Chrissie Davies landed in Sunshine nearly 10 years ago. A decade later, the mother of one, consultant and female business networker talks to Ben Cameron about her love of the area and how “it’s all happening in the west”.
How did you end up in Sunshine?
My husband and I were renting in Yarraville. When we started looking for a house, it took nearly two years – we couldn’t even get a look in for the amount of money we had to spend. A friend of mine suggested Sunshine and we ended up coming out here. We fell in love with Matthews Hill Reserve. This was the second house we looked at; we fell in love with this house. We thought we don’t care how much it costs, we’re getting it.
Some tried to talk you out of it though?
At the time they said we paid too much, why are you moving to Sunshine, it’s such a bad area – we got so much stick about it. We just laugh at everyone now. We love it here.
What do you love the most?
Both my husband and I have lived overseas and travelled a lot, so we love learning about other cultures. We just love the fact it’s so diverse; you can walk down the street, it’s like Little Vietnam.. I’m really glad my daughter’s going to grow up in such a multicultural environment too. There’s so many different backgrounds of people, which gives you a broader view on life.
You run Chaos to Calm Consultancy to help parents better understand their sometimes troubled children; how did that come about?
My background is education and I’ve been a teacher for 15 years, 10 years of that working in specialised education settings for children who have challenging behaviours, really severe kids who can’t attend a mainstream setting. In the last five years, I’d been sitting on this idea and waiting for the right time to jump in. The whole passion behind it is that I want to help these families who are having so many issues with their kids at home; they just don’t know what to do.
I assume you’re helping a few local families?
I’ve helped a family in Sunshine, Sunshine West and Albion. I just want to get it out there that being a parent is bloody hard work and you need all the help you can get. And the more tricks you’ve got to work with your child’s behaviour, the better you’re going to be.
You also recently set up a support network for female business leaders, how’s that going?
A couple of the women I was talking to last week said it’s so great to be connected with people in your local area. I’ve met so many amazing people, and they’re all on our doorstep.
Any particularly inspiring stories?
What really blows me away is that there’s something about women in the west; they just want to help and support each other. It attracts a certain type of person. It’s amazing how many women wanted to support me, do anything they can to help you without being threatened or feeling insecure. I think it is a really incredible thing that’s going on in Brimbank.
