Born and bred in Port Levy Banks Peninsula to a hill country sheep and beef farming family. On leaving boarding school at the age of 18 return to work on the family farm and became a part time shearer. After my parents’ deaths (mother when I was 19 and father when I was 20) I took over the running of the farm. Then after a couple of years brought my sisters out to own the farm myself.
With the farm becoming too small and uneconomical I sold up in late 1999 and shift to Diamond
Harbour. Then for the next two- and a-bit years I worked for a local hill country fencing contractor
and a local weed spraying contactor who did most of his spraying on hill country.
Then in 2002 I acquired a job with Agriculture New Zealand (a PGGWrightson business) in Christchurch teaching unemployed people farming (all NZQA units & certificates). Also a few years down the track I did some safety training with Agriculture New Zealand for Farmsafe (which became Farm Skills). In May 2012 Agriculture New Zealand made me redundant due to the changes in Government funding so I set myself up as a company and contracted myself back to Farmsafe for a start off and later on to other organisations like the Lincoln College BHU, the Primary ITO, Land Base training and in the last couple of years Vertical Horizonz. With these organisations I tutor farm safety for Motorbikes, Quads, Tractors, 4WD Utes, Chainsaws, Fencing, Growsafe (standard, basic & renewals) and other Chemical Handling courses. I hold all the relevant NZQA Units for these topics and years of experience in using them.
In my spare time when not tutoring I work casually for a couple of local hill country sheep and beef farmers doing the everyday duties with stock, riding quad bikes, using chainsaws, driving and spraying with the tractors, driving 4WD Utes, fencing (new and repair) and spraying with a knapsack or gun.
I’m also very interested in rugby and have coached men’s and women’s teams to a fairly high level in Canterbury and the West Coast. With all the years of experience and knowledge I have, I bring to the course to make it interesting.
