When Clyde