Helping others navigate belonging

BRINGING all people together in a spirit of support and friendship is a passion for Sherley Hart.

Ms Hart has served the Ballarat community for four decades, drawing on her early work supporting Filipino women settling in Australia.

After marrying a Ballarat boy and arriving in Melbourne from the Philippines in 1984, she found work as a clerk of courts at Melbourne Magistrates Court, personally experiencing the 1986 Russell Street bombing.

Luckily she had remained inside during her lunch break, but can still recall the shock waves from the bombing.

Ms Hart quickly became involved in the Filipino Australian community while living in Melbourne.

Moving to Ballarat in 1993 with her husband Stuart, she went on to serve as president of the Filipino Australian Association of Ballarat for 15 years, and was acknowledged on the Victorian Multicultural Honour Roll in 2022.

But talk to Ms Hart for a moment and it’s clear she doesn’t strive for recognition. Her motivation comes from a deep aspirational passion for uniting people to benefit all.

While she and her husband ran a local motel after moving to Ballarat, she also dedicated herself to helping new migrants navigate language, employment and belonging, drawing on a background working in a government department while in the Philippines.

Ms Hart said that when they first moved to the regional city, it was quite a different place to what it has become today.

“Ballarat at the time was very quiet and you felt like the only immigrant here with everyone looking at you,” laughed Ms Hart, who also recalls initially struggling with the Aussie accent.

“Eventually I learnt so much.”

Over the years, her membership of cultural associations and her connections with the Philippine consulate in Melbourne has assisted her in supporting countless new immigrants, and these days that support includes people from many different nationalities.

It includes helping new immigrants contend with social isolation, helping them make new links and forge invaluable social support networks while enriching the wider community.

Supporting victims of domestic violence in court and navigating different government agencies and services has been part of the assistance she’s provided.

“I help them if they have a problem, even supporting them in court sometimes,” she said.

“Sometimes they are socially isolated until such time as they have a problem, sometimes domestic abuse.

“In the last 10 years you have seen the growth in the migrant population here, and since then I have started engaging with the new groups helping students with housing, find some place to stay, connecting them to agencies.

“I’m not the only one doing it. We all work together.”

Ms Hart also runs the Ballarat Asian Grocery business on Howitt Street and suffice to say, it’s become a bit of a favourite meeting point for many, where socialisation is very much part of getting those essential dish ingredients.

“We are all one, one for all,” she said.

Ms Hart’s name is one of six to be added to the Great Women of Ballarat honour roll next month.