Connected to Community – and Canberra

The first thing that drew me to Parbery was the people. The second was its commitment to social responsibility and connection to the Canberra community. But it wasn’t until after I started working with Parbery that I discovered the story of its name, and how it brings the people, purpose and place all together in just one word. And, for me, that was just the icing on the cake.

If you’ve seen our photographs on the website and you’re familiar with Canberra, you might have noticed they were all taken in the same place: Parbery Lane in Kingston. My first assumption had been that we were just named after the street where the firm was founded.

But while conducting some (totally unrelated) research I discovered that, while the development and the Parbery Lane within it is only a few years old, and the Parbery street nearby is a few years older, the Parbery name actually first came to Canberra in 1926.

Mr Norman Parbery was Canberra’s second dentist (the first was Eric Harvie in 1925), and the dental officer for Royal Military College, Duntroon. Mrs Ruth Parbery was heavily involved in charity, especially the Red Cross and St Paul’s Church of England, as well as being a founding member and president of the Canberra Croquet Club, and president of the Royal Canberra Golf Club.

I thought I’d stumbled on something quite cool – not only do we share a name with the Parberys, but we share our office premises with the Canberra Croquet Club!

But, of course, Partner Nick Chapman already knew this! He’d researched the history of Parbery Street when he came to the area and was also struck by the coincidence of his being the president of the Canberra Croquet Club at the time. Well, that and how the Parberys’ significant contributions to the Canberra community aligned with his own priorities. Partner Kylie Burnett had drawn the connection between what the Parbery family stood for and the desire to create a firm that was strongly connected and gave back to our community.

So that’s how we got our name. And, more importantly, our values.

As an internal communication professional, I’ve seen many organisations seeking to adopt values that don’t align with what they do or how they do it, which can be frustrating for staff and confusing for clients. In contrast, Parbery’s values are baked into our name; they’ve been part of our DNA since we were conceived, and we talk about them. A lot. And I see my colleagues live by them every day, bringing part of Canberra’s history with them into the future.

That’s what makes Parbery authentic.

Learn more about the Parbery family and the history of Canberra via the book that sparked my deep dive: Past images present voices: Kingston and thereabouts through a box brownie.