It was on a mother-daughter camping trip in the Barmah Forest that Joanne and Kaley Nicholson created the vision for Yilam: an ethically run, Aboriginal owned camping equipment and experience business based on Taungurung Country. 

Describing herself as a “pretty keen camper”, Kaley recals researching to purchase some new equipment for her trips out bush. 

However, on the camping trip, the discussion instead turned from buying new equipment for themselves to “why don’t we buy a few items and sell them.” 

“It kind of just came out of nowhere,” Kaley told the Koori Mail. “And mum said, ‘if you want to do that I’m keen.”

“I got back to the city and started to do some research and found while there are a lot of Aboriginal people in the tourism industry doing really amazing things there was nobody that combined that niche of Aboriginal culture and history with camping equipment and on-Country experiences…