Tracey Knowland and her husband Stuart, both in their 40s, operate a wholesale production nursery supplying premium advanced trees and shrubs to the landscape and development industry across Australia. The nursery, established in 2002, is located on their 14 hectare farm at Brooklet near Bangalow on the Far North Coast of NSW. Along with the business side of the nursery, Tracey is responsible for acres of mowing, works with Stuart in developing new Australian tree selections (with hopes for the export industry) and is on the organising committee of the Bangalow Business Women's group. Tracey juggles this with a family of three teenage children, Ashley, Brodie and Lily, and an eBay Store called Treasures Ink, which is also run from the farm. Through this sideline internet business, Tracey imports and sells antique etchings, engravings and maps sourced from around the globe.

What gave you the motivation/inspiration to follow your dream?

I stumbled into the eBay business quite by accident in January 2006 while Stuart was working off-farm and I was looking after our fledgling nursery. I needed to buy some gifts and, after scanning the internet, bought some antique prints from America. When they arrived they were so lovely and unusual I twigged that perhaps I could buy a few extra and sell them online to cover my costs. It grew out of a need for some extra income while our nursery business was getting on its feet, my need to work from home, and a passion for art and antiques. As long as you have access to a post office and an internet connection, you can run a business like this anywhere in the world. I also sell locally to old wares stores. eBay is a good way to dabble in small business if you have never had one before.

As the nursery business grows I may have to look at downsizing the eBay side of things. The nursery, which is our primary income source, has always been a joint dream, and Stuart and I have complementary roles: I manage the business side of things because of my Business degree, and Stuart manages the plants, as he has qualifications in horticulture. When we sold our first house in Sydney in 1989 and moved north, we had in mind then the aim of establishing our own nursery. Our first rural property ended up frosting badly so we put our nursery plans on hold and established a landscaping business instead. There was very little money around as the Byron Bay hinterland was still a backwater and quite undiscovered. We had to be very resourceful to scratch a living. We lived there for 14 years, gradually owner-building a three-storey house with a pool.

At what point did you realise that your dream was actually possible and what was it that made you think you could really do it?

I don’t think our children have quite forgiven us yet for capitalising on our hard work and selling our ‘lifestyle property’ to buy a run-down avocado farm above the frost line so that we could establish our nursery. I had spent two years scouring the region with my topographical maps to find an ideal nursery site, but the overgrown shack was a big compromise on my dream of living in a nice old farmhouse, on a hill with a mountain view. We removed 20 tonnes of rubbish and seven car bodies — my first ever eBay sale was one of those car bodies — a 1950’s pink Mercedes ‘Roundie’!

When we cleared away the diseased avocado trees, lantana and Bana grass, we wept with joy to discover that the house had spectacular views over our own lake to Minyon Falls and the Nightcap Range. We drafted our own council plans based on my design, and with Stuart’s talent for building and our perseverance, we set about self-building the homestead of my dreams. We lived under tarps for three months while Stuart removed the asbestos roof and reroofed the house while also working full time off-farm, project managing the construction of a large nursery for a Sydney based company nearby while I maintained our farm. At this time the enormity of what we had taken on really hit us and we were emotionally and physically spent from working long hours, seven days a week. A massive hailstorm ruined our bumper avocado crop. When the opportunity arose to take on two large contract tree growing orders, our accountant suggested I could ‘grow the weeds’ while Stuart was still working off-farm, and so we started the process of building our own nursery and potting thousands of plants every weekend. We persevered, and by the time Stuart’s off-farm work contract finished, our nursery and the eBay Store were up and running.

When you were a child, what did you want to ‘be’ when you grew up?

I remember telling Dad I wanted to be an interior designer and he said I should get a ‘real job’. I ended up doing a Business degree and majored in local government administration. When I started nodding off in the council meetings, I soon realised this was not going to be the career path for me and I moved into public relations. Working from home with the nursery and Treasures Ink gives me a degree of spontaneity. I need to be doing something creative, and I’ve never liked the restrictions of working for someone else. I feel trapped fitting into a nine-to-five pattern.

