Business Northwest Bursary

Eligibility

Available to a current student from the Burnie or Wynyard area who has successfully completed first or second year of an undergraduate degree in the Tasmanian School of Business & Economics at the Cradle Coast campus.

On-going Eligibility

To retain this award, recipients are required to achieve a minimum Pass result in all units studied each semester.

About Company

The forerunner to Business Northwest, the Burnie Chamber of Commerce was established at a meeting, sponsored by the Launceston Chamber Of Commerce and held in the “old” council chambers in Wilson Street at 8pm on 24th June 1937, chaired by Burnie Warden Roly Hilder.

Initial foundation membership was 85 and then Chairman and Managing Director of The Advocate newspaper, Mr Len Harris was elected as foundation chairman. Vice Chairmen were well known Stan Joyce and Mac Crisp and the executive committee comprised Sam Bird , Les Hudson , Allan Bewsher and Stan Alford.

This original committee established five sectional committees each with a Chairman and from five to nine members, namely, Public Affairs and Finance, Retail, Produce, Transport and Timber and Mining, AW Tanner was Treasurer, WD Lean Secretary and R Wardlaw Auditor.

We might wonder what sort of town would spawn such a vigorous organization back in the thirties. Burnie had a population of only 7000 and A.P.P.M. was not much more than a hole in the ground. Of course in those days there was no Tioxide, no Lactos, no Elphinstones, no Harvey Norman and no expressway. The passenger train left the station in front of the Bay View Hotel at 7am daily for Hobart and you could catch the odd flathead off the rocks across the tracks.. Likewise there was no island breakwater, no foreshore reclamation, no container crane let alone any containers or berths 5,6 and 7 or wood chips.

By 1945, the Chamber had membership of 115, embracing nine special committees. There are no other records to be found until 1970, other than the minutes of a very active retail Section which met regularly to set shop trading hours and to discuss industrial matters and other matters of common interest.

In 1970, President John Pease urged the introduction of one way streets to alleviate the towns growing traffic problems and drew the attention of the police to the problem of school bags cluttering doorways and footpaths. In 1976, he was expressing concern about delays in commencing construction of the expressway and in 1986, urging its completion by the end of that year.