Celebrating 50 Years of Jimboomba Turf
Some 50 years ago, a born and bred grazing family from Longreach decided life was pushing them for a sea change. The family had been working on the land since 1914, after generations of fighting against the droughts and enduring the harsh Western Queensland landscape, the idea of a property with a never-ending water supply seemed almost too good to be true. It sounded so good, in fact, they would pack up their lives and all that they knew to brave a new industry, a new way of life and a new direction. This brave and bold choice today sees them as a leader in the turf industry and pioneers of methods and techniques that have changed how we grow, understand and use turf grass.
Lynn Davidson, in his mid-twenties and manager of the family’s sheep and cattle station at the time of the big move, shares his story of this fascinating journey and the lessons he has learned along the way.
Lynn Davidson – Managing Director, Jimboomba Turf
I’d been running the station since I was 19, it was a lot to take on as a young man. 10,000 sheep and 1,000 head of cattle kept me busy. However, I had met a great lady named Carolyn, but she was not just any woman, she was an excellent stockwoman, a great horsewoman, a great cook & was tough as nails in the bush. She later became my wife, and we were ready for the steep learning curve that Western Qld had to offer.
Along the way, our family circumstances changed, and rural commodities were changing, which prompted a change in life. My dad saw an ad in the paper for a Turf Farm and suggested we consider it; the rest is history. We were captivated by the turf farm’s constant water source, courtesy of the river that ran along it.
We sold our western holdings and came here with zero knowledge of grass, possibly less than zero, as we didn’t have much ‘lawn’ around the homestead on the station. The lifestyle change was hard, being in a much smaller, more intense environment was a challenge, we were used to big open spaces with not many trees, and to this day, Carolyn and I still miss the bush.
The turf farm was already established, and we took over with the existing team still embedded to help the transition. This really helped ease the pressure. Over the next couple of years, my family worked together to learn the ropes and became ready to take on everything, that said, we kept many of the original team members on, in fact, the original mechanic only retired in 2022!
What did the journey of growth look like?
Learning to understand markets was a significant and foreign change – in sheep and cattle, you took the market rate, turf was a very different game. Marketing was then and is to this day our biggest challenge and everchanging part of the business.
Back then, the marketing strategy was to have as many full-page ads in the Yellow Pages as possible – things were pretty simple then and are very different now.
Apart from that, we didn’t have a great deal of strategy. In the mid-’80s, the golf course boom happened, we were fortunate enough at that time to have enough credibility to get a lot of that work, but this meant we didn’t focus enough on our domestic consumers. When the golf course boom ended, we needed to work on our consumer market and build back that relationship, which took a lot of work and effort.
The big lesson there was to ensure you can keep the bread and butter going simultaneously if you take on larger projects. To this day, we pass on some projects if we know they cannot run in parallel with core demand.
Later came the golf course boom in Asia, which served us well as many of the same people we worked with locally in Australia were building the Asian golf courses. They respected our capabilities, so it was just a matter of putting the grass on the planes. To start with, this was not a simple procedure, dealing with customs, airlines, etc., but as time passed, we established relationships with all the parties in the supply chain, and it became a relatively simple procedure. To this day, there are golf courses in Vietnam, Indonesia, China, Singapore and UAE that have Jimboomba turf grass.
Over the years since we have had some exciting things happen that have helped us grow, new grasses have been significant on that journey. Sir Walter gave us a unique solution to help people with shady areas. Before this, turf was a bit one size fits all, now we are heading to an era where we have grasses that can be matched to different and unique needs. We were very active in the market, had good land and had a lot of drive to succeed, so these were factors that were complimented by these new grasses.
The products available to us now, such as TifTuf Hybrid Bermuda, Sir Grange Zoysia and the new Zoysia Australis, are prescription-grade products for unique situations. Through excellent education, the consumer quickly becomes aware of these fit-for-purpose characteristics.
We have also tried new things, from commercial and international supply to landscaping & revegetation contracting, but we have evolved into a primarily consumer-focused business over recent years. Concurrently the forming of Lawn Solutions Australia (LSA) has helped support us in our choice to be a premium turf supplier, supplying only premium quality grasses.
Lessons Learned Over the Years
Turf Farming is several businesses rolled into one, marketing, farming, logistics and administration. Unfortunately, these skills rarely all come in one head, so skill diversification is an essential part of the game.
It is critical to have these four pillars functioning at a high level. We were fortunate to have my sister Cherie administering the Finance & Administration function for many years before her passing in May 2020. She was a huge pillar of support in keeping things running smoothly.
Forecasting in this industry is complex, there are so many variable factors impacting the business each year, weather, for example, is a tough one, and when you add to this managing CAPEX and depreciation on a never-ending list of new machinery, complexity arises.
