Gus Skinner

Moving to Gatton for uni, I’d connected with one of the best ag-adjacent businesses based in Queensland’s salad bowl: Nolan’s Transport. With plenty of on-farm experience in trucks & trailers after my year at Golden Ag, and a freshly minted heavy rigid license, I picked up a job working ~30 hours a week for Nolan’s. It was a great part time gig while studying: I’d work weekends and go in some afternoons after class, for the first year mostly picking up fresh produce from local farms, but after I upgraded to my multi-combination license I started doing longer runs, including the odd one into the Sydney and Melbourne markets, or picking up watermelons from St George and Condobolin. There were definitely times where folks at uni wondered if I was more truck driver than student, but it was great work with good people, solid pay, and a good way to get connected to fruit and veggie production in SE QLD, and their supply chains.

Like many Aussies, I opted for a gap year between high school and uni. I’d pre-enrolled at UQ in Agribusiness/Agronomy, but felt like I needed a year to completely rule out a career in the Air Force/as a pilot. Unlike many Aussies who travel during their gap year, I spent this year of decision-making working my butt off on the farm I’d spent most of my school holidays at. So naturally, I gravitated towards ag and have never looked back. Working with the Zells was such a great grounding in practical agriculture, and was truly formative in who I am today. I got great exposure to all the technical skills associated with a large-scale Australian mixed livestock and cropping operation, including feeding thousands of sheep in drought-stricken paddocks, day in day out, seeding my first 1000ha paddock with 110ft flexi-coils, helping put together the world’s largest air-seeder, mustering and marking calves on the hottest of days, and mastering the 10-wheeler’s tricky 18-speed road ranger gearbox and spill-happy airbags at harvest. But—to me—the real growth was in the soft skills.

Pre-requirement to obtaining Professional Agrologist designation, Alberta Institute of Agrology.