Cape York holds a special place in the hearts of Craig “Woody” Woodward and Cairns Business Women’s Club 2025 Small Business Owner of the Year Ellyse Woodward after the couple met on a far northern motorcycle tour before launching their own business. Photo: Supplied.
What started as a chance crossing of paths on Cape York has morphed into an award-winning business recognised as one of the best in Far North Queensland for one couple.
Ellwood Motorcycle Adventures co-owner Ellyse Woodward was named the 2025 Small Business Owner of the Year at the Cairns Business Women’s Club (CWBC) Business Woman of the Year Awards on 26 July for helping steer the growth of the company that now runs tours across Australia, as well as in parts of south-east Asia.
While the business has expanded well beyond Cape York, Ms Woodward said the northernmost part of Queensland held special significance for her and her now-husband, Craig “Woody” Woodward.
“Cape York is special to us, because it’s where Woody and I met,” she told Cape York Weekly while on a tour in Western Australia last week.
“He was the lead rider on one of the Cape trips … and I went up for a trip with my dad, and that’s where we met.
“So, it’s always been a pretty special place to us, and it’s still one of our signature tours for a reason – every day is different with the scenery and places we get to visit.”
Ms Woodward described the win as a significant step for the business and explained how she came to be nominated for the award.
“It was actually our website lady,” she said.
“She was updating our website and learning all about what we do and us and everything, and she’s like, ‘you guys need to be nominated for an award, because what you do is really cool and incredible, and you need some recognition’, so, she’s nominated us for some awards, and the [CBWC] one was one of them.”
Ms Woodward added the nomination process had provided the couple and their team a rare opportunity to stop and reflect on how far the business had come.
“It was actually a really cool process, because they asked some questions about the business and where we came from and what we do, and why we do it,” she said.
“It was a pretty cool reflection to sort of look back, look at what we do and where we’ve come from, and how cool our team is; and it’s just been great recognition of our whole team.”
