Barbara Bell, Compliance Coordinator
Barbara is Austral’s second longest serving employee after the CEO. Arriving from the UK in 1980 she joined the then parent company, Kailis & France, in the marketing department looking after exports, which at the time included the first exports by air of live Lobsters for the Japanese & Hong Kong markets. Barbara moved to Fleet Operations in 1986 where she looked after all crew related issues – sourcing crew, arranging their travel to remote areas, insurance and licensing of the fleet. It was during this period she was introduced to the delights of Darwin and Karumba.
With the prawn fleets’ reduction in the early 1990s, Barbara progressed to include stock control and domestic marketing in her varied duties. In 1993 she took long service leave and spent the time as a cook/deckhand on one of the prawn trawlers for the 4 month tiger prawn season. This exposed her to the opportunity to see areas of the far North not normally accessible to the regular traveller. By the early 2000s, marketing was dropped and instead she developed the first Quality Control System on the prawn boats and went to sea each season to educate the crew in good processing skills. This again led to the privilege of visiting remote places such as Mornington, Groote Eylandt, Gove and Bamaga. As regulatory authorities increased requirements for more formally documented & managed food, personnel shipboard and environment safety systems, she has progressed to her current role as Compliance Coordinator.
Barbara has, over a period of years, driven around most of Australia and north to south from Darwin to Adelaide, climbed Ayres Rock twice and crossed the Nullubor six times. Clearly she has a passion for her adopted country. She also has a passion for her two dogs who are walked in the park twice daily and she learned later in life than most, the pleasures of sailing… Her mid-life crisis involved buying and learning to ride a motor cycle.
