Mile Zero

Where everything is measured from.

Vision

A future where every young Australian starts early and starts level in business and finance, and lets good decisions compound.

Mission

Mile Zero is a student-led initiative that sparks and catalyses curiosity about money and business in every secondary student, from any school, through free competitions, short lessons and a school network, so good decisions start early and compound.

Why we started

We surveyed 73 secondary students before building the Sydney Schools Business Competition. Only 5% said school teaches enough about money, yet most knew more than they felt they did. Read what they told us.

Values

  1. Start at zero.Same start line for everyone.
  2. Pull up a chair.There's always room for one more. Bring a friend, find your people.
  3. Source it or drop it.Be curious enough to check.
  4. Play the long game.Think in years because good compounds.
  5. Leave the ladder down.Climb, then help the next person up.

Why “Mile Zero”

In Macquarie Place, a short walk from Circular Quay, stands a sandstone obelisk from 1818. Road distances across the colony were measured from it, and many of the roads leading out of Sydney still are. It is Sydney's mile zero: the point everything else is counted from.

  1. Macquarie Place, Sydney00 km
  2. Macquarie Tower, South Head711 km
  3. North Head of Botany Bay1423 km
  4. Parramatta15½25 km
  5. Liverpool2032 km
  6. Windsor35½57 km
  7. Bathurst137220 km

Distances in miles as inscribed on the obelisk, with kilometres added.

We think financial confidence works the same way. Where you start shapes everything after it, so we start everyone in the same place.

Why the ibis

The Mile Zero ibis: a red zero forms the body of a black-headed ibis

Sydney calls it the bin chicken. We call it underestimated.

The ibis adapts: when its inland wetlands dried up, it made a new home in the city. It never travels alone. And three thousand years ago, Egyptians made it the symbol of knowledge.

Judge it by its work, not its nickname. That's what Mile Zero asks for every student.

How we're organised

Mile Zero is run by students from schools across Sydney, with adults in the right places. Every role is a flat “Head of” title.

  • Adult CommitteeGovernance and safeguarding.
  • Adult PartnersAcademics and professionals who advise, review cases and judge.
  • ExecutivesFive students who run Mile Zero day to day.
  • PartnersOrganisations that help deliver our programs, such as the competition portal.
  • AmbassadorsYounger students who shadow the executive and help with outreach, events and resources.
  • School RepresentativesTwo or three students at each school who connect their business society to the network.

The team

Team profiles are coming soon.

Become an ambassador