The tiny Queensland town of Blackall came to the realisation last week that it was missing an essential small business – a hairdresser.
Located in central west Queensland, Blackall has a population of around 1600 people, according to the 2011 census, and is approximately 960 kilometres from Brisbane.
Perhaps it was the increase of 80s style mullets on the streets that tipped mayor Andrew Martin off and prompted him to post Facebook about the town’s need for a good trim.
“Wowsers!! Not being a hairdresser attendee for some considerable amount of time I was totally unaware of the fact that Blackall has no hairdresser,” Martin wrote.
Martin appealed to hairdressers across the country, asking them to “consider coming to Blackall”.
The post was shared 70 times, with Martin returning to the social media platform the next day to thank his followers and promote the “top bush community” of Blackall.
Speaking to SmartCompany this morning, Martin happily reported a number of hairdressers have contacted him about moving to the town to set up shop.
“We’ve had an enormous response, I’ve done radio interviews from halfway around the world it feels like,” Martin says.
“The request was not done frivolously, we were all starting to get mullets.”
However, this excludes Martin himself, who says as “a man with no hair on his head”, he had not needed to visit a hairdresser in some time.
“We had a woman who used to cut peoples hair, but she had to move away because her husband got sick,” he says.
“She used to come back every four weeks or so, but she stopped coming a while back.”
The mayor is still talking to the candidate at the top of the list, doing his due diligence and making sure she is dedicated in coming to Blackall.
“She’ll be moving here with her husband and kids,” he says.
Martin says he was surprised at the success of the Facebook post, and is considering using the platform to advertise more positions in Blackall.
“Our next step is looking for a mechanic, and we might advertise some of the housing surplus here,” Martin says.
“I’ll most likely do it through Facebook, this one win is inspiring me for another one.”
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