LETS GET AQUAINTED
Fall in Love, with Crush Magazine
The Bundaberg Region has come of age! We’ve always been a hub for innovation and enterprise, but our laid back towns are quickly gaining a reputation for the finer things.
Created by a small team of passionate, long-term locals, Crush Magazine is the premium go-to-guide for visitors seeking insider information about the Bundaberg Region. We showcase the Bundaberg Region’s best offerings in food, style, health, leisure, industry and the arts to entice visitors to stay a little longer.
But we are much more than a FREE quarterly tourist guide. Crush Magazine is for optimistic, intelligent locals who lead busy lives and care about what’s happening around them.
THE CRUSH MASTHEAD EXPLAINED
We love words. You might even say we are ‘word nerds’. When we started developing our masthead, we wanted a single word that celebrated the Bundaberg Region and succinctly explained the Magazine’s purpose.
It was a big ask for a single word, but we found it: Crush!
We selected branding colours that reflect our stunning natural assets: burnt orange volcanic soil, deep blue ocean, golden beaches, bountiful agricultural fields, and majestic mottled grey loggerhead turtles and humpback whales.
A strong feeling of love, fancy or infatuation.
To squeeze, press or mash something forcefully to change it or extract its potential.
A crowd, horde, mass or sea of people.
To subdue or triumph over your competition.
The annual sugarcane milling season that Bundaberg was built on.
Meet the creators
Working together in local print media in the early 2000s, Larine and Nikki’s friendship formed over their shared love of telling the Bundaberg Region’s stories. Driven by a desire to help the community thrive, Larine and Nikki saw there was a need for a long-lasting and positive local lifestyle magazine that would showcase the Bundaberg Region. What started as little more than an idea inspired hours of market research and networking to ascertain demand. A business plan was slowly developed at dawn and late at night, in between demanding work and family commitments. And in late 2019, Crush Magazine was born.
LARINE STATHAM
MORE ABOUT LARINE
Working as a correspondent for Australian Associated Press, both in Australia and overseas, Larine covered some of the biggest news events of the past decade.
She’s chased camels through the Australian outback, interviewed hardened criminals, participated in tribal ceremonies, joined an arrested landing on a US aircraft carrier and attended a wedding with the President of a small country!
She contributed to The Australian newspaper’s travel and indulgence section, and worked as a communications tutor and guest lecturer at the University of South Australia.
In 2014, Larine and her husband returned to Bundaberg to be closer to family. She has actively assisted local politicians and community leaders to promote Bundaberg and attract investment to the region.
As the proud owner of local PR firm, Crush Communications, Larine is a member of the Bundaberg Chamber of Commerce and Bundaberg Tourism.
When she isn’t ferociously two-finger typing on her laptop or wrangling her two young boys and pug dog, Larine enjoys charcoal life drawing and gardening. Her pride and joy is a 1964 EH Holden station wagon, named Lucy.
NIKKI SORBELLO
MORE ABOUT NIKKI
She spent the early part of her career working as a journalist, design editor and producer for newspapers and radio in Hervey Bay, Maryborough and Bundaberg. As Chief-of-Staff and Deputy Editor, Nikki lead several strategic campaigns and was an effective advocate for community groups and vulnerable individuals.
Nikki wrote heartfelt and humorous newspaper columns about motherhood for several Queensland mastheads, well before “mummy blogs” became a thing.
After more than a decade in the fast-paced 24-hour news game, Nikki moved to the private health sector and expanded her qualifications to include digital marketing, advertising and social media.
Colleagues who regard Nikki as a quiet achiever are often surprised to learn how much she loves the stage spotlight. Nikki is a keen thespian member of Bundaberg’s Playhouse Theatre. Trashy reality television is her guilty pleasure. With two young boys and a husband in a rock band, life is never dull.
The Crush Team
Rowena Preddy of Preddy Creative designed our masthead, as well as Crush Magazine’s very first style concepts. Based in north Queensland, Rowena designs real and bold branding that takes businesses to the next level.
Ryan Pearse is our Jack of all trades. Charming and cheeky, he answers to ‘Chippy’ but has absolutely no carpentry skills whatsover. Prior to starting at Crush, Ryan worked in entertainment, hospitality and IT.
Alice Thompson co-ordinates our contributed content, writes for the magazine and provides strategic public relations advice to our communication clients. Prior to joining Crush, Alice worked for criminal intelligence agencies in Canberra.
Tara Jacobsen loves nothing more than the smell of fresh ink on paper. When she isn’t working with our advertisers to create beautiful artwork, she is running her own design business, Petal and Print.
Crush Magazine is a free quarterly publication, celebrating everything there is to love about the Bundaberg Region in Queensland, Australia. Available in digital and hard copy formats, Crush Magazine is complemented by SQUEEZE, a monthly e-zine. Designed for visitors and busy locals, the premium lifestyle publication is a project of Bundaberg-based public relations and marketing firm, Crush Communications.
© Copyright 2019 Crush Magazine All Rights Reserved | ABN 94 640 941 475 | PO Box 2426 BUNDABERG Q 4670 | [email protected]
Crush Magazine is printed by Printcraft, Hamilton Q.
Registration on or use of this website constitutes acceptance of our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy. Read our Editorial Code of Conduct.
Website Design by Catalyst Directions. Photography by Paul Beutel. Additional images courtesy of Tourism & Events Queensland. Graphic design by Preddy Creative and Petals & Print.
With thanks to our Foundation Partners:
