North Shore’s 2024 woman of the year is an environmental champion
McMahons Point local Laura Stone never thought that her idea to help women get physically active outdoors would become a successful business and lead her to success as an environmental and community champion.
Over the last 11 years, Laura has run Sydney by Kayak with her husband, Ben. It’s a local kayak tour business offering small group paddle experiences to locals, visitors and corporate organisations on beautiful Sydney Harbour.
After realising she wanted to do something different to her career as a trainer and massage therapist, she became a kayak instructor. Laura incorporated into her fitness classes a couple of mornings of kayaking a week at 6am and would enjoy a cup of coffee by the harbour.
Soon Laura’s clients started to join her for a coffee. One morning, she found herself just sitting out in Lavender Bay watching the sunrise with another woman and ‘not really doing as much fitness as planned’.
“People were really wanting to go out and just drink coffee, watch the sunrise and socialise out in the harbor in the morning. And so that is really how it started from fitness into more of a tourism product.”
During their kayak tours, they also started collecting the rubbish they found. “We found out about the concept of ‘taking three for the sea’. Every time we used a waterway, we were picking up three pieces of rubbish. And some people wouldn’t stop at three, they would then pick up more. And then, that became a tour all on its own.”
The company also started to get involved in environmental and conservation projects, developing programs to reduce waste in Sydney Harbour and regenerate the coastal foreshore to enhance and protect the marine environment.
Since 2018, Laura and her team have contributed $15 from every clean-up paddle booking to local conservation projects, raising $44,220 to date.
They have also partnered with the Sydney Institute of Marine Science to instal living sea walls and boulders in Lavender Bay. With Ecobel Sydney, they will plant one million mangrove and river plants by 2040.
Her most challenging times were during the COVID-19 pandemic. With Laura and her husband both working exclusively on the tours, they managed to keep the business afloat with passion and dedication, although it was a ‘hard and tricky time’.
It was then that they realised the importance of community and being able to help each other in times of need. “As a business, we try to support local fundraising events and local charities, local schools and daycares that are putting on fundraisers. We have a philosophy in our business that we never say no,” Laura says.
“We give away between $15,000 and $20,000 worth of free kayak tour vouchers every year.”
North Shore MP Felicity Wilson presented the award to Laura at a ceremony in March. “Not only is Laura an outstanding businesswoman, she is also passionate about our local marine environment in and around our beautiful Sydney Harbour,” Ms Wilson said. “Laura continues to make an incredible contribution to our local community with her unwavering passion for conservation and sustainability.”
Laura said she was ‘blown away’ by the award. “I wasn’t expecting it. At Sydney by Kayak, we’ve won a couple of awards and it’s usually for the business. This one was quite different for me because it was more for me. That was quite touching and my mum was there.
“She is very kind and very compassionate. She ran a small business and worked three jobs when I was growing up. I think I get a lot of my work ethic, kindness and compassion from her.”