By Winsome Byrne

Seven years ago, Anthony Pike FCA helped an Aboriginal community in Western Australia’s Pilbara region build a traffic management business from scratch. That business now has a turnover of more than A$16 million, an annual payroll of A$6 million and employs more than 120 people, 40% of whom are Aboriginal.

Pike, who became a chartered accountant in 1993, and his wife Karen Franks, an MBA, have been working with Indigenous clients in the Pilbara for more than 17 years, helping them build businesses that operate in the mining industry. This includes running mining camp facilities, freight services from Perth to remote locations in WA, and building a bakery business in Tom Price that is now one of the top-performing bakeries in Australia.

Now a director with Moore Australia in Adelaide, Pike’s clients extend from the Pilbara and Perth, to Port Augusta and Adelaide, through the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) lands in South Australia, to Darwin and Kakadu, and across to Queensland and northern New South Wales.

Picture: Anthony Pike FCA.

A willingness to learn

Pike was involved initially with an Indigenous community in Western Australia’s Goldfields region, which held native title over some land. He then worked for the minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs in Prime Minister John Howard’s first ministry, Senator John Herron.

Howard had issued a 10-point plan for 25 native title representative bodies, many of which were in WA. Working with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), and with lawyers and other accountants, the job for Pike’s team was to examine each body for compliance, solvency and legal obligations to determine if it should be maintained or closed.

The project took about 18 months and involved a lot of travel. “I saw many parts of Australia I would never otherwise have seen,” Pike says. He also developed a healthy dose of patience.

“It was so rewarding but the pace at which you do business is a lot slower, especially for Aboriginal communities where you have to get consensus with a number of parties. It requires a lot of discussion,” he says.

“Aboriginal culture does not have the same priority about time. That can be a bit wearing when you’re trying to marry up the commercial world with Aboriginal culture. The two don’t tie together nicely. It can take a lot of negotiation and patience to get things across the line.”

Pike now sees how these particular skills were vital to understanding what can be achieved with remote communities. “It is no good setting up a freight business if no-one wants to drive a truck, or has no skills,” he explains. “It’s no good owning a geological survey business if there is no one qualified to run it.

“You have to pick a business that will suit the community and have a high chance of success. You look at the economic environment, at what’s going to work here.”

“You have to pick a business that will suit the community and have a high chance of success. You look at the economic environment, at what’s going to work here.”

And as in any business, success is not guaranteed. Pike estimates four in five Indigenous businesses will be unsuccessful.

“It’s very disheartening, especially at the start, but now I accept that that will happen. Now I spend more time doing due diligence to ensure that a business does work.”

Pike says Aboriginal enterprise is one of the fastest growing areas of the Australian economy, partly because of the federal government’s Indigenous procurement policy. It requires the government to direct a certain percentage of its overall expenditure to Aboriginal employment or business.

“It is creating wonderful opportunities,” he says. “A number of technology businesses have been established as a result because remoteness doesn’t matter.”

Picture: Karijini National Park, The Pilbara, Western Australia.

Social responsibility

“Giving back” is part of Pike’s credo, his sense of social responsibility, of citizenship. It extends to his and his wife’s long-standing pro bono participation in Yalari, which provides scholarships for Indigenous children in regional or remote areas to attend high schools, usually private, in the cities. Pike and Franks aim to support students to take up a career in accounting.

The Yalari organisation, based in Queensland but operating around the country, was started in 2005 by Indigenous educationalist Waverley Stanley, who grew up in Murgon, Queensland, 300km north-west of Brisbane. His life changed when a teacher at his state school recognised his potential and arranged for him to attend a nearby grammar school.

Participating in the Yalari program is a huge adjustment for the students. They have to board, which can be lonely, but Yalari has support mechanisms at the schools.

“These kids are resilient,” Pike says. “When they come into the program they are timid, very shy. It’s wonderful to see them graduate from Year 12. They are so mature, so grown-up and confident.”

Why learning patience is vital

Pike’s analytical, commercial and communication skills have helped immensely in his line of work, particularly when he’s partnering with people who are not financially literate or may not speak English. Equally important is having an awareness and understanding of Aboriginal culture.

“It takes a long time to learn – 25 years on and I am still learning. There are also variations among the mobs and certain parts of the culture are more strictly adhered to by some than others, even in the same region.

“I’ve learnt to be comfortable with the fact that an opportunity that you initially thought might take four weeks can end up being six months to two years to fruition. I’ve had to learn a lot but Indigenous people are very respectful and encourage me to keep pushing.”

“I’ve had to learn a lot but Indigenous people are very respectful and encourage me to keep pushing.”

His experience has changed the way he works with non-Indigenous businesses, too. “The patience I’ve had to learn working with Indigenous businesses has put me in good stead working with non-Indigenous businesses. I’m a far better listener now than I was 20 years ago.”

It is rewarding work, he says: “… especially when you go to the community and see the expressions on people’s faces, it’s wonderful. I’m happy to get up in the morning to go to work.”

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