CCW’s Wendy Pederick interviewed on ABC Breakfast Radio

26 June 2025

Co-operative Care Wagin (CCW) Chair Wendy Pederick spoke with ABC Great Southern Breakfast’s Paul Cook following the official opening of CCW’s Tudhoe Street office, marking a major milestone for the Wagin community.

Transcript

Paul Cook

Wagin. It’s got about 800 people in town. And recently a co-op has been established to help residents access essential care services. You may have heard us talking about it on this very program. It’s officially opened. Doors were opened to the public on June 11. Federally funded, the service relies on the local community to pool resources with local management of health and care, hoping to make it more accessible. Called the Care Together Program, it’s an initiative of the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals. There’s lots of words, isn’t it? There’s about $7 million funding this and educating people. But let’s find out with Wendy Petterick, who is the Co-operative Care Wagin convener, who we’ve spoken to before. Welcome back, Wendy.

Wendy Pederick

Hi, Paul. How are you this morning?

Paul Cook

I’m very well. Another cold day in Wagin today.

Wendy Pederick

Yes, I’m sitting in front of the heater.

Paul Cook

Well, that’s probably a very wise decision. Otherwise it’d be cold, right?

Do you like the cold weather, Wendy?

Wendy Pederick

I can usually get warm in winter. I struggle a bit in summer because it’s a bit harder to get cool when you’re hot.

Paul Cook

That is true. I’ve heard that before, Wendy. So let’s tell me, first let’s start, Wendy, with the opening on June 11 of the Co-op in Wagin. And how did it go? What was the event like?

Wendy Pederick

It was met expectations. It was. We had a good crowd there, just enough to fit into the room. And we had representatives from the Shire and from CBH, who were our major funder or one of our major funders. We had a lot of people who had been involved in making the plan come together. We had representatives from WA Country Health Services and we had Peter Kenyon there from the Bank of Ideas, who was quite instrumental in getting the idea up and happening. But we also had Jerry Matira present. And he, you know, Matira is a very famous Wagin name. And Jerry did the Welcome to Country, but he also is, he’s got a company called Gather Foods, and he gave us a bush tucker talk. And that’s what we we ate some of the bush tucker at the light luncheon that we had after the opening.

Paul Cook

Awesome. So you’ve been at it for a couple of weeks now. Have there been any teething problems? Is the support around you set up correctly? What have you learned so far?

Wendy Pederick

Yes, well, the big issue at the moment is that we’re just running with volunteers. We don’t have an operations manager but that’s all right because we just thought we’d start with baby steps, start small and then build a bit of muscle strength and then be able to deliver, you know in a full context.

Paul Cook

So what are some of the priorities now in these early days with these volunteers? What are you finding out? So I’d imagine, Wendy, there’s a lot of work in finding out exactly who’s going to use the service in the community, what services are needed or what access and work you can do to help and what you can’t do.

Wendy Pederick

Yes, that’s right, Paul. So initially we’re just opening on a Friday and we’re listening to people. So essentially what we’re going to be doing is it’ll be a community response to community need. And the first step of that is establishing what the community need is because we do have some good services locally and, you know, there’s a few gaps, but there’s really good services provided. So it’s a matter of finding out where the gaps are.

Paul Cook

Awesome. Wendy, if people want to find out more about your service today, what’s the best way to contact you on that Friday? Is it pop into the Tadhoe street office?

Wendy Pederick

Yes, please. It’s 54 Tudhoe street, the building. So we’re straight opposite the post office and next to the pharmacy, so it’s easy to find. And we’re the first town in Australia that’s taken a co-operative approach to looking after health and social needs locally.

Paul Cook

Yeah, and I think that’s what makes it stand out, Wendy, and I think that’s why a lot of us are very keen to not only see your success, but see this grow and maybe see it adopted by other regions. Thanks Wendy. Wonderful to chat to you this morning.

Wendy Pederick

Thanks, Paul.

Paul Cook

Wendy Petterick there, Co-operative Care wage and convener sharing with us the first couple of weeks at Co-operative Care in Wagin.