Entrepreneurship in tourism benefits community

Sitting in a boat on the Proserpine River is Brent Stephenson’s happy place.

Fishing every day was what bought him out of the darkness, after a workplace accident, that severely damaged his back.

Mudskippa founder Brent Stephenson is changing the landscape of fishing across the Greater Whitsunday region.

There on the muddy banks he watched the mudskipper’s and listened to the sound of nature, he was making space for his lightbulb idea of fishing clinics and apparel line.

As one of the Greater Whitsunday region’s budding entrepreneurs, Brent’s innovation lies in his ability to tap into the power of connection.

Built from charitable foundations; Mudskippa is now one of the most recognised brands on the fishing scene and features Combos4Kids.  Together the brands educate, assist and inspire the next generation.

Mudskippa is changing the fishing landscape in Australia; by providing hands-on fishing education to the community. Brent and his team are working tirelessly within the Greater Whitsunday region between Airlie Beach and Mackay.

Brent said part of Mudskippa was their free weekly community fishing clinics to all demographics, offering daily inspiration and education on various social media handles.

“We sell apparel to compensate our community fishing clinics that is how it was designed - to help the community.

“It is all about putting the community first and helping people out,” he said.

Since June 2021, Mudskippa has been helping people from all walks of life.

“While initially we looked at helping kids and disadvantaged youth at risk, it quickly transferred into making it for everyone.

“It has quickly just expanded from just trying to do the right thing with helping the community to looking at expanding into whole new tourism business.

“It's sort of limitless with what we're doing, and the more we go with it, the more people I speak to, the more we realise there is no end point?”

An unofficial role for Brent is becoming a strong male role model to some of the kids, who don’t have one in their lives.

It is a part of his job he takes great pride in, acknowledging we all can be role models within our communities.

“There's a lot of people out there that they might not see themselves as role models, but to the next generation or even people their own age, they are role model,” he said.

In addition to his community roles, Brent has also started to flourish as an entrepreneur, something that has continued to evolve.

“When I first started it was just an idea just to sort of volunteer and help the community - no real sort of profit or business side to it. It was just a good deed.

“But then the more this has gone on, the more I've really fallen into that side of being an entrepreneur and actually embraced it.”

He said the biggest challenge was acknowledging he is an entrepreneur and to realise the potential of an idea, you must keep going.

“When you start to break it all down and realize, well, you are an entrepreneur and it's all about innovating.”

Brent said he was looking at expanding his operations and programs to encompass a tourism flavour and working towards putting the Greater Whitsunday region on the map as the top fishing spot in Australia.

And while the Mudskippa experience is a niche one and about growing and fostering the love of fishing, it is also about taking opportunities and creating new ones, from charters to more fishing competitions.

While Brent has a very strong social media and YouTube presence, his business has led him to combine his passion for his community with building the region’s tourism offering.  

“In five to ten years, I'd ideally like to see a Mudskippa fishing school set up here, where kids are traveling from Queensland wide to come to the Mackay and Whitsunday areas to our fishing school.

“Our region will be the hub for kids’ programs, where they can go back to their homes and spread the Mudskippa mission right throughout Queensland,” Brent said.

 Find out more about Mudskippa here: https://mudskippa.com.au/