ABOUT ME
Where I am at the moment.
Steven Powell
Founder & CEO of Rasp & Sturt and The Nomad Company.
Steven Powell was born in Broken Hill in outback NSW in 1963. Steven started his travelling journey early with his father being a NSW Police Officer for 36 years so Steven was travelling before he started school which was in Wanaaring, west of Bourke in outback NSW in 1969 after two years living in Macksville on the east coast of Australia. Steven finished his schooling in Broken Hill and worked for the NSW Railways before joining the Australian Army in 1983. Serving in the Army in Townsville, Adelaide and Sydney before discharging in Darwin in 1991.
After spending some time in Darwin doing security work, Steven moved to Perth in Western Australia with his then partner and started working in the private security industry working with the Department of Education and the Director of Public Prosecutions in Perth. Steven left Perth in 1996 to start work as head of security on Great! Keppel Island in QLD and in 1997 Steven was the Operations Manager of Arco Coal War in the town of Emerald which received national media coverage and Steven appearing on the Sunday Program on Channel 9 for two weeks running as well as Channel 7s Today Tonight program. After the Gordantsone mine dispute in Emerald Steven was part of the Howard government industrial wharf dispute with private security forces taking over Patricks Stevedore companies in all capital cities in Australia.
Steven then joined Brinks Australia, the armoured car company based in Eagle Farm in Brisbane working with cash transit and CPP (Close Personal Protection) work. Steven quickly became the National Training Manager for Brinks as well as chairman of the Joint Consultative Committee and the State Workplace, Health and Safety officer from 1998 until 2000 when Steven worked with the DAPU (Dignitary Athlete Protection Unit) at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. During his time in Brisbane Steven regularly spoke on B105 FM station as a security expert and appears on the SBS TV Show insight twice as a security expert.
In 2001 Steven moved back to his hometown in Broken Hill and started his own private security firm called The Colour Green. The security wing of that firm was called Blackhawk Protective Services and employed over 80 people all over NSW in different industries such as security, bar staff, chefs and cooks, courier drivers and home services. Whilst working in Broken hIll Steven completed more training and work in the counter terrorism field. In 2006 he moved the business back to Perth and closed that business at the end of 2007 whilst in Switzerland.
Steven then worked in Perth with the Department of Corrections and Juvenile Justice before leaving that work to try something totally different (after some travelling) in the world of photography, where MODO, later renamed The Nomad Company was born. During that time from 2010 to 2017 Steven spent time spent living in Adelaide, Canberra and Broken Hill before returning to Perth in 2017 renaming and rebranding MODO to The Nomad Company.
The Nomad Company now works out of Perth in WA and Adelaide in SA so geographically the business is centre and closer to all of their clients based in every state and territory in Australia.
IN 2023 Steven started work on his own magazine, something he has wanted do for a very long time after being the official photographer for Swimming WA and Swimming Australia. Now sharing his time between Broken Hill and Adelaide working on both businesses his passion drives him to create a publication for the people of Broken Hill and its surrounding areas. A new lifestyle magazine which he hopes the entire far west will embrace with gusto.