They are regularly portrayed as straight-laced, white-collared workers who fold their socks, iron their underwear and ensure pleats are precisely placed in the centre of suit pants.
Belinda Cooper Green breaks the mould completely, as anyone who has sneaked a peak in the window of her new Rochester office space will attest.
There are brightly coloured lampshades, a display of red hats in a prominently-placed book stand and the pink and purple polish on her nails is a dead giveaway of her unique status within the number-crunching community.
Belinda has only been working out of the Mackay St office of Trust Us Bookkeeping for eight weeks, having relocated to Rochester in December 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
She relocated her busuiness from Ferntree Gully in Melbourne to Rochester and has dived head-first into the town, not only in her professional capacity, but also in regard to her community involvement.
She is the treasurer of Rochester Recreation Reserve’s committee of management and is the recently apppointed “queen’’ of the Rochy Red Robins — the newly-formed 50-plus women’s group attached to the worldwide Red Hat Ladies movement.
The Robins have already attracted more than a dozen members and will host a 22nd birthday celebration for about 80 RHL members throughout Victoria and border clubs of NSW.
Fittingly, when Belinda moved to Rochester, she chose a house in Queen St.
“I wanted a small town close to a big town, but not in it. Rochester was perfect,” the bookkeeper and BAS agent of the past 22 years said.
Belinda’s mother, who still lives in her native country of New Zealand, was a member of the Red Hat Ladies many years ago.
“Mum was in it a few years. She is in her 70s now and they do a lot of night-time things, so she isn’t involved now,” Belinda said.
Belinda was sitting at a cafe with some girlfriends from aqua aerobics when she noticed Jan Childs, the woman responsible for raising the Rochy Red Robins, putting up posters about the group.
“I said to the girls ‘I bet she is a red hatter’,” Belinda said.
After approaching Jan, she immediately became involved in setting up the group in Rochester.
“Jan is like my secretary extraordinaire,” Belinda said.
The timing for the group’s arrival in Rochester has been perfect, allowing an escape from nine months of challenges for much of the community.
When the floods hit town last October, Belinda was on Magnetic Island in Queensland and her daughter was house sitting.
“She was there with the dogs and chooks and had to evacuate. Fortunately the water didn’t come inside,” Belinda said.
There are currently 14 members of the Rochester Red Robins, who will not only host the RHL birthday event on July 25, but also plan to celebrate the women’s panel in Rochester three days later.
Eighty women from seven different groups are coming from all over Victoria and NSW.
Members from Geelong, Corowa, various places around Melbourne, Cobram and Bendigo will be at the event, hosted by the Moore Street Tavern.
The Rochester women’s latest meeting was at Temptations Nursery and Gifts in Rochester, an aptly named business, according to the Red Hat Ladies, as there were temptations everywhere they looked.
Meetings of the Red Hat Ladies in Rochester are on the last Wednesday of every month.
For details, keep an eye on the Rochy Robins Facebook page or phone Belinda on 0479 114 275.
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