MEET CRAIg
Hi, I’m Craig “Hassie” Haslam. As a proud Eyre Peninsula local and passionate advocate for our region, I bring the lived experience, professional insight, and steady leadership to stand up for our communities and natural places as your independent candidate for Flinders.
My Story
For more than three decades, I’ve been building businesses, backing people, and championing the region I call home. I roll up my sleeves, bring people together, and get things done — always with people, place, and nature front of mind.
My journey in this region started where most good stories do: on the ground. After working in the public transport sector in Adelaide in my early years, my wife and I bought the Port Kenny Hotel in 1993. We turned it around, boosted trade, and launched South Australia’s first country hotel courtesy bus between Venus Bay and Port Kenny.
A few years down the track, it was time for the next challenge. We bought a rundown homestead and set about creating Coodlie Park Farm Retreat — a 3,000-hectare property near Port Kenny. We transformed it into a unique eco-retreat and campground built with repurposed materials. With environmental sustainability in my DNA, we started planting trees long before it was fashionable, regenerating 194 hectares of native vegetation each year through seed collecting, propagation, and replanting.
From 1999 to 2006, I worked in government and community roles across the Eyre Peninsula — with the Australian Sports Commission, Regional Development Australia Eyre Peninsula (RDAEP), and in local government. I learned how policy, planning, and partnerships can actually move the needle for regional towns. That experience shaped my approach: listen first, co-design with locals, measure what matters, and keep going until the outcome is real in the community, not just on paper.
In the early 2000s, determined to put the Eyre Peninsula on the map as an international tourism destination, I bought a small touring company running trips between Adelaide and Perth across the Nullarbor. Over the next decade, I carefully and sustainably grew the business, investing in people, building capability, and creating jobs.
When the pandemic hit, I backed people and planned for recovery. I stayed connected to the industry and media, supported my peers, sold Coodlie Park, and relocated to Port Lincoln. Today, Untamed Escapes operates nationally, but our heart and home base is still right here on the Eyre Peninsula.
Along the way, I’ve been a community volunteer, a Justice of the Peace and a confidante and mentor to many people and businesses, including in the First Nations Tourism Mentoring Program, supporting Aboriginal-owned emerging operators. But most importantly,
a proud husband, father and poppa bear to
four grandchildren.
Beyond work, music and sport are my anchors.
I spent a year in regional WA coaching local and representative AFL teams, and when I wasn’t on the oval, I was out on the land, working as a farmhand. I’ve enjoyed coaching and umpiring football across the Eyre Peninsula and was proud to be part of Mid West's first Mortlock Shield title.
I’m a forward-thinker who wears my heart on my sleeve. I’m fiercely passionate about the Eyre Peninsula, and I believe equality and equity belong together. These aren’t just values, they’re the through-line of my career: backing this region and our people, respecting First Nations culture, and caring for Country.
For me, success means stronger towns, meaningful jobs, happier, healthier communities, progress on reconciliation, and the preservation and protection of our natural landscapes.
“I’ve known Craig Haslam for over 20 years, when we both worked in local government on Eyre Peninsula. He’s fiercely passionate about this region, and when he takes something on, he gives it everything.
What you see is what you get with Hassie. He wears his heart on his sleeve and leads with humility.
For him, politics isn’t about power and ego — it’s about people.”
Anita Kuss - Former Independent Candidate for Grey.
