BUSH TELEGRAPH

All I can see from here is paddocks and sheep,” says Birdsnest founder Jane Cay from her home office on the farm outside Cooma, New South Wales, where she lives with her husband and three children. The bucolic view belies her busy life as founder and ‘Big Bird’ of one of Australia’s earliest ecommerce success stories.

The story is now folklore: after buying a retail store in Cooma in 2004, Jane created Birdsnest, stocking a range of international and local fashion brands. She launched the business online in 2008, at a time when online fashion shopping seemed like a slightly outlandish proposition in Australia. Today, the business supports a team of almost 150 in Cooma, and has a turnover of around $30 million.

Jane’s story could have been different if she hadn’t “fallen in love with a boy in a cowboy hat”. After growing up near