John Leeder

Karen Sheldon Group

Karen Sheldon started her Northern Territory journey as a cook at the Barrow Creek Hotel over 47 years ago where she was mentored by a wonderful group of local Indigenous women. This is where she became interested in Aboriginal culture, and developed an enduring passion for cooking with bush foods and Territory flavours. Since then, she has owned and operated an iconic territory restaurant, the Dolly Pot Inn, the award-winning, Karen Sheldon Catering company, and Karen Sheldon Training and Employment Services, which operates the Territory's first VTEC (Vocational Training and Employment Centre). In 2008 a staff buy in saw Sarah Hickey and Amanda Swift become equal partners in the company, both bringing expertise, new vitality and a shared vision to the business. In 2014, the Karen Sheldon Group won the tender to operate the Darwin Alcohol Mandatory Treatment Facility and over the next 2.5 years Saltbush Mob achieved unprecedented, tangible outcomes as it provided a results driven and sustainable solution to some of the Territory's alcohol related harm issues. In 2016, Saltbush Social Enterprises became the new not-for-profit enterprise of the business in response to the urgent need to provide opportunities for prosperity parity for First Australians in the Northern Territory.