Getting shirty about humour by Olga Galacho (Herald Sun, August 24, 2004) Ever since Captain Cook the Brits have found Australia a land of opportunity. And so it is with former West Sussex T-shirt manufacturer Kate Greenwood, whose Flamin' Galah label is winging its way all around the world. Her novelty T-shirts encapsulate Australian idiosyncrasies in a humourous way, without making the locals look like right galahs. Ms Greenwood says the most popular of her 20 designs is the "Four seasons in one day" cartoon. Her personal favourite, though, is "No flies on me mate", with its map of Australia made up of flies. It reminds her of a week-long trip to a sheep farm during which she swallowed, and digested, three blowflies. "I was getting really stressed with the heat and the number of flies and instead of doing the Aussie wave, which I learnt later, I was jumping up and down and gasping and in they went," she says. She can see the funny side of it now, and believes there are many other visitors who also see the amusing aspects of our culture and would like to take their experience back in the form of a souvenir. "There are lots of T-shirts for tourists who like cutesy designs with kangaroos and koalas," Ms Greenwood says. "The souvenir clothing industry is largely dominated by unoriginal design and cheap and tacky imported garments." But she found there was a gap in the market for tourists, especially from English-speaking countries who wanted something more out of their T-shirt. Just seven months after putting her line on the racks, she has sold several thousand units through airport shops and upmarket souvenir outlets. The T-shirts are manufactured and printed in Melbourne, using Australian grown cotton. "Being Australian made is a challenge in itself as the Australian manufacturing industry is struggling to maintain a presence alongside cheaper, mainly Chinese manufacturers." However, there is an upside for the business. Instead of having to wait up to 60 days for delivery of stock made offshore, Ms Greenwood says local factories have a turnaround time of just two to three weeks. Ms Greenwood settled in Melbourne with her Australian partner a year ago. Her love affair with Down Under sprang from a childhood addiction to Neighbours and Home and Away, which were screened on British television. In particular, she loved the prolific use of the expression "Flamin' Galah" by Home and Away's Alf Stewart. "We had no idea what it meant. We didn't question it, we just thought it sounded great." It is an expression she may even use to describe a few people she worked under before she left England. For three years she was a graduate recruiter at Goldman Sachs. "What annoyed me was that the people in the top positions were not always the most deserving to be there," she says. Ms Greenwood says the corporate culture in the UK is more hierarchical than it is in Australia. "I might not have contemplated starting a business there," she says, "where as here, I felt more comfortable about it. It is easier to talk to the right people, to meet the decision makers. "There is a friendliness and networking opportunities that you might not find over there unless you were in the right position." | 
