Latest News

What we buy today will determine the Australia we live in tomorrow.

That was the message Victorian Stephen Gately was trying to get across when he first launched his BuyAustralianMade website in 2009.

Aimed at keeping business, employment and money in Australia and providing a more positive future for the Australian manufacturing sector, BuyAustralianMade provides consumers with a website listing Australian companies, to make it easier for them to identify, support and use Australian made products and local manufacturers. Stephen said the website was about giving people the chance to make an informed decision about what to buy.

“Shoppers and business certainly need to be aware that they can make a difference by buying Australian made products, Australian grown produce and Australian delivered services,” he said.

“BuyAustralianMade makes it easy for shoppers and businesses to find Aussie made things so then at least then a choice can be made as to whether they buy the Aussie made or the imported [product].”

Stephen and the BuyAustralianMade website have been supporting OAK Tasmania since 2009, by listing its five Australian Disability Enterprises for free. For OAK Tasmania, these listings have provided a constant stream of sales enquiries and business opportunities.

 

For Stephen, a former disability sector manager, the chance to support Australian ADEs and OAK Tasmania is something he is thrilled to be able to do.

“[During my time with the Disability Sector] I had the opportunity to identify the issues holding back many of the ADEs I came in contact with,” he said.

“One of those issues was promotion and exposure of what they do and what they are capable of. I have been contacted by some of the ADEs we promote who say that they have secured contracts directly as a result of being promoted by BuyAustralianMade and others that have online stores are getting regular sales”.

Stephen said he was still thrilled with the success of BuyAustralianMade and keen to continue to grow the number of businesses and consumers that used it. He said he still continued to be surprised daily by new products that he did not know were made or built in Australia.

“There are thousands of businesses who would benefit from being promoted by BuyAustralianMade and being featured alongside hundreds of other businesses proudly making products or delivering services in Australia,” he said.

BuyAustralianMade has also hit television screens, with a major SBSTWO advertising campaign featuring many of its businesses launching earlier this year. OAK Tasmania’s timber manufacturing division Oakdale Industries will feature prominently in the May national advertising campaign.