Journey of a civic leader

But there is a quiet confidence at work borne from the fact Cr McCulloch has had a long training for the role.

Self reliance has been a key characteristic ever since she was a child.

“I grew up on isolated cattle properties in the Northern Territory, where we used to go to town twice a year, either Katherine or Darwin,” Cr McCulloch said.

“My first public education was School of the Air in Katherine with my brother and sister, we mainly grew up around adults and Aboriginal people.”

Cr McCulloch said she and her siblings had a lot of freedom which in today’s world would be considered frightening.

“There was flooded rivers, big saltie crocodiles, snakes no end –  but we never considered it dangerous because it was what we grew up with,” she said.

“We were always pretty responsible, and always held accountable, our parents were very strict. We weren’t allowed to watch a lot of TV, we were out with the scouts.”

After a stint in Katherine itself, Joyce’s father – originally from Prairie, near Hughenden – moved the family to Cloncurry where he did contract mustering and droving and Joyce’s mother ran a seven-day-a-week grocery store.

“Later we moved to Mount Isa because dad wanted a stint in the mines,” Joyce said.

“My sister and I, we both got jobs at KFC, the family ethos was if you wanted to buy things, you had to earn the money.”

After a stint at TAFE where she won secretary of the year, the young Joyce worked at a photo developing shop, then menswear, then a 12-month stint in England with her English mum’s family before returning to Mount Isa.

Joyce really found her calling when she got a job at Man’s World, now Worn Out West.

“I loved retail – I knew products, I knew customers,” she said. 

“People come into the store, I used to really engage with them.”

In 2004 the president of Rotary Rodeo approached Joyce about managing the rodeo.

“I decided to say yes because I’d been at Man’s World for 11 years and the next step for me would have been to buy the place,” she said.

Joyce was manager as the rodeo made the difficult transition from Kalkadoon Park to Buchanan Park.

“I knew this needed to happen, Kalkadoon Park was old, city council could not upgrade it because they didn't own the land,” she said.

In 1999 Joyce married William McCulloch and she managed the 2006 rodeo to completion just days before she gave birth to her son Marshall (“Marshall means keeper of the horses,” she said). A year later she had a daughter Mackenzie, both raised by her example.

“When my son was two years old, he said mum, I’m going to be a hard worker like you,” she said.

But by then Joyce was out of a job, removed by the new council in 2008 who wanted a new direction with the rodeo.

“I was angry, it was political and politics gets in the way of good policy,” she said.

Joyce eventually worked to help the Coffee Club get started before running for council in 2012.

“I believe local government should not be a political playground, it should be a place for the community,” she said.

With four years under her belt on council, she won an historic victory to become Mount Isa’s first female mayor in March.

“Women have a different perspective on a lot of issues, we’ve got that mother instinct that we need to nurture everything, though of course there are cut-throat women out there,” she said.

“I’m not cut-throat but I am firm and I’m not afraid to stand up and be counted.”