work again in an essential food service, crave quality family time with their two boys, aged 12 and 16.

“You get all caught up with work and day-to-day life, whereas being in lockdown you have the time and space to think about things and value the simple things in life,” the IT worker says.

“We thought we’d really love to have a house with more space, a pool or some other features that would encourage our kids to bring their friends back so they could enjoy them, too.

“So we could have that family feeling flowing through the house.”

Cindy says if it wasn’t for COVID, the family would still be in their old home.

“We only decided during the first lockdown — quite spur of the moment actually,” she says.

“We had no intention of moving prior to that, and we aren’t familiar with or know anyone in Eltham.”

They settled on a one acre (0.4ha) block — eight times the size of their previous home — craving not just more space but the greenery that comes along with it.

“Locked down in suburbia and surrounded by bricks and mortar and concrete and other buildings, we just felt the need for space and fresh air,” she says.

“We wanted to get back to nature, that’s why we started to look and Eltham is just beautiful and lovely with lots of green spaces.

“Our lifestyle has totally changed, we all feel much calmer being out here and the air does feel a bit fresher.

“We love waking up to the sounds of birds chirping, rather than the sounds of traffic.”

While the move — which occurred during the second lockdown — was more stressful than your average settlement, Cindy says they don’t regret a thing.

“We do have something to be thankful for this year.”

Mum-to-be Kimberley Laurie and her partner Matthew Stribley decided to try for a baby during the pandemic and are now expecting their first child. Picture: Mark Stewart

AND MIRACLE BABY MAKES THREE

For parents-to-be Kimberley Lawrie and Matt Stribley, 2020 has been the best year of their lives.

While the outside world shut its doors due to the pandemic, the Yarraville couple were beginning one of their most exciting chapters — a family.

And despite the chaos unfolding around them, they believe that falling pregnant when they did was “just the right timing”.

The pair had always planned on having a family but fertility issues meant their dream seemed near impossible.

But after undergoing an operation to unblock her fallopian tubes, and told to try conceiving naturally one last time, Lawrie says not even the pandemic could dull the elation they felt upon discovering they were pregnant in April.

“I was just in complete shock,” she recalls. “It was so emotional. We just kept saying ‘what?’ It was just amazing.”

Now 34-weeks pregnant with a baby boy, Lawrie calls him their “miracle”.

“To me he kind of saved us, it’s a positive thing we can plan and look forward to. I sit here holding my belly saying thank god this little man is here,” she says.

And while many new mums could be forgiven for wishing the year away so they could enjoy the happy time with loved ones, Lawrie says it also forced her and Stribley to slow down and enjoy every moment.

“It’s such a crazy time for everybody but trying to prepare for parenthood and wrap your head around it, I was glad it was just us two and we could focus on what’s important,” she says.

“I really looked after myself, I couldn’t go out and do anything. And I feel like he (the baby) is so healthy because we’ve been wrapped up in cotton wool.”

The couple, who were also engaged this year, are now eagerly awaiting their impending arrival but say they will forever cherish the challenging year.

“It’s been the sharing of the moments that I probably wouldn’t have been able to share (with Matt) — the first kicks, when the nausea stops, all these little milestones that I haven’t taken for granted,” Lawrie, who will give birth at Epworth Freemasons, says.

“Every­thing is about timing and our little man is the silver lining (to this year).”