Hi, I'm Dylan Walsh

Career overview

I have over 17 years accounting experience and 14 years aged care experience.

I went to Primary School in Dunoon, New South Wales to a school with just 50 children. It was here where I showed my first interest in computers in the days of dial up internet and an Amstrad 486. In my final year aged 12, the Principal approached me to help launch his retirement plan of a pure spring water business i.e. The Pure Spring Water Company. I did all of his brochure design at lunch time back in 1996.

I went to High School in Lismore, New South Wales to a wonderful school called Richmond River High School (now part of a group of schools The Rivers Secondary College). This school changed my life and it was here where I learned to believe in myself, never give up and to focus on what I enjoyed e.g. music and computers. I was also the School Captain. I learned that teachers play a key role in direction and teaching you to believe in yourself. I loved computers and did well at them in my final year obtaining 100% in both subject major projects for programming and another subject. I made a program to manage recipes in the kitchen back in 2002 and I called it Recipe Manager. It was simple but highly effective. The second project I did for the other subject was an interactive CD for National Parks in New South Wales as a tourism and environment conservation initiative (again before the internet was what it is today). This involved pitching the idea to the National Parks boss in Alstonville and then doing park visits taking footage and then compiling the CD. I also set up the merit card system for the school and set up an interactive CD showcasing the school for prosepctive parents and students to explore.

I grew up in Dunoon, New South Wales and moved to Alstonville, New South Wales at High School age. It was there where I started a small hobby that did three things:

design and management of a website before the likes of Domain etc, where it profiled Macadamia farms and listed them for sale. The website was used by the lead salesperson in the area at the time for Macadamia farms and it was very successful. It was simple but had a very good domain name and really just dealt with the first contact before the agent made contact with the prospective buyer;
my second segment at the same time was vinyl sign writing and I started doing small real estate signs and then won a contract with the RTA to number every bridge in New South Wales (four numbers on each side of the bridge). This was before use of GPS etc and was used for the road gangs to identify bridges for works etc; and
the other element was the design and management of a basic website to recruit nurses from the UK for placement in Australia, including collecting all information to enable visa processing.

I started my career in accounting working for a three partner firm Blackburn Prior in Lismore, New South Wales. This firm had the right values and was a lovely place to learn and work. The partners were kind, intelligent and very hard working. I completed a Bachelor of Business majoring in Accounting from Southern Cross University. At this firm I set up the financial reporting for the firm's clients by understanding and modifying the back end XPA templates at the time, customising them for entity type and presentation styles instructed from the partners.

Around 2004 I found my Aunt's remains online. Her name is Susan Isenhood and she was murdered. This was a NSW Police bungled case where her remains were found in 1987 although the missing persons file was lost by NSW Police so her physical remains (that were being stored in an "unidentified" box at Glebe) were never matched to a missing persons record. There are fresh unproven allegations by the public of a senior NSW Police officer at the time involved in cover-ups and really bad policing. One fresh allegation is that this Police officer at the time was involved in a relationship with someone in Taree, New South Wales, who may have offered accommodation to Susan and who may have cared for Susan. I am not forming an opinion on this yet. Her remains were also classified as a male by NSW Police which again dealt another blow to matching any record. Susan's remains were unidentified for 17 years until I joined the dots due to a photo of her jewellery online in the unidentified remains listing and I knew from photos of how she loved unique jewellery. Her case was the first to use Mitochondrial DNA in Australia and the breakthrough inspired the opening of a review of cold cases. I am happy that Susan is listed in the upcoming parliamentary inquiry secured by NSW MLC Jeremy Buckingham. Nicole Morris was inspired by Susan's story which has had a large amount of press and founded the Australian Missing Persons register as a result. There was also a new NSW police taskforce established at the time Susan's remains were identified. It is marvellous to think Susan posthumously is assisting missing persons being found, timely. What a gift. I hope one day Susan's murderer is caught and brought to justice and no doubt her murderer holds secrets to other East Coast New South Wales long term cold cases.

In 2008 I moved to Newcastle, New South Wales to work as an auditor with Lawler Partners (now named PKF) and it was here where I was introduced to aged care and all things internal and external audit. I worked on many client types and client sizes. I travelled all over Australia, to New Zealand and once to Boston and London, for work. I was an auditor in charge on a large range of internal and external audit engagements and was responsible for planning, coordinating the audit team, performing complex audit procedures and final reporting to stakeholders. I helped develop the fraud detection methodology for the firm using excel and data sets, before specialised software was used. This methodology I developed and deployed to a client helped detect a significant fraud. What is so memorable with this role is that the partner was young and energetic and just had previously joined and had an unmatched ambition to build the firm and quality. A key takeaway is how systems enabled growth to be achieved without quality being compromised. He is a true success story and it was incredible being a small part of the firm and team that has grown into a leader in the audit field today, still with the same lead audit partner.

In 2012 I left Lawler Partners to focus on my passion for aged care and joined a dynamic aged care family owned business in the Hunter region i.e. Hunter Valley Care. I started as a project accountant and progressed to the head of finance. I was the head of finance for two approved providers being Hunter Valley Care and Empowered Living Support Services Limited, across multiple homes. It was during this time I learned the most in my career by sitting next to an incredible hands on business owner who has had a lifelong impact on me. I had a large responsibility and some of my key achievements include:

managing a $20m refinance of the group with two top tier bank lenders including negotiating bank covenants that were commercially realistic given the corporate structure and business objectives;
managing the reduction of director and property cross guarantees resulting in half of all land titles being removed as security and being unincumbered for the first time;
managing high level tax advice projects and engagement with top tier legal firms;
managing the insurance portfolio;
implementing and monitoring internal controls;
working in two different and dynamic environments i.e. family business and an NGO;
assistance with the management of a commercial litigation settlement;
selecting and implementing new finance and sub systems;
working with a team to create a leading Dementia Therapy Fine Art program with The University of Newcastle;
overseeing four aged care homes, brownfield sites and greenfield sites;
leading a team to organise a fundraiser for over 300 guests for Soul Cafe in Newcastle;
digitising all records;
assisting manage rebranding;
managed the restatement of general purpose financial reports across multiple years after finding material errors. This included managing significant statutory reporting delays as a result;
general purpose and special purpose financial report preparation;
prudential reporting to the Department of Social Services;
assisting the owner with various property deals;
corporate restructuring of the group; and
assisted establish an office in Jakarta as the Chief Representative Officer with Manpower Indonesia and recruited 10 software engineers to build a single paged software application for the aged care business.

I was recruited by PwC in 2016 to assist to build the aged care business. I was responsible for finding new care clients and assisted design and develop several key tools including detailed financial modelling as part of the deregulation of the home care sector. The partner who hired me at the time said I couldn't modify PwC's website to include a detailed aged care section and services to be provided, so I set up Linkedin at the time and grew it to 5000 relevant followers in twelve months, primarily to build the profile of PwC specific aged care experience. At one stage I was ranked the most viewed PwC Australia staff member above the CEO at the time.

In 2018 I formed my own group when I identified a property, being 59 Tindale Street Muswellbrook, that fit with my understanding of regional towns and my aged care passion i.e. affordable and high quality care. This property was to be my first aged care business and key to accessing scalability.

Prior to 2018 I looked at two alternative purchases. The first was an old hospital in Orange, New South Wales although it was contaminated with really bad asbestos from copper pipe lagging after being vandalised and the second was five houses in Orange for a new residential aged care build although that again was vandalised where two properties were deemed worthless after suffering so much damage from vandals.

The Muswellbrook property was badly vandalised and me and my team made the site safe and then subsequently renovated the asset. I was responsible for overseeing all aspects of the renovation and simultaneously building a small person centred aged care business named Providence Living and a mining accommodation business named Muswellbrook Serviced Apartments. Being an accountant and the key decision maker during the renovation allowed me to renovate and fully furnish the asset to a high yet cost effective standard. The hostel renovation and fitout was done to cater for various operating models including appropriate ramp access to bathrooms for accessible bathrooms, hot water heating design/TMV maintenance/installation and the new fire detection system. Prior to Covid-19, I had 7 elderly residents in the assisted living units along with one person with special needs along with approximately 42 FIFO miners from BHP. My team provided key domestic services across both business segments including meals, cleaning and for the assisted living segment additional services including laundry, transport and social activities. Me and my team worked with the local Muswellbrook allied health community. I had an NDIS approved provider application drafted, with home care and residential aged care applications also drafted. My family assisted with the operational elements on the property. My Mum was the professional cleaner, my uncle assisted supervise the renovation and my sister was an overall manager.

I was also key in winning and managing the relationship and customer satisfaction of the mining services business including being the primary contact for UGL, Sedgman and then BHP. I have the ability to connect well with all levels of stakeholders and work hard to satisfy stakeholder needs. I have strong ability working in an agile manner.

Having staff members who had first aid and nursing qualifications assisted both business segments equally for assisted living domestic daily duties and providing first aid and mental health support.

You can see the before and after photos at 59 Tindale Street Muswellbrook photos.

I am no longer associated with 59 Tindale Street Muswellbrook and have never been associated with the current owner. The property was sold 1 December 2020. I am very happy the property continues and that it was not bulldozed!

Post Covid-19, I have been involved in complex litigation concerning the closure of my business. I am unable to discuss the litigation.

Having set up a business from scratch with a property and operational business segment, I have learned/have extensive experience with the following:

complex stakeholder management;
corporate structuring;
valuation management;
insurance portfolio management covering professional indemnity, workers compensations and product & public liability;
prudent litigation management;
contractor management;
liaising with top tier legal firms;
financing;
disaster recovery;
employment;
WHS & quality management;
reactive and preventative asset management;
renovating;
kitchen setup and accreditation;
fire and water management;
building code management;
complaint management;
key client management;
private tax ruling management;
overall risk management; and
information system management.

I live in Adelaide with my Partner and our toddler. I love to garden and enjoy spending quality time with family and friends.

I am particularly interested in the New Aged Care act from 1 November 2025, financial accounting, assurance/quality and governance, and aged care facility maintenance.

I am eager to grow my network and be in the right networks to continue building my passion and learning from others who have relevant skills and experience.