News

Five minutes with … Jennifer Oss

You live in a town for years, you think you know everyone, you walk down the street and you don’t get far before you are stopped for a chat with another local.

Charters Towers, a friendly Australian country town.  A floating ten thousand population, made up of many and varied individuals.  A town that from Easter to September has an influx of around 5,000 tourists from all over the world.

Behind the numbers are individuals.

From this week E-Village News will be doing interviews with locals and tourists to find out a little more about the many threads that make up the rich tapestry of our town.

If you would like to be interviewed or know someone you think would like to be interviewed, or even have a question you would like to ask an interviewee, please send in your idea and we will see what we can do. My email is info@e-village.com.au.

Read on to find out what maybe you didn’t know.

Our first interview for this series is Jennifer Oss, owner and operator or Tarcoola Foodworks.  A place people go to not only for provisions but for the friendly smile and ever present ear of the helpful staff.

When I asked Jen if she would be the guineapig for this new section of E-Village News she was her normal humble self and said ‘but surely there are more interesting people around’.  It took a while to convince her that people want to hear about normal, everyday people doing everyday things as well as the ones doing the ‘not so normal’. This way it will be an ever changing article and much more interesting to the readers.

Five Minutes with … Jen

Q)        How long have you been in Charters Towers?

41 years, Born and Bred

Q)   What do you like most about the town?

The casual life style, and the people…we look out for each other

Q) Tell me about yourself  work/family/lifestyle?

I come from a respected, hard-working family with good values. I own a Food works Store which helps supply the town with goods, and my life style is VERY casual, easy going…just the way I like it

Q) What is your favourite memory?

Sydney Olympics 2000, I was a Volunteer and felt honoured when we were referred as Australia’s Ambassadors

Q)  Where would you take someone if you only had time to visit one place in Charters Towers and why?

The Weir. What a beautiful, serene place to go and relax by the water

Q)   Who would you most aspire to be and why?

 I don’t aspire to be anyone but ME. I can’t be anyone else because they are all taken. I am not better than anyone, I can only better myself

Q) Who would you invite to dinner?

Allen and Val Oss – my parents. They bought me into the world and moulded me into the individual  I am today. I am not perfect but I feel I am a decent sort of person and it’s because of the values they installed in me.

Q) How do you think other countries view Australia?

From my Travels, I know people LOVE Australians not only for our accent and slang but for our very casual, easy going  Lifestyle

Q) What words of wisdom would you have inscribed on a plaque for the world to see?

THE BEST FERTILIZER FOR THE LAND IS THE TRED OF THE MASTER’S FOOT

And that is it for this week, thank you Jen for your comments and a look inside your life.  Come back next week to see which unsuspecting individual has found their way onto the pages of E-Village News.

Have a great day everyone

This article was published by Stella McMahon as part of her Editorial Internship with the Charters Towers E-village.