Stu's Stories as at 2024

neighbourly – and look for himself. He told me a number of times what I was doing would “kill the trees”. Basically, looking down on me as what old time farmers often referred to as a “Pitt Street farmer”. (Pitt Street is a main street in Sydney’s centre.) In other words, telling me I didn’t know what I was doing. However, as his son reported back to him that what I was doing was proving highly successful, he, and others, started to take notice. “Maybe this Pitt Street farmer wasn’t such a drongo after all!” Consequently, they slowly gave up their road building jobs and started rebuilding and working their orchards again. The funny thing was, as they followed my lead, they would say, “This is the only way to do this”; as if they had been doing it that way all their lives. I just smiled and quietly thanked the old truckie. Six years later, as the pain was becoming too great, I sold out for 4 times what I paid for it. All because of the advice given to me by that old truckie…the best advice I have ever had: “Listen to the experts, see what everybody else is doing, and then use your head.” This doesn’t mean everything will always work out right but, at least, you will always know you did your best. As I usually put it, do your homework! Stuart Oliver P a g e | 80