Mayor Cr Le Serve celebrates 12 years in leadership

WOMEN in rural areas face significant challenges, including lack of childcare options and limited leadership opportunities; however, Bass Coast Shire Mayor Cr Clare Le Serve shared her story on how she overcame these encounters and endeavoured to make a difference.

Empowering women is crucial, and Cr Le Serve shared that she has certainly faced her challenges in life, but through her 12 years in council, and during her term as Mayor - she’ll continue to advocate for her community.

On March 2^nd Clare and her husband Neil celebrated 50 years of marriage. She moved from Melbourne to the country and married a dairy farmer in 1974, before becoming a young mother on their land in Bass.

“It was this one particular day that changed things for me,” Clare reflected.   

“A young lady came knocking on the door and asked if I’d like to join a community craft class. I was a new sleep deprived mother, milking cows and didn’t think I had time to do craft, but she then stopped me in the street again, I went inside the Bass Valley Community Centre, where a group of women offered to hold my baby and make me a cup of tea.”  It was then that Clare saw the importance of community connection. She joined the Bass Valley Community Centre and listened to the women share their fundamental need for long-term childcare.

Clare began advocating for childcare and before and after school care in the region – working with other parents on feasibility studies, putting together business cases and writing grant proposals.

During this time, the family farm was sold in the midst of a crisis in the dairy industry and Clare began working with South Gippsland Personnel Group in Corinella as their assistant manager “It was meaningful work, enriching the lives of participants with a disability and getting them into the workforce,” said Clare.

However, in 1993, Clare was in a serious car accident, causing her to be in recovery for over 10 years. “It was after my accident that I honoured the value of people with a disability in the workforce even more so than before. Knowing that they’ve certainly got great ability to contribute to their community.

It was after rehabilitation and a decade of recovery that Clare stood for council in 2012 and continued advocating for the Bass Valley Children’s Centre – holding the official opening alongside former Mayor Cr Pamela Rothfield in 2017.

“Leadership comes from within, and I always had an interest in politics, but I never would have dreamt that my career path would have taken me to local government.”

“I got to the point where I figured I might as well put my own hand up and really lobby for what the community wants. I’ve run in the state election twice, and that was really about making Bass a marginal seat,” said Clare.

It’s now been 12 years since Mayor Cr Clare Le Serve stood for council and she said that the Bass Valley Children’s Centre is certainly a highlight of her career, alongside the new Berninneit centre.

“If I could say anything to the women in the community, it would be to make sure you’re okay, and then you can go out and help others.”

In her term as Mayor, Clare is focused on the importance of a team approach and completing unfinished business within local government, as well as the need for a whole community approach to listening and communicating.

“As we celebrate International Women’s Day, it’s not about alienating men, but about working together.”