On the 7th of October 1921 Nicholas and Maria Boyle and ten of their eleven children (seven boys and four girls) moved to Rosemount from Northern New South Wales and purchased the farm that would become their legacy, still supporting the Boyle family four generations into the future.
Ross, the current custodian, is an immensely proud third generation Boyle to work the land his ancestors bought and cleared in 1921. Nicholas and Maria, Ross’ grandparents started farming sugar cane on the rich river flats and a variety of small crops including beans, bananas, pineapples, pawpaw’s, and ginger on the hill land.
In 1939, four of the seven Boyle Sons were ‘called to arms’ and went to fight in World War II. Three of the boys returned to the property, while one was sadly killed by a sniper 45 days before WWII ended.
The story goes that Sam Boyle who returned after surviving Changi Prison and The Burma Railway, kissed the ground, and vowed to never leave Rosemount again… and he never did.
As per tradition the family helped establish all the boys on their own properties in the district with the home farm being taken on by Harry and Gloria Boyle (Ross‘ parents) in partnership with his brother Nicholas Boyle.
Harry and Gloria had four children; Barbara, Hugh, Geoff & Ross and continued farming sugar cane on the original property, while slowly buying neighbouring properties as they came up for sale. After 45 years on the farm Harry was ready to retire.
Ross had been living in Mossman in far north Queensland and was training to become a sugar chemist at the local mill. He was 18 years old when Harry asked him to come home and join the family business. Harry and Ross worked together for several years so that he could mentor Ross in the fine art of farming. Hugh Ross’s oldest brother who was working in the sugar industry in Ayre, also expressed a desire to return to the family farm and so from 1980 Ross and Hugh worked in partnership.
In 1998 Ross bought Hugh out of the partnership and Ross and Lynelle continued farming sugar cane on this property.
2003 threw a spanner into the works when the sugar mill shut down, which left the entire local cane industry without anywhere to process the cane. Selling the family farm was never an option, Ross had to find a crop to be productive and equally forgiving to grow on a flood plain.
After much research the family decided to go into farming turf. The beautiful farm is a long narrow farm on a flood plain with Petrie Creek and Petrie Creek Road as boundaries. They can get up to a metre of water over the farm several times a year in a wet year. Sugar cane as a crop was great for such an area as it would survive the deluge and so would turf.
This is when Rosemount Turf was born. In the blink of an eye, the family went from being sole traders to employers.
This ‘let’s grow turf’ became the thing that took over the Boyle families lives, and it was all they talked about, problem solved and made plans for. Rosemount Turf originally grew Wintergreen Couch and then bought a licence for Sapphire Soft Leaf Buffalo. A local turf farmer who had sold his farm for a housing development approached them to buy his goodwill and licences. The family were happy to acquire these licences and started growing other turf varieties to give their customers choices to suite their property’s needs.
Changing the farm from sugar cane to turf was not the only challenge faced, suddenly the bookkeeping for the cane farm that Lynelle managed on weekends turned into a fulltime job and they had to figure out a way to market and sell the product.
As sole traders there wasn’t any policies or procedures in place. These had to be researched, written and enacted. Training and managing staff were a whole new game and learning to grow a new crop was a daily challenge. Most of the machinery was for sugar cane farming which was unable to be utilised for turf farming, so sourcing and financing this change presented challenges.
Ross Boyle believes in serving and giving back to the industry that feeds them. He was on the Moreton Mill Suppliers Committee while a cane farmer and quickly became involved in Turf Queensland, followed by Turf Australia as a turf farmer. Ross was the president of Turf Australia from 2016 to 2021. Rosemount Turf from the get go have been regular attendees of turf conferences and being new to the industry learnt a lot from the organised speakers and from networking with other turf growers.
Rosemount Turf’s first turf sale was 10m2 of couch, which was sold for $3.00m2. “We had all the family down at the farm watching the first cut with the old Van Vuuren hand stacking turf harvester.” Things are a little different now, where they harvest on average between 5 and 10 thousand square metres of turf per week, using a Trebro SC2010 auto stacking turf harvester. Rosemount Turf service the Sunshine Coast and parts of Brisbane.
Rosemount Turf specialise in backyard renovations and are passionate about educating customers on how to get the best out of their lawns. The farm is centrally located on the Sunshine Coast, which means customers can collect their turf direct and buy products from the lawn shop.
In 2016 Rosemount Turf accepted the opportunity to join Lawn Solutions Australia (LSA). Rosemount Turf believe in the research and development program and the dedication (LSA) have to their growers and how they strive to meet the modern and everchanging turf market.
“Sir Walter DNA certified Soft Leaf Buffalo has become a household name and we wanted to ensure the future of our business for the next generation.”
To mark the 100th anniversary of the farm, a mural was commissioned for the machinery shed, painted by Ross Holloway, a local mural artist. It depicts our evolution from cane to turf. The family has had numerous people comment on how much they miss the cane trains and cane fires on dusk in the Valley, but also express their appreciation of the manicured and peaceful vista the turf farm presents now.
Rosemount Turf have also installed a 500m2 new display area called ‘Gloria’s Garden’ overlooking the dam ‘Lake Harry’ for customers to enjoy and help visualise what their backyard would look like with – Sir Walter DNA Certified Soft Leaf Buffalo, Sir Grange Zoysia or TifTuf Hybrid Bermuda.
Ross and Lynelle’s Daughter, Penelope Boyle and Son in Law Greg Pelka (married to Jessica Pelka nee Boyle), together with farm manager Sam Wasmund are ready to take the business into the future.
“We may not see another one hundred years but would like to give it a red-hot crack!”
