Max Stephenson, Twin View Turf
There are people within every industry who build successful businesses, and then there are the rare few who help build the industry itself.
This year at the Lawn Solutions Australia Conference, Queensland turf producer Max Stephenson was inducted into the Lawn Solutions Australia Hall of Fame, one of the highest honours the group can bestow.
It is an award that is not handed out lightly. Over the past two decades it has only been presented four times, reflecting exactly what the award represents. The Hall of Fame is not about annual sales figures or business growth. It recognises a lifetime of contribution to the Australian turf industry and to the people within it.
For more than 30 years, Max has been one of the defining personalities of Australian turf. He has been a producer, innovator, mentor, problem solver and trusted voice within the industry, but above all else, he has always been someone willing to help.
Anyone who has spent time around the turf industry knows Max, and most people probably have a story about him. It may have been advice over the phone, a visit to help solve a problem, a blunt but honest opinion shared across a conference table, or a late-night conversation at an industry event somewhere around the world. Over the years, Max has had an impact on countless people throughout the industry.
From Pineapples to Turf
Long before Twin View Turf became one of Australia’s most recognised turf businesses, Max’s background was firmly planted in agriculture.
After growing tobacco, capsicums and other small crops, Max spent many years in the pineapple industry. He sold whole fruit as well as fresh-cut and packaged pineapple to supermarkets, which at the time was considered a revolutionary concept.
Pineapple farming, however, came with enormous risk. A crop could take two years from planting to harvest and bad weather at the wrong time could wipe out an entire season. As industry conditions changed, Max began exploring other opportunities. He investigated everything from vegetables to aquaculture before ultimately deciding turf was the future.
The appeal was simple. If the weather turned bad, you could simply keep mowing it. As soon as a pineapple paddock was harvested, the rotary hoe followed behind.
In 1996, Twin View Turf was established with approximately 55,000 square metres of turf production. From those beginnings, Max helped grow the business into one of the true success stories of the Australian turf industry.
Today, Twin View Turf operates across more than 600 acres in production, produces over 800,000 square metres of turf annually and employs more than 50 staff across the business. Based at Wamuran in south-east Queensland, the company has become widely recognised not only for residential turf supply, but also for premium sports turf production, sports field construction and industry-leading service.
An Innovator by Nature
Innovation has always been central to Max’s approach.
If a new piece of machinery arrived on the farm, there was every chance it would spend its first day in the workshop being modified with an oxy torch, grinder and welder. Max has never been satisfied with simply accepting something as good enough.
He was an early adopter of technology across turf production and logistics and continually searched for ways to improve efficiency and turf quality.
One example that has become part of industry folklore was his experience with one of the first Trebro Autoslab harvesters. While Max loved the idea of automated harvesting, he was frustrated by the performance of the vacuum system on the machine. Rather than accepting the limitations, he designed and built the first hook-and-bump system, reflecting the practical and hands-on way he has always approached problem solving.
That mindset extended well beyond his own farm.
Throughout his career, Max has contributed knowledge, planting material and practical support to industry research projects and turf development initiatives. He worked closely with researchers and fellow producers and was involved in supplying material for trials into warm-season turf varieties and saline-tolerant grasses in Australia.
A Presence Across the Industry
For decades, Max has been a familiar face at conferences, field days and industry events both across Australia and internationally.
Long before global industry travel became commonplace, Max was building friendships and networks throughout the turf world. Many within the industry still talk about the “pineapple days”, when conference attendance often meant loading up stories, opinions and ideas and travelling wherever the next opportunity to learn existed.
That willingness to connect with people has become one of Max’s defining traits. He has built a remarkable network of friends across the globe and has always been generous in sharing what he has learned.
If someone in the industry had a problem, Max was often one of the first people to offer advice. It was never polished corporate language or carefully filtered responses. It was practical, direct and based on real experience.
That honesty is part of what people respect most about him. Max has always been unapologetically himself, quick with an opinion, fiercely passionate and completely authentic. People have always known exactly where they stood with him.
Beneath that directness has always been someone deeply invested in helping others succeed. It is a quality many within Lawn Solutions Australia have benefited from over the years. There would be very few members within the group who have not learned something from Max at some point in their career.
Life Beyond Turf
Outside the turf industry, Max’s appetite for adventure has been just as strong. For many years he was heavily involved in deep scuba diving before eventually deciding that exploring extreme depths might not be entirely compatible with a long and healthy life.
That search for adventure eventually led him towards another passion, vintage cars and international rallying. Through clients and friends, Max discovered the world of endurance motoring events, where he could combine several of his greatest interests, fixing things, navigating, travelling and spending time with family.
In a 1921 Vauxhall, Max has completed extraordinary journeys across the globe, often accompanied by his wife Julie or his sons. His travels have included routes from Beijing to Paris, London to Cape Town and Rio de Janeiro to Ushuaia, along with countless journeys of more than 10,000 kilometres throughout Europe.
Like everything Max does, these adventures have become less about the destination and more about the stories, friendships and experiences collected along the way.
A Deserving Honour
The Lawn Solutions Australia Hall of Fame exists to recognise people whose contribution extends far beyond their own business. It recognises people who help shape the culture, standards and future of the industry.
Max Stephenson embodies that perfectly.
His contribution to Australian turf has been immense, not only through the success of Twin View Turf, but through the people he has helped, the knowledge he has shared and the standards he has pushed the industry towards.
For many, Max represents the spirit that built the Australian turf industry. He is hardworking, innovative, independent, generous and deeply passionate about what he does. There are countless stories that could be told about Max Stephenson, but perhaps the simplest summary is this. The industry is better because he has been part of it. Congratulations to Max Stephenson on his induction into the Lawn Solutions Australia Hall of Fame, a truly deserving recognition for a lifetime dedicated to turf.
