Hidden Valley - 30 Years On

HIDDEN VALLEY - 30 YEARS ON (13 Nov 24) : Alison Southern

The first Hidden Valley products emerged from my home kitchen near Hidden Valley, Broome in 1994. I always loved the beauty and power of plants, so working with plant ingredients and blending essential oil fragrances was a huge fascination, in sync with my desire to create “a path with a heart”. The children were all off to school, I needed to create an income, and had a pressing desire to create soaps and lotions which didn’t irritate my sensitive skin. So I taught myself to make these, creating my initial range of soaps and plant-based lotions to sell at the newly formed Broome Courthouse markets. We sold about 40 soaps and a few beeswax candles - what a great result!

By 1997, Hidden Valley Handcrafts was a thriving business. Locals and visitors all loved the Kimberley inspired creations coming forth from my kitchen. Eventually, production outgrew the kitchen and we made the big move to Harriet Rd in Blue Haze in 2004.

Over the years, we have developed our shop front, perfected our “Luscious Ladies’ Lab” and production areas, had the entire family working with us, created online ordering, and employed some truly fantastic workers.

Our loyal client base and dedicated staff have all helped us create this beloved and now iconic Broome family business and we feel privileged to offer our beautiful effective plant-based products to you all.

On Wednesday 13 November last year, we celebrated our 30th Anniversary. People started arriving soon after we opened up and continued pouring in throughout the night. There were decorations, a huge grazing board, Smokey was serving tipples all night and the choir sang beautiful songs including a remix of Ziggy Marley’s “Love is my religion” changing the words to tell a little of Hidden Valley’s story.

“I am so full of gratitude that we have had this much support for 30 years! We would not be here without you… Special thanks to Smokey who made everything work! This community is something special. My amazing staff have taken on almost al of the doing which has allowed me just to be and to swan around like a Queen. In case you’re wondering, I’m not ready to retire… We’re not some rural backwater. We are out here riding the front of the wave of change! And what we do here at Hidden Valley is to support that by making products that speak to your spirit. That’s our job and that’s our vision. Thank you all so much!”