Careers
Join our team at OBG and channel your passion for people, connection, and building a fulfilling career in an extraordinary historical setting.
ABOUT OBG
Ever fancied being part of an entrepreneurial crew ready to challenge the status quo? Keen on being part of a startup with big ambitions? If it’s a YES to either, we’re excited to get our eyes on your application.
We march to the beat of our own drummer, always in service of the greater good. We challenge the status quo with our resilience, tenderness, bravery, and humble nature. We’re committed to helping others while remaining true to ourselves. We capture people’s attention, inspire action, and leave a lasting impact.
With us, you’re not just clocking in hours; you’re part of a pioneering movement and leading the way to ignite entrepreneurship and provide an ecosystem that harnesses the untapped potential that exists within ALL our rural communities. Intrigued? Take the first step towards a fulfilling venture.
OBG is a vibrant cultural tourism pitstop, in the historic town of Beechworth in beautiful North East Victoria. We welcome locals and tourists alike; an emerging hub for contemporary arts and culture, events and hospitality, community and youth entrepreneurship and a gateway to outdoor adventure; where people can connect, learn, discover and dream. OBG offers the 400,000+ annual tourists to Beechworth as well as our local community the opportunity to engage with this unique site. We continue to reimagine and repurpose this Place through respectful and engaging activation of the site.
The Beechworth Heritage Precinct
The Federal Minister for Environment, the Honourable Tanya Plibersek MP, announced earlier in August 2024 that she was including the goal, as part of Beechworth’s Heritage Precinct, on Australia’s National Heritage List which includes nationally significant natural and built form sites including the Opera House, Uluru and Kakadu among others. Visitors today can choose to enjoy a locally roasted coffee or lite snake in our cosy cafe, join one of our increasingly popular day or night oral tours (or a self guided tour from mid 2025), hire an eMTBike to engage with the region's famous bike culture and ride one of the many rail trails, quite backroads or mountain bike trails and book our bike shuttle service if they run out of steam. And if that’s not enough visitors, and locals alike, are beginning to see this unique place as an option for their next corporate or private function, shoot their next music video clip in the old inmates pool or buy a ticket to a live performance or summer outdoor cinema program as we build and deliver sustainably an annual contemporary arts and cultural program.And while we are focussed, in the shorter term, on delivering excellence with our core business tours, hospitality and functions offerings we are committed to sustainably growing a nationally significant cultural tourism & hospitality asset for North East Victoria. We’re only a few years into our journey to put the historic town of Beechworth, even more, on the map as a world class cultural tourism destination.
Where we’ve been
OBG leased part of the Old Beechworth Gaol in 2017 from 19 local families who purchased the Gaol in 2016. We commenced sensitively activating the site for locals and visitors alike through a basic cafe, visitor concierge and oral history tour offering. Overtime we looked to broaden our offering and piloted things that reflect either the region’s strengths or opportunities missing. These include eMTBike hire, venue hire, hosted and catered for corporate and private functions as well as programming contemporary live arts and culture including an outdoor granite cinema season in January and a number of live music performances as we look to make this Place welcoming for artists and audiences alikeWe have achieved some surprising results and promising traction despite bootstrapping, the COVID blip and key capability and capacity gaps including 26,000 tickets sold for a rudimentary, guided tour up +650% from 2017OBG is a Social Traders Australia accredited social enterprise. We are fueled by purpose, positive impact, sustainability, inclusivity, creativity and innovation. In late 2023 our trading name changed from the Old Beechworth Gaol to OBG and we softly launched our new (interim website) and logo.And we think the exciting part is that we are just getting started.
Where we’re going over the next 12 months
Open the first major infrastructure project on the site, a new Visitor & Hospitality Centre in the historic Turnkeys Courtyard by mid 2025. This space will include a cafe, licensed bar and commercial kitchen (with capacity to expand to a restaurant over time), visitor reception and servicing areas for guided, self guided tour and other arts & cultural event ticketing, bike hire and merchandise salesWe will officially launch our refreshed OBG brand with new site signage, uniforms, merchandise and execute a targeted marketing planIn the first half of 2025, elevate the visitor cultural experience with the planned launch of a compelling, new self-guided audio tour & contemporary exhibition relevant to the site’s history Continue our bike hire (currently small eMTB fleet) service for the EPIC Mountain Bike and rail trails between Beechworth and YakandandahTogether, with our site based, partner organisations, we will continue our master planning and major expansion planning process. In 2025 we look to identify further opportunities to sensitively repurpose the site, both inside the walled gaol and for the land surrounding the property. Opportunities are being explored that align with the vision and values for the site including a childcare centre, accommodation, entrepreneurship education and learning centre, creator studio/ maker workshops and live performance and exhibition spaces.
And beyond that
A world class, digitally immersive gaol tour with initial concept collaboration in 2022/23 with world renowned Art Processors (think MONA in Tassie), HotHouse Theatre and Garuwa (First Nations led company) Continue to explore funding sources to develop and present an annual contemporary arts & cultural program including music, film, theatre, circus, literature and visual arts that builds on a existing but small pilot programClean energy infrastructure for the new Visitor Centre - commercial scale solar panel and battery systemsDeveloping an artist and youth engagement programs with and for artists and young people - artist residency, youth engagement and commissioning and education programs
About the Gaol Site
We acknowledge the Gaol is built on contested First Nations’ land that has never been ceded.
The Old Beechworth Gaol is located in the heart of Beechworth in Victoria’s High Country. Built over a period 1854-1863 out of local granite. The Gaol is a significant structure in the post European invasion history of Australia and provides a unique canvas to develop a contemporary, world-class cultural visitor experience that respectfully recognises the site’s First Nations’ history both prior to and post colonial occupation.
- In 2016, 19 local families came together to purchase the Old Beechworth Gaol site that includes approximately 4 acres of land at the rear of the site
- At the time, this was the largest community buy back of an asset in Australia and the families did this with the generous support of a number of philanthropic foundations
Legal structure and governance
Beehive Project Trading Company (trading as OBG) is an incorporated company limited by guarantee.
The Board’s composition includes an independent, non-executive, chairperson and three equal founding shareholders. There is also an aspiration as the organisation matures to appoint additional independent, skills based, non-executive directors that reflect diversity as well as appropriate skills and experience.
Our culture
We have an open, respectful, inclusive, curious and empowered culture. We like getting into the work, offering great customer experiences and moving forward. We’re a small team, all committed to our purpose and not afraid to get our hands dirty in these foundational years of our business.
