I have lived in the Cummins District my whole life. I grew up on the farm at Kapinnie, Micadabrah, where I grew up living with Mum and Dad (Rae and Harold), my sister Carolyn and brothers Brett and Dale.

Growing up in the Kapinnie/Mount Hope community, I played sport; mostly football and cricket. During that time growing up, Kapinnie had a CWA, Rural Youth, CFS, Ag Bureau and schools at Brimptom Lake and Mt. Hope. We went to school in Cummins and if we were lucky, we went to pictures in Yeelanna on occasion.

As I got older and finished school and got my license, my network expanded. I played basketball in Cummins during the week and got more involved in Rural Youth, CFS and sport. I was lucky that I had a wide group of friends and family. I had those locally that we grew up with in the Kapinnie/Mount Hope communities; school friends from Cummins and Port Lincoln and sporting friends from Wangary, Coulta, Yeelanna, Lock, Ungarra and Tumby Bay.

Early the year after I finished school, in February 1974, I went off to Country Carnival cricket in Adelaide for two weeks. When I came home, I went working with dad on the farm. The two things I hated the most about farming were picking stumps and stones. But the new farm we bought was covered in stumps and stones so I knew I would never have idle hands!

After a few years working on the farm my mate Grassy Green and I had an idea to take some time off after seeding year 1983 and travel around Australia. It took us a while to gain some momentum on our trip as we visited most of the local watering holes on the way. This resulted in taking 3 days just to get off Eyre Peninsula! The next stop on this trip was Kingoonya and after enjoying life for 24 hours straight; Grassy and I decided it might be a good idea to have a sleep and no beers for a couple days. It was a fun and memorable trip with fishing, trucks, work and adventures.

Grassy and his family spent a lot of time with us either socially or sport wise. He really loved his fishing. When Grassy had his accident, I was in shock and disbelief and later felt I had lost a great mate who I had shared some amazing times with. I think that I was lucky to have known Grass for most of his life. He was infectious and that made you enjoy whatever you did with him or around him. You never want to lose any of your mates. Now every time I see the sea it makes me think of both Grass and Seaweed, and I wonder what those 2 are up to now.

I met my beautiful wife Jacinta not long after I returned from our trip, and we were married in 1984. Our daughter Justine was born the year after, 1985, and our son Matthew 2 years later in 1987. During this time, we lived out at our Coonara farm.

I spent 20 years on the farm with Dad, Brett, and Dale after he finished school. During this time Brett had been shearing in between seeding and harvest and had been doing this for a number of years. In late 1993 we had a family discussion about Brett giving up the shearing to join us on the farm full time. This eventuated and having Brett on the farm worked well for all of us.

Early in the summer of 1994 I ran into Matt Haarsma at a cricket Grand Final and we got chatting. Monday the following week Leo Haarsma rang me and asked me to come into the shop which at that time was called L.Haarsma & Co. Leo offered me a job and after discussion with Jacinta and family we decided to take the offer. The job was a sales agronomist. I wasn’t sure how I would go as I wasn’t qualified. Leo had faith in me and gave me valuable experience of the other side of farming that I would never regret.

I fondly recall a trip on the 9th July 1994 with Butch Phillips. We umpired at Lock that day and after the game we had a few beers. Maybe a few too many. I got done for drink driving that night after dropping Butch off home. I lost my license for 7 months. Lucky by then we lived in town, this meant I could walk or ride to work. I was a bit sheepish about having to front up Monday morning to tell Leo. I followed Leo out the back mid-morning and quietly told him my news. He turned to me and smiled and said, “well it was going to happen to one of us sooner or later!”. Frank Wauchope rang the office during that week and requested that I deliver 20 litres of Round up on my push bike! Leo was a good boss and working in the office more gave me the valuable experience of learning about business and people which I hadn’t previously encountered. I stayed with Leo and Matthew until end of June 2002. During this time Kevin Warren owned Eyreial Ag Serivces, an aerial spraying and spreading business. His Eyreial Ag business was steadily growing, and Kevin had made some noise about starting a base in Cummins because up until then he had been based out of his farm at Greenpatch. I started with Kevin and Marg 1st July 2002, and we set up an office at home for Eyreial Ag Services. Kevin and Marg bought a parcel of land west of Cummins which became their base here in Cummins. I worked for Kevin and Marg until 2010, when Aerotech purchased their business.

During this time, we were instrumental in getting the aerial spraying happening over the weekends. Previously all aerial spraying had only occurred Monday to Friday and was at the peril of the weather on these days; many weekend days were perfect for spraying. Whenever the weather was suitable, we got the spraying organised and I became very busy organising maps, chemicals and farmers to be ready. Prior to this happening I had noticed in the late 90s/early 2000s the outlying communities were getting smaller, and people had to travel further. Over the years we have lost that small community base in each area.

The sporting teams and facilities, local halls and support groups, local social outings etc. Changes happened and Cummins became the central hub for community, emergency services, support services, business, education, health and sport. Socially over these decades alcohol had been widely consumed and each community had lost a community member on occasion, but there was always respect within your communities today. Unfortunately, this respect is not seen as widely.

In 1999 a group of locals got together to explore the idea of a Bendigo Bank branch being a banking option in Cummins. The Cummins Bendigo branch opened in 2000. I started my first stint with Cummins District Financial Services Ltd as a Director on the board in 2003. This stint lasted for 6 years, having completed 2 terms, I did not seek re-election. I was invited back on as a Director of the bank board early 2018 and then later that year I became Chairperson of Cummins District Financial Services Ltd. In my opinion, community banking gives locals the ability to invest in their community and I have seen this on numerous occasions through education, health and community organisations. Cummins District Community Bank sponsors numerous organisations each year including AIREP and Mentally Fit EP. They provide the ongoing funding for Youth Ops which has been going for 14 years in Cummins and in more recent years also delivered in Tumby Bay. Some of the challenges we have faced with the community bank model is that, it needs to continually grow as a business; and trying to get community to understand the community bank is a real bank. One thing I have learnt to appreciate is that there is always someone within our community that will step up, help, change and support to help make our community a great place to live in. As you get older there is always younger blood prepared to stand up. You need to let them have a go.

The sense of community I get from being involved with various groups and organisations has bought me a lot of positivity and connection locally and all over Eyre Peninsula. I enjoy being part of community banking because it gives funds back to community, but it’s the community support of the bank, the customer’s money that allows us to do that; and without that it would not happen. At our last community forum, we asked the shareholders if they wanted higher dividends or for us to be able to put the funds back into the community, and they said community. So, this is really reassuring that the shareholders are seeing the rewards of money being invested in communities.I am a great supporter of the community bank model because I see it as returning profits into community. My knowledge of business through experience has allowed me to help community groups. My friend Peter who was a Director of the Cummins District Financial Services summed it up, "find me something else that brings the community this amount of investment and we will go with it."

I am lucky to have had the upbringing I did with my parents and family. I am grateful for all the opportunities to be involved with a lot of great community members and people. I have had opportunities to work and socialise with so many people, characters and some real legends! The greatest part of my life has been having Jacinta as my life partner and to have 2 amazing children who have given us the joy of grandkids that just make you want to live to the fullest.