How did your childhood influence you in later life?

Stuart and I both grew up in the Hills district of Sydney when it was still very rural. In the 1960s this area seemed like the back of beyond to some people. My family lived on a five acre block next to bushland. I had a lot of freedom and a horse to ride. We wanted to raise a family in a similar environment but real estate prices for acreage in Sydney were prohibitive. So after the birth of our first child, we decided to move to the north coast and buy a rural block we could afford. When we moved to our first rural property of nine acres with rainforest and creek frontage, we thought we had died and gone to heaven. The fact that our little ‘settlers cottage’ had only been built to lock-up stage and had no telephone, stove or laundry was irrelevant to a couple of 27-year-olds!

Who are your role models?

My parents have always been role models. They have pursued the rural dream and are keen gardeners and recyclers. They have supported our building and nursery endeavours and taught me to maximise my resources and not to pay for anything that I could possibly do myself, and so I’ve had a go at lots of things that others just assume they can’t tackle. My husband is also a role model. He is incredibly patient, has a strong work ethic, always perseveres and gives me unconditional love. Being such a labour of love, I think it quite apt that we named our farm ‘Yungaburra’ after the small town in north Queensland where Stuart proposed to me.

What does success mean to you?

Success means having both of us work from home. We have stopped wearing watches! For us, success has come through hard work. When money was scarce we worked harder and found that the harder we worked the luckier we got! The best part about achieving success through hard work is that you never take anything you’ve acquired or achieved for granted. This farm just keeps on providing on so many levels, and we enjoy exchanging excess produce with other locals for their goods.

Treasures Ink is not about making an easy million; it is about creating a unique business, my own niche. As I enjoy what I do, it doesn’t feel like work. It gives me a break from the farm and enables me to travel the world from my own living room. It lets me feel justified in paying someone to do some of the more mundane farm tasks and gives me a break from the harsh outdoor elements, as I have had ongoing problems with facial skin cancers, one which required surgical removal and a skin graft.

What has been one of the biggest barriers you have had to face, what happened, and how did you overcome it?

Setting up the nursery meant we had some financial strain to fund the infrastructure. If we had initially budgeted for the cost of building the nursery and the house we would never have considered both doable! Being conservative with our debt levels, we decided to put our house renovations on hold at the halfway mark and instead direct funds into the nursery’s capital works, including hail netting. Now we are dispatching large forward orders by the semitrailer-load, and we're completing the final ‘wing’ of the house. I have overcome some financial shortfalls by successfully applying for government grants: a Rivercare Grant to fence our creek off from stock so that the water catchment is not contaminated, and a Community Water Grant for the completion of a recycling dam which has proved vital for managing water resources in the face of climate change. The challenge for Treasures Ink is the ever-increasing demands of the farm and its associated commitments, for example my voluntary support work for the local branch of the Nursery Industry Association, so I work a lot at night. The eBay store does bring in some useful extra income. It’s hard to keep on top of the bookwork for both businesses and also on top of domestic duties. The call of the garden is stronger than the call of the scrubbing brush! The ironing basket will still be there tomorrow… we’re very big on poly-cotton in this household!

Where do you see yourself in 10 years time? What is your vision for the future?

Our farm is beautiful and I hope we never have to leave. We have separated work areas from our home and garden so that we can have the option of being less involved with the nursery as we get older. Staff facilities will soon be under construction and we look forward to having more help to lessen the burden of physical work for Stuart — work that could be done by someone else with perhaps a bit more youthful vigour! It is such a positive to be able to provide employment in a rural area.

What would you like to say to other women who may be just starting out on a ‘Daring to Dream’ journey?

If you do something that you really enjoy then you are destined to do it well. Money helps but determination is even more important. If you are determined and really pursue your dream, things tend to fall into place. Help often comes from places you least expect (pennies from heaven). Go for grant funding, as this can really make a difference. Network with other like-minded people through local industry associations, service clubs, chambers of commerce etc. If you approach your dream with integrity and passion it is amazing how others will rally to your cause.