Page 54 - Australian Defence Magazine July-August 2022

54 INDIGENOUS ADVANTAGE KILLARA SERVICES
JULY-AUGUST 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
OVERCOMING HURDLES – KILLARASERVICES
As a young Indigenous teen, Jasmine Newman dreamed of a career in the defence force, successfully challenged her rejection because of a childhood injury, then stumbled at the final hurdle when the pre-enlistment medical discovered she was pregnant.
NOW Jasmine is the Managing Director of a compa- ny with 350 employees and turnover of $22 mil- lion,morethanhalfthatinthedefencesector.
Her company Killara Services (Killara) is a Supply Nation certified, national Cleaning Company.
Created in 2017 to honour the legacy of her
great grandfather, activist Bert Groves, it’s one of
a growing number of successful Indigenous owned and operated firms in the defence space.
Jasmine Newman grew up in western Sydney, attaining the Higher School Certificate at Liverpool’s Miller Technology High. That’s Dharug country and it’s where she feels most at home, though her grandmother hailed from Wiradjuri country
–theMulliMulliMissionatInverell,northernNSW. Mulli Mulli is not too far from Quirindi, NSW, birthplace of Herbert Stanley Groves (1907- 1970), Jasmine’s grandfather and a most signifi-
cant figure in Australian Indigenous history.
A serviceman during World War 2 and a plumber by trade, he saw his true calling as Ab- original advancement. He was first president of the Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship and a founding mem-
ber of the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement. Perhaps his greatest achievement was his part in the suc- cessful campaign for the yes vote at the 1967 referendum which gave the Commonwealth the power to legislate for
Indigenous people.
MAX BLENKIN | CANBERRA
KILLARA SERVICES
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