Entrepreneur & traveller base 15 mins walk to city, shared accommodation

My life started in Agriculture in NE Victoria, in the early 70's armed with a Diploma of Farm Management I ran a 700ha family farm plus a 300ha hill country block. It was mixed farming, including fat lambs and cattle. I built a 20ha lake and installed 100ha of irrigated lucerne and fodder crops.

In the 1982 drought I built high efficiency shearing sheds to provide income and grafted walnut trees for the farm. We built most of our own farming equipment, modifying old gear so it was highly efficient.

We raised yabbies (freshwater crayfish) in the lake which grew at 3 times the known rate, so we started Australian Yabby Farms. We developed a system to hibernate the yabbies, breed in mass and export live, lifting the price from $5/kg to around $20/kg. They were no longer a muddy creature but a gourmet item and we could hold a 3 month menu of identical yabbies in hibernation for the restaurants.

I was operations manager in the Ovens Valley NE Vic, for the Peppermint Industry installing a 300hp boiler for distillation and modifying all the harvest equipment, taking it from experimental to commercial level. (I do great grappa.) I also ran vegetable growing trials for the tobacco farmers looking for alternate crops and grew 100,000 cauli's and broccoli.

I then returned into aquaculture, with a management buyout of a farm growing native fish, in central NSW. We learned to be 300% more efficient with our breeding by synchronising with the moon, and designed a number of new growing systems. This culminated in planning a $150m Pacific Co-operative fish farming venture, 18 sea cage farms spread from Milne Bay to Fiji and the Marshall Islands. The GFC killed the humanitarian funds.

For the last 20 years I have been in Cairns running an Environmental Rehabilitation business, a Quality Assurance business, Communication training and coaching and I still market & install fabric structures. My latest venture is a coworking space which is a block away and available for your use.

This has been my home for 20 years and I have been renting the back room out which has its own bathroom for the last 5 years.

Two days before Christmas in 2017 on a remote cattle station up the Cape near Aurukun I was installing a fabric structure for a friend when I had a dehydration blackout and fell over 5m. I had an Open Book pelvis fracture, split up the front and back, smashed right forearm, and every muscle torn from my right shoulder.

The accident happened at 4pm, too late to get the flying doctor in before last light, so they sent the chopper from Horn Island that arrived at midnight and took me to Weipa. Next day I was transferred to Cairns Base Hospital and was a Christmas present for the surgeon and crew. They and the public hospital staff were amazing, we live in a very lucky country. After a month I was sent up to Atherton Hospital for 2 months of repair and rehab and it took a further 3 years of home based rehab before both body and mind were back in a state of health where I could go back to working full time.

During this time having the Airbnb income was a real saviour, in both income and have interesting human contact.

I spend long days in the Bunker coworking Space and I cook my dinner down there so you have the run of the unit most days. I have been referred to as the Phantom host as I am normally up between 6-7am and often not back until 8-9pm at night. it is not all work, I network and attend meetings, and business and communication coach entrepreneurs and people running small businesses. The aim is to accelerate the development of new local businesses.

I have 2 small offices and 8 desks for hire on a casual or long term bases at The Bunker Coworking Space 79 McLeod St.

I do like to catch up with my guests and answer any questions they may have, but normally I am pretty low profile.

I could not have picked a better place to sit out Covid. I really enjoy my life and this beautiful location and I am honoured to share it with you.

The benefits here are you are within 15 minutes walk of the city with all its restaurants and attractions and a 25 minute walk or a $10 taxi ride from the Reef terminal.

We are located back from the main roads and the unit is in the centre of the complex on the 2nd floor. This means it is quiet and we look into the tree tops of the next door garden, so you can have breakfast with the birds.

Cairns Central is three blocks down McLeod St and Coles supermarket is open until 9pm if you need groceries. It also has a large range of shops and cinemas.

The rest of the city is dotted with shops, restaurants and tourist attractions, so you have plenty to do without renting a car.

Most mornings at sunrise I ride or walk 10 minutes down to the foreshore, and there is a lovely 2.5 walking track down to the jetty, plus Muddy's restaurant that does great coffee and nibbles.

If you are here Friday through Sunday make sure you visit Rusty's Farmers market on Sheridan Street. They have a huge range of local fruit and vegetables, both local tropical and temperate from the Tablelands. They have lots of tasting opportunities to try before you buy, so you can see what some of the lesser known tropical fruits taste like.

While you are there walk through the market towards the other side and you will come to the Coconut fruit and yogurt, vendor. He cuts the coconut in half, then desiccates the coconut in the shell and ads a mix of yogurt and tropical fruits. I promise you, it is heaven in a coconut shell :)

You also might like to grab some Jersey milk from the Mungalli stall. It is unpasteurised full bodied milk, that makes normal pasteurised milk seem like water. They also have lots of yogurts and other goodies you may like.