How rural Emily Edge launched a digital start up

Starting a business from a rural location has challenges but Emily Edge hopes the online community she is building will draw more people to the regions.

Emily Edge on her family’s Casterton property.

Casterton’s Emily Edge went from Western District farm kid, to working in the nation’s capital for former federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.

But home really is where the heart is for this tenacious 36-year-old, who returned to rural Australia to launch her digital start-up, EdgeGuides.

It’s a new online community that Emily hopes fills a gap by providing high quality, on-the-ground tested travel intel on the best regional and rural events and travel information.

EdgeGuides highlights rural events and enables travellers to interact and share the intel they gather. Since launching last year, travellers have added 22,000 pins to the EdgeGuides interactive map - showing a terrific level if interest and engagement from the travel community, she said.

“EdgeGuides is a lifelong research project, really,” says Emily, who runs the growing business from her family’s farm, high in the hills near Casterton.

“I grew up on the farm here, which gave me rich and wonderful childhood experiences, but was fortunate that my parents were never afraid to pack up the trusty camper trailer and take the family on trips right around Australia.”

Those early experiences, immersed in different parts of the country, seeing first-hand how rural communities survived and overcame challenges, formed a key part of Emily’s outlook on life. “I still remember those trips in vivid detail,” she said.

Emily’s parents Edwin and Linda, now with son Owen working on the Phoines property, have 2000ha of breeding country, running around 1300 females, as well as finishing country at Dartmoor. Another brother, William and his family farm in Tasmania.

Emily completed a Bachelor of Design Arts; then a small design project for a politician unexpectedly led to a job.

“I grew up in a home where there’d be a lot of discussion around the table about issues affecting the nation and particularly agriculture and rural areas,” she said.

“I was aware early on that decisions made by governments do affect our livelihoods.”

Her seven-year stint in politics took her all the way to the Treasurer’s media team.

Emily describes working in Canberra as “fast-paced, you’re always working under pressure to deadlines”.

It taught her self-reliance, to be organised and to work as part of a large team.

It also pushed the self-described home-orientated country girl to thrive outside her comfort zone.

Emily Edge.

Reflecting on the intensity of Canberra, the skills honed there were a perfect match for running a business, she said.

She was accepted into the Born Global Incubator program in Tasmania where she tested her ideas for the new venture.

Now she runs the business from her cottage at Phoines and said while internet connection was an issue at times, being part of a rural community and living in the beautiful landscape, connected to nature, made it worthwhile.

She hopes EdgeGuides will do its part to help strengthen rural tourism.

“Today a lot of little communities are struggling and I think, how great would it be if travellers stopped and explored these amazing places more,” she said.

An app is next on the agenda. “I hope EdgeGuides can be the go-to platform for what is going on in regional and rural areas across Australia, and that it ends up helping a lot of these little rural communities that I love.”

Emily Edge has been nominated for the 2024 Shine Awards, which celebrate the achievements of rural and regional women across Australia. Click here to nominate an outstanding woman you know.