Spotlight on Carmel Geia

Carmel Geia works in the nutrition team of the Darwin Support Office as the Health Promotion Coordinator.

Carmel grew up between Numbulwar community in the Gulf of Carpentaria and Darwin, before going to boarding school in Townsville. Her favourite subject was social science because she enjoyed learning about history and social change, such as the  legacy of Eddie Mabo.

After graduating high school in 2010, she got a traineeship with the Cowboys football club in the community relations department. Five years later she moved home to Numbulwar to work as a community development program mentor and then as an employment consultant.

Carmel joined Outback Stores in August 2024 as a Training Support Officer, and in that role completed a Certificate IV in Retail Management.

“I don’t come from a retail background, so I enjoyed learning about the operations of a store thanks to the training certificate,” says Carmel.

In April 2024 Carmel moved into the nutrition department and since then has visited eight stores across the Northern Territory as part of Outback Stores’ tobacco-reduction project.

“It is exciting to be part of the tobacco project, because no one has done anything like this before from a retail perspective,” Carmel explains.

It is exciting to be part of the tobacco project.

– Carmel Geia

Outback Stores’ nutrition team assists store directors in thinking of ideas to reduce smoking in their communities. She hopes that perhaps some store directors might be inspired to implement tobacco-free days of the week, following the success of ‘No Sugar Days’ that certain communities have implemented. 

“I’m looking forward to getting out into communities a bit more – visiting different places,” says Carmel. Carmel had never visited Central Australia before working with Outback Stores. It was a special moment to visit her grandmother’s home community of Yuendumu for the first time earlier this year. 

Carmel enjoys travelling and saving for overseas holidays. So far she has visited Bali, Thailand and Singapore, with New York City the next on her list.

This story was first published in the Outback Stores Annual Report 2023-2024.