- Tel:
- 03 5149 7024
- Email:
- Email Darren
- PO Box 1148
Sale VIC 3850
Campaign Office
Postal Address:
Biography
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- Early voting - Gippsland by election - Saturday 28 June 2008.
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DARREN McCUBBIN, 46, is well known in Gippsland for bringing theatre to the people and fostering leadership qualities in our young. He is an actor, writer, producer, director and co-ordinator of just about every festival in the region.
The current Wellington Shire Mayor has spent more than half his life in Sale where he established his entertainment business 17 years ago.
Darren is married to Jill (daughter of a local dairy farmer) and they have two daughters – Marni 5 and Ella 3. They live on a small rural block on the edge of Longford.
Born in Yallourn, Darren saw a lot of Victoria as a child because his father was a teacher who liked to “travel a lot”. He attended Hallam High School then Monash University completing an honours degree in Science in 1982. He also has a Diploma of Education from Monash Gippsland.
He was being trained as a forecaster for the Bureau of Meteorology (1983) but decided to return to the country to take up a career as a Secondary School Mathematics and Physics teacher (1984 - 1991) with Sale Catholic College.
From 1992 - 1995, Darren organised the Sale Mainstreet program which was designed to breathe life back into the local retail shopping strip. He formed the Wishbone Children’s Theatre for children’s shows and The Murder Company which hosts social and corporate murder and mystery nights. His company produces more than 250 performances each year locally, throughout Australia and the Asia Pacific.
Darren has been director of several local festivals including Mallacoota Festival of the Southern Ocean, Stratford Shakespeare on the River Festival, and Bairnsdale Youth Festival. He also directed the Sale 150th Celebrations, Sale “waterwater” Festival and was a performer at the Buchan Blues Festival. He is an Australian Champion Town Crier as well.
Darren has been a Councillor since 2003 and was elected Mayor in 2007. He chairs a number of Council boards including Stephenson Park Recreation Reserve, Swing Bridge, Sale Netball relocation committee, RSL Memorials committee and is on the board of the Wellington Youth Network.
Darren is a Graduate of the Gippsland Community Leadership Program (2002) and sits on the Board of the Australian Technical College – Gippsland. He is president of the Sale Theatre Company, Treasurer of Gippsland Regional Arts – Sale, and treasurer of Wellington Residents Against Toxic Hazards (WRATH).
He is a member of the committee of the Federal Government’s “Festivals Australia” panel and was made Chair in 2007.
Electorate Profile
State: Victoria (Rural)
Name: Named after the locality which was explored by Angus McMillan (1810-1865) from 1839 and named after Governor, Sir George Gipps.
Area and Location Description: It covers an area of approximately 33 264 sq km from the New South Wales border in the north-east to Port Albert in the south-west.
The main towns include Bairnsdale, Churchill, Heyfield, Lakes Entrance, Maffra, Morwell, Stratford, Traralgon, Yarram, Orbost, Rosedale and Sale.
Products/Industries of the area: Dairying, beef, fishing, forestry, sheep, cropping, sawmills, vegetables, oil, gas, tourism, electricity generation, and correctional services. RAAF Base (East Sale).
First Proclaimed/Election: 1901
Members:
- Peter McGauran (NP) 1983-2008
- P J Nixon (CP/NCP/NP) 1961-83
- G J Bowden (CP) 1943-61
- G H Wise (PROT/NAT) 1914-22
- J Bennett (LIB) 1913-14
- G H Wise (PROT) 1906-13
- A McLean (PROT) 1901-06