In the company of angels

Danielle Robertson was born at a time when Australian women had to manage their homes, children and entertaining pretty much on their own.

- JULIA NEWBOULD

Fact file

Danielle Robertson

Former CEO of Dial an Angel, now an aged care navigator. Lives in Sydney. Divorced, re-partnered and mother of two adult children, Zoe and Zack.

She says she sometimes feels like a clown trying to juggle a lot of balls in the air. Hobbies include reading biographies, bushwalking, spending time with family and friends and house-hunting for her children to try and get them into the property market.

Robertson’s mother, Dena Blackman, was very sick after giving birth to Danielle, her third child, in 1966.

Danielle’s two older sisters, then aged three and six, helped look after her, and eventually her father contacted Ku-ring-gai Council for help with managing the three children and the house.

The council told him he should have called to book help nine months ago.

Robertson says her mother recovered from her illness but kept thinking “I wish I could have dialled an angel” to help with the new baby, shopping, meals preparation and taking the kids to school. She continued to ruminate over it and talked about it so much that eventually her husband told her to do it herself or shut up.

Danielle’s mother wrote her ideas down on a sheet of butcher’s paper and with that rudimentary presentation of a business plan she went to see the local bank manager. She had established how the agency would work by finding out what shop assistants were earning, checking wage schedules and interviewing would-be clients. Calculating that she would need $200 to get started, she asked the bank manager for a loan.