McLeans Freight Service
When Leisa Blok’s father, Laurie McLean, began running urgent nighttime blood deliveries from Lismore airport in 1992, he mightn’t have expected the one-man gig to expand into a 50-vehicle courier fleet, delivering across the entire northern NSW region.

Fliteboard
It was meant to be an extended break for David Trewern and his family. A chance to rest and reset in Byron Bay after decades of building and selling fast-growing digital marketing agencies. But as he looked out over Belongil beach in 2014, an idea struck him.

Vision Walks Eco Tours
Wendy Bithell has built her multi-award-winning eco-tourism business, Vision Walks – Eco Tours, by combining her two areas of expertise: ecology and technology. Her Byron hinterland adventures are as diverse as nature walks with night vision goggles, Indigenous bush tucker tours, and three-day women’s indulgence escapes.

Zepto
What do you do next after more than a decade building up a Byron Bay skydiving business to become a national success and then stepping back after listing it on the Australian Stock Exchange?

Our Cow
For Casino-based meat providers Our Cow, the last three years have seen remarkable, game-changing growth.

Tropical Fruit World
It’s been almost 50 years since Robert and Valorie Brinsmead bought the 200-acre farm in Murwillumbah.

J. Notaras & Sons
J. Notaras & Sons owes its existence, strong identity and ongoing success to the dreams of two brothers of Greek ancestry.

Joel Jensen Constructions
Despite the pressures of running an award-winning construction company, there’s one thing Joel Jensen strives to do every day.

Tweed Real Food
Tweed Real Food is a business launched in 2018 from a desire to be resilient. Little did founder Julia Foyster know how prescient her plan would turn out to be.

Norco Primex
Bruce Wright has made his career by bringing together and supporting many of the region’s farmers and primary producers.

Lazuli and Co.
The hairdresser and business owner, after all, has had a lot to adapt to – her salon is in central Lismore and was destroyed by the February 2022 floods, which also completely engulfed her nearby home. Before that were the ravages wrought by the pandemic.

Connect Business Solutions
Connect Business Solutions can be thought of as the glue that holds a business community together.

Brainstorm Productions
You might think that COVID-19 would rattle a business that delivers educational theatre into schools. But the “show must go on” mentality runs deep for Brainstorm Productions’ founder and artistic director Jenny Johnson…

The Kind Coffee Co.
The KIND Coffee Co, reflects its name in everything it does.

Australian Bay Lobster Producers
Thenus australiensis. Moreton Bay bugs. The Bay Lobster. Whatever nomenclature you want to use, there is no doubt that these crustaceans are a much-loved staple of Australian seafood menus.

Table Under A Tree
Georgina Inwood credits the evolution of her business, Table Under a Tree, to her ability to “take stock while still running at a million miles an hour”.

The Natural Rice Co.
The Natural Rice Co. (NRC) is a unique enterprise not just in the Northern Rivers, but in a national context too.

Casino RSM Club
The 23 of March 2020 was the hardest day of Neale Genge’s career.

Caperberry and Flinders Rose
What makes an entire family move from three different cities to live together in a quiet coastal town? Great coffee.

Tweed Coast Glass
Anyone who lives between the Gold Coast and Ballina with even a passing involvement in the building trade will be familiar with Tweed Coast Glass.

Byron Studios
Northern Rivers has long been a hub for film makers and a popular backdrop for film and television productions. But there has been one thing missing to tie it all together…

Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital
In 2020, Iggy Pop received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys; in the same year his pet cockatoo, named Biggy Pop, became the founding patron of Byron Wildlife Hospital…

Wicks and Parker
Fast approaching 100 years old, the Wicks family business has helped build motorways and carry out emergency bushfire repairs, but it once hammered out steel bands for horse-drawn carriage wheels.

Ventura Brewing
Ventura is a symbol of luck, chance and good fortune – and while Ventura Brewing’s two founders have had a good dose of all three – it’s mostly been a lot of hard work and focus to launch this craft kombucha brewery amid a global pandemic.

Wild Honey Creative
Wild Honey Creative is living proof that special skills and services we might once have associated with our cities – such as graphic and digital design, innovation in marketing and brand storytelling – are thriving in regional areas.

Bingara Gallery
If she wasn’t painting wild animals and birds, artist Angela Parr, 62, would most likely be rescuing them, healing them, or advocating for them…

Biologi
There was a little bit of the “weird spirit of Byron Bay” in the 2017 creation of the natural skincare range, Biologi, says co-owner Lucy Macdougald of her chance meeting with Ross Macdougald, who is now both her business partner and husband…

Sanctus Brewing Co.
When Sanctus Brewing Co. began life in 2019, there was no indication that the brewery would go on to enjoy the immense success it has over the last three years.

Foods That Love You Back
Health activist Erle Astrup founded Foods That Love You Back in January 2021, and her business – which has created the world’s first affordable, alkaline shot of concentrated microgreens – is infused with the passion she has for driving it.

ENV Solutions
In less than seven years environmental consultancy ENV Solutions has grown from a one-man band in Ballina to a multi-award winning business with more than 25 staff across three locations…

Skye Park Pet Resort
In 2014, a long-held aspiration finally came to fruition for Helen and Ian MacGregor when they purchased an existing pet boarding facility in bucolic Clarenza, with the dream of making it their own.

Scarboroughs
Running a small clothing shop in a country town is a fine art. It requires balance, delicacy and an open mind to serve the needs of locals, tourists, the area’s workers and more.

Charlie & Fox
When Jess Tunnage’s mother-in-law gave her a sewing machine for Christmas a few years ago, she had no idea how to use it.

Honey Hunt Style
Jules Hunt moved to Byron Bay with her family 15 years ago because she wanted to raise her children with a strong sense of community. It was by chance that this move led to the flourishing of her artistic career – and more recently to her turn as a successful business woman.

Frontier Pets
Diana Scott was more than a bit annoyed at being unable to find a premium quality food for her dogs that was also ethically produced, so she did what all great entrepreneurs do – she created it.

Greenx7
For the past 10 years GreenX7 has been running workshops and retreats internationally and in the Tweed for clients as diverse as McDonald’s, Deloitte, Six Senses, and the Australian Defence Force, to inspire both individuals and teams to tap into the healing power of nature.

Summit Sport & Fitness
Like many Northern Rivers businesses, Summit Sport & Fitness has undergone immense change in 2022 – except, rather than being buffeted by floods or pandemic, these changes are positive, and mark a new chapter for owner Matthew George.

Coraki Post Office
For all that has been thrown at the small town of Coraki in recent times, the owners of the town’s post office are rolling with the punches.

Ascent Dance
Starting a dance school just five weeks before the onset of a pandemic might have dampened the spirits of some new business owners, but Haylee Holliday took it as a sign that Ascent Dance Studio had to succeed.

Hemp Foods Australia
When Hemp Foods Australia founder, Paul Benhaim, discovered hemp as a food choice in the early 90s during his global travels, he had his own preconceived ideas.

Norco Co-operative
Norco has an impressive origin story.

Five Sixty Farms
Stranded on the roof of his house with his wife and their eight children, Pepe Fassos watched helplessly as his beloved greenhouses smashed and floated away in a tsunami of floodwater.

Gather By
Gather By is a closed-loop regenerative agribusiness that works with beekeepers and landholders in NSW and Queensland, and investors around Australia to produce and market rare, pure and potent Australian Manuka honey…

Cawarra Cosmetics
Cawarra Cosmetics has been a leading manufacturer of Australian skincare, personal care and cleaning products in the region for more than 40 years.

Nimbin Apothecary
Nimbin Apothecary is a herbal medicine dispensary providing acute over-the-counter consulting for herbal medicine prescriptions.

Yamba Cinema
Yamba Cinema is not just a popular venue to see the latest movie in an idyllic Northern Rivers town.

Jumbunna Community Preschool and Early Intervention Centre
The early childhood sector has played a vital role in supporting communities and families in the Northern Rivers amid the onslaught of challenges in the last three years.