Growing up in Rockingham WA with a family that worked hard to create opportunities, Phillipson’s dad was an entrepreneurial fisherman and the state’s first mussel farmer; her mum a keen renovator, restorer, sewer and collector. No silver spoons.
It was a family life that engendered a serious work ethic and at just 10, Phillipson helped her dad run a mussel bar in Fremantle as the town took off in the wake of the America’s Cup defence, her very first taste of the hospitality industry. Lots of part-time restaurant jobs followed.
She loved everything about it.
However two significant stepping stones shaped the career she subsequently carved for herself since the opening of that first restaurant (Rústico in Rockingham was subsequently sold as a highly successful going concern in 2024).
One was an career in media sales, a fast-paced and seriously competitive business rewarding quick thinkers and good talkers. The other was travel and life abroad, working both in media sales and gastropubs in the UK while seeing something of Europe.
It led to that lightbulb decision to come home, marry her childhood sweetheart and launch a restaurant devoted to generous, informal and broadly Spanish eating and drinking that has since been credited as playing a pivotal role in the Rockingham Renaissance.
Rústico Rockingham was a success from the get-go as Phillipson pinpoint-targeted an audience craving a social drinking venue within a food-centric vibe that wasn’t a pub. A knack for developing community, delivering great Mediterranean inspired food and warm hospitality built Rústico Rockingham to the status of local institution fast.
Building on that foundation, the offer to take over the Hay Shed Hill Cafe at one of Margaret River’s premium vineyard sites was a natural extension of the brand and in 2016, Phillipson and husband Corey - supported by a loyal core team from Rockingham - began the next chapter.
Rústico at Hay Shed Hill has been an outstanding success since the beginning, with a razor-sharp customer focus driving everything: accessible operating hours and kitchen times, outstanding rustic-yet-elegant Med-inspired food, warm and unpretentious hospitality and a location at the heart of one of Margaret River’s prettiest, and most prestigious vineyards.
All the while, Phillipson has thrived on a business approach of “knowing what you don’t know, and fixing it”: a culture of constant business training and skills development for herself and her management team has helped the business grow significantly, with legions of loyal customers both locally, from Perth, and beyond.
And like all good restaurateurs, Phillipson benchmarks herself constantly with travel interstate and abroad.
“My biggest achievement in life so far,” she says “would be fulfilling that dream of opening my own restaurant in my hometown and then to go on and open another on a vineyard in Margaret River… and having them operate profitably, at the same time. It wasn’t immediate.”
Mindful of the toll restaurants can take on their operators, Phillipson has also worked hard on life balance.
“Owning restaurants and not letting them get the better of you has always been a massive focus; they can have a huge impact back on your personal and physical wellbeing. So being able to maintain a marriage for that entire time has been an achievement I’m very proud of too.”
The next - synergistic - chapter of the Rústico story began in 2023 with the launch of Rústicoq Bed & Breakfast in Cowaramup, a sympathetically restored heritage property dripping with character that caters to a discerning breed of tourist exploring the Margaret River region.
It is the foundation of what will eventually become a network of accommodation venues in the district, with exciting developments to be announced in the second half of 2025 that will extend Phillipson’s Margaret River region hospitality reach.
Another part of the matrix, a unique personalised transport service to bring customers to the restaurant and get them home safely -The Rústico Ride - launched in 2025, a first for the district and the state.
Today, Phillipson’s employs some 30 permanent and part time staff across the various businesses.
“Having an anything-is-possible, can-do attitude isn’t a skill as such, but is probably my greatest asset,” she says. “A love of people falls in to the same bracket.
“But my greatest skill is probably the ability to develop an idea, pitch it, and then bring people along for the ride. Developing teams and working in those teams is probably my greatest motivation. It’s certainly where my greatest satisfaction comes from.”
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