CHRISTINE ROBERTSON OAM has spent a career backing people who make things with their hands. Long before farmers and food producers, it was fashion designers – she was Young Designer of the Year, then president of Fashion Industries of Australia and chair of the Australian Fashion Awards. She became Chief Executive Officer of the Adelaide Showground Farmers’ Market in 2018, the same year she was diagnosed with heart failure. This year, the market she has spent almost a decade building marked its 20th birthday.
When you’re at the Market on a Sunday morning, what does the Showground look like before anyone else arrives?
I usually get there just before 6am, when it’s still pretty quiet. It’s one of my favourite times of the day. Nothing much is happening, then very quickly the trucks roll in, stallholders start unloading, lights come on and the whole place comes alive. By 8.30am you’d barely recognise it.
The Market started in 2006 with 71 stallholders. It’s now 140-odd producers and 4,000 people on an average Sunday. What’s actually changed about how South Australians buy food?
People care much more about where their food comes from. Buying direct from the person who grew or made it wasn’t nearly as common twenty years ago. Now people want to know who produced it and how. They’ve become more comfortable buying seasonally too, and there’s a real appreciation that money spent directly with a producer stays with the person who did the work.
The Market’s permanent team is entirely female, and all three senior managers are over 55. Was that deliberate?
No. I chose the best people for the job and the best people for the team. Employers sometimes get too caught up in age or titles. I’m more interested in whether someone can do the job, whether they care and whether they make the team stronger. I have the best team in the world – experienced, capable, funny, practical, and they back each other.
You became Chief Executive Officer the same year you were diagnosed with heart failure. Did one inform the other?
Complete coincidence. My office was up a steep flight of stairs and I kept getting puffed climbing them. My team noticed before I was ready to admit anything was wrong. It turned out to be heart failure. Taking on the Market that year probably made me more determined to make it count. I wasn’t interested in just keeping things ticking over. When people ask how I am, I often say, “I woke up today, I knew who I was and where I was, and I could get out of bed. That’s good enough for me.” A lot of it after that is choice. I choose to keep moving. Maybe I just move a little faster now.
Your story has been described as one about refusing to become smaller rather than refusing to grow older. What does that look like?
It’s when people start editing themselves to make everyone else comfortable – they stop putting their hand up, stop saying what they think, because they’ve decided they’re too old or it’s someone else’s turn. I’ve seen it especially with women, very capable women who suddenly start questioning whether they’re relevant enough. I’m happy to grow older. I just don’t intend to disappear while I’m doing it.
After twenty years, what do you always take home from the Market?
A smile. Always.
Adelaide Showground Farmers’ Market
Rose Terrace, Wayville
adelaidefarmersmarket.com.au
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