“ I have 8 brothers and sisters including a set of twins. At one stage there was one in Year 12 and one in Kindergarten so we were pretty close together. We all went to school here in Kyogle. My mum and dad had a dairy farm here which is where I grew up.
My memories are of getting up at 5 to milk the cows, feed the pigs, catch the bus to school, come back, have some Weetbix, go down and milk the cows, back in the house at 6.
I had an instinctive love of growing things on the farm from a very young age. Dad always had a veggie garden so from when I was about 9 I had him cultivate half an acre near the old house where the nursery is now. I also loved looking after the pigs so from the age of about 11 I was looking after all the pigs. I used to read all the magazines on pig farming and thought I would end up a pig farmer. Mum would take all us kids down to the beach at Christmas time for a holiday and my holiday was staying on the farm with Dad because I loved it so much.
High school came along as did all the adolescent stuff that comes with it and my younger twin brothers who are in the nursery now took over my work when I left. I did well in High School. I loved Maths and Science and went on to Uni at Armidale University to do my Science / Maths Physics degree. I went on a teachers scholarship which didn’t really interest me, I just wanted to do the course. I did really well and came second in Physics in my first year at Uni. That was in the early 70’s. I did a couple of years there and I enjoyed it but it was the time of smoking a bit of dope, doing your own thing so I took a year off.
I went cycling in New Zealand. I was over there for a couple of years and Bernie came over. Bernie went to school with my sister and she had come over to visit as my sister was over there at the time. I asked her to come cycling with us and she said If you get me a bike I’ll stay. She came bike riding with us around the North Island for about 5 months. That was in about 1978 when Bernie was 19 and I was 23. We fell in love. It was magic! We got married and the 1st April this year is our 40th Anniversary.
I thought I better get serious as I’d left my course, travelled NZ and I still had this love of farming. When I was in NZ I worked on farms and learnt more about organic farming. This course came up in Hawkesbury Ag College. It was the Diploma course in Horticulture so I did that and I was passionate about it. By then our first child Carlie was coming along so I realised I had a family and needed to make a living. While doing the Horticulture I was planning to start a tree Nursery up the North Coast. During the course I was gathering seeds and learning as much as I could. I would go to the library and get anything I could on plants. I would photocopy all the info and make folders up so I had all the info to start the nursery. This was before computers and data bases. I used to imagine there being something like Google way before Google.
One of the trips back here I convinced my Dad to give me a bit of land around the house. Rick, one of the twins came on board. The year after, Rod the other twin came into the nursery too. After getting enough product we started selling at The Channon, Lismore and other markets. That was about 38 years ago.
We came home with Carlie and the same year Bree was born. We then had Sarah. We bought a house in Kyogle and not long after Dad was kind enough to give us a block on the side of the property. We built the house, moved in and then our son Paul came along. That’s when the nursery really started.
I really wanted to work in something I was passionate about. I never wanted to work in a public service type job. In the beginning we were growing Macadamias, Avocados, lots of fruit trees. I wanted to broaden it so we started to look at the backyard market. Once that took off we started supplying nurseries and garden centres. That was in the 90’s and when computer technology came into it we got into online marketing as well.
We probably have over 500 species now including rare and exotic fruit trees. As far as a broad range of fruit trees we are definitely the largest in Australia. The good thing about having the nursery is I’ve been able to work in a community. I’ve always wanted to be involved with community so it’s perfect working with family and my work community. We have systems where we profit share with staff. I’m looking though for someone to replace myself and my brothers eventually. That’s a big challenge as we need to find more of us.
I lost my Mum and Dad, Mary and Hilary in 2004. They moved to Alstonville about 4 years before to more or less have a change and have their own space. Every Tuesday they would come back to visit. One morning they didn’t turn up. 7am came and they weren’t here which was unusual. One of our guys came to work and said there was a bad accident down at Cedar Point and my mind didn’t click. I went into town to check and there was no-one at the Police station. I drove out just out of curiosity and I saw their blue car. They went together. The day of the funeral we had this photo taken of all the family, brothers, sisters, grandkids. There was about 50 of us and everyone had this amazing smile. It was like their energy coming back through the family. It’s such a beautiful photo.
I have 7 grandchildren now. Someone said to us the reason we have kids is so we can have grandkids. It’s a beautiful thing. You can’t relate until they come along and it’s all love. You love your own children but it’s a different love. Someone said there’s different types of Grandparents. There’s the ones where you end up having them all the time, There’s the others where sadly through relationship breakdown or distance you don’t have access to them. Then there’s us where they’re not too close and not too far away and when we have them it’s pure joy. You never know, there may be someone in the next generation who wants take over the business.
I’m involved with a cycling group and we call ourselves the Kyogle Tyred Turkeys. Every year for the past 12 years 12 – 16 of us take off for a week or so. That’s what I love about Kyogle. You can jump on your bicycle and take of into the mountains. It’s just magic. I love Fairymount as well. There’s beautiful bush walking tracks up there with views right over the valley.
Part of my transition into retirement is to take more holidays with Bernadette. Since I’ve turned 60 we take at least one month a year to get away. Would be nice to take longer, thats why I’m looking for these little me’s I can train up.
I love Kyogle. I always sing ‘the green, green grass of home’ when I come back into it.”
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