Trends and Advancements in the Turf Industry
There have not been big trends so much. Significant advancements have come in the form of machinery. Like everyone else, we used to hand harvest, these clunky hand-held things we pushed around, then tractor harvesters and pallets, that we could load the grass onto came. Eventually, auto harvesters, which were average to start with, but now they are an excellent product.
Looking forward, the next significant evolution will be in mowing, auto electric mowers, which are GPS programmed, will have a substantial impact on the mowing function cost, especially fuel burn. There will be a labour save here, but the management cost of these assets will determine the significance of that. They’re still a little way off, but they will happen soon enough.
What stands out as your significant milestones as a business?
Sir Walter was significant, it was a massive thing for us, and as history will tell, so it was for a considerable portion of the industry. Being a grower of Sir Walter also has had a significant knock-on effect, it has connected growers across the country. This has resulted in great friendships being created, but also a tremendous amount of knowledge sharing.
During our first ten years in the industry, there were no industry associations or social contact with other growers, which is light years away from where the industry is today. This is probably hard for those young in the industry now to comprehend.
Also, having wonderful staff knowledge to begin to understand which products work best for the QLD landscape, this understanding has meant we have been able to intentionally plant and nurture a range of the best grasses for the local area.
What have been your prominent successes or failures?
One of the big ones was probably ‘Stay Turf’; it’s a concept we created where we grew the grass on a jute matting, and it could be used in drains (like on the sides of a road for erosion control) to stop dirt and debris washing down, it was a fantastic product. It was scientifically tested and proven to work nearly as well as hard armour, concrete etc., but unfortunately, once we created the product and created the market, cheaper alternatives came along, which were half as good and half the price. StayTurf even won an award on the ABC TV Inventors program.
As time went on in the Erosion control space, we added some Hydromulching trucks to the mix. At that point, we were very active in the commercial area, and this equipment closed the loop for many of the requirements of civil projects.
The civil space was becoming crowded, so the Hydromulching assets were redeployed out to the Surat Basin, to work in the Coal Seam Gas industry. This was rewarding work, revegetating massive dam batters and hundreds of disturbed creek crossings where the gas pipelines went.
We followed the pipeline construction crews from Dalby up to Injune, some 500 kilometres of offroad work. However, nearly overnight, the price of oil and gas collapsed, and all the gas exploration work stopped.
Who has been influential in growing your business?
It’s a funny one, when we took on this business, we knew nothing about growing turf. We knew a bit about cattle and sheep but nothing about turf. The significant skill I took from the west was asking the ‘old blokes’ for advice.
If I had a vexing issue, I would ask one of the older men or women what they thought, they always had advice built from experience, which is the good advice. I took this tradition with me to the turf world. The only trouble was there weren’t any old blokes around.
Along the line, I met Bill Cassimaty from Strathayr in Melbourne, Bill was always inspirational to speak to, a wonderful industry stalwart.
I met up with Bill at a conference in the US once, and he introduced me to a bunch of the American ‘old blokes’. It might not seem like much in today’s world of near-instant information, but in those days, the spoken word, and relationships with the folk of vastly superior knowledge and experience were gold. I cherish the conversations with those folk over the years. The holistic industry advice and wisdom they gave me helped shape how we worked and grew the business.
What makes Jimboomba Turf different?
I think we are different because of how we approach the market. We only take to market the top-end products. We aren’t in the lower price point game; we only sell and grow the best premium and highest quality products. Lower price point turf is what some people need, and that’s ok, but we are not the people to buy that from.
LSA support these quality products and helps us educate the consumers on why they should choose a premium product, and which is most likely suitable for their circumstances.
Advice for others looking to run a family business
Recognise different and individual skills. My sister, Cherie, and I worked well like that. I never questioned her administration, and she never questioned if I needed a new machine, we knew what each other did best and supported that.
The landscape is littered with failed family businesses, and from my observation, the different skills within the family may not have been exploited to their potential.
The Next Five Years
Strengthening our premium products in the market, maintaining our premium position, and helping educate the market on why to choose premium lawns. I’ll move away from the business and work on some diversified projects, within our other business interests. Renee (my eldest daughter who now primarily oversees things) and her partner will continue to care for and grow the business. They’re both very creative and have lots of exciting ideas and plans for novel product offerings etc.
If you could give every turf customer one piece of advice for their new lawn, what would it be?
Water your turf, the second it comes, lay it, and water, water, water. It happens too often, people get it, then don’t lay it for a few days, then don’t really water it and wonder why it dies off.
“Just water your new lawn, and you’ll be set for success!”
However, I guess every turf farmer in the country would also give the same advice on this one.
