Jasmin and Tim Le Deux, centre, with the Rushworth General Store team at the 2026 Campaspe Murray Business Awards.
Photo by
Andrew Mole
The Rushworth General Store story reads like the plot of one of those sweeping Australian bush sagas – a family moved from France to Australia to join the gold rush in the 1850s, generations later a country boy and girl meet by accident, they have lived remarkably parallel lives and then, bazinga, it all comes together.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Welcome to the Jasmin and Tim Le Deux show, which has seen the couple transform a vision in a little country town into one of the trendiest and hottest retail tickets in regional Victoria.
A success story recognised at the 2026 Campaspe Murray Business Awards – first with the McPherson Media Group Retail Award and then, possibly best of all, Nichol Trading People’s Choice.
Rushworth General Store has become a darling of the digital world with its eclectic combination of French-inspired home and garden decor, seasonal clothing (especially cottons, linens, wool knits), organic skincare, indoor/outdoor plants, fresh local blooms, gifts, and books.
But for Jasmin, this has also been an incredibly personal journey from the get-go – a journey nourished by her husband’s belief in her and then a whole lot of hard work and very long days.
So how did they get to that point in time?
Try this – they were both originally from around Nagambie, their families knew each other, they did not.
Then both spent years living in Melbourne, unbelievably in the same suburb, and still they didn’t run into each other.
And then, once upon a Christmas gathering back in Nagambie, one of Tim’s cousins introduced him to a girl called Jasmin and, well, and bazinga.
Fast forward and after years of working retail and helping others succeed with their businesses, she kept wondering if she could, if she should, have a go on her own.
But in the end, it was Tim who provided the push, and from that first step into the void the store is on its way to becoming a very big success story in a very small country town (population circa 1411, give or take at the last count).
“It’s a long way from Little Collins Street to little Rushworth but there is no place I would rather be,” Jasmin said the day after winning her big double at the awards.
Rushworth General Store's Jasmin Le Deux with McPherson Media Group's Haydn O'Neill after winning the retail award at the 2026 Campaspe Murray Business Awards.
“I have always looked at having my own store, and when Tim told me to stop talking and start doing, I did,” she said.
“When I saw a shop come onto the market that was the signal, we worked hard to be open every day, we added things such as flowers – there wasn’t a florist in town – and introducing quality products, ones which last and are valued.
“It’s amazing how much we managed to cram into that little shop before we moved to our current site at 29 High St two years after we started.”
Jasmin said the new shop was an 1890’s building which was quickly renovated – and then packed to the gills with even more stuff.
Which Jasmin’s growing public was loving even more.
“In Country Style magazine we have been named the number one shop in regional Victoria in a customer vote, like the one we received at the business awards, and that’s what every business wants to know, that it’s customers love it, and value it.”
Jasmin said people keep telling her the Rushworth General Store would do so much better in a bigger town, but she isn’t interested.
She already has social media platforms at her fingertips and next is most likely an online store – but for Jasmin it goes way deeper than that.
“Our family have been on the land near here for six generations, still on the original farm, and where else could you go and get a welcome like Rushworth, have a town with all these beautiful old buildings and get to know so many happy and supportive customers and friends,” she said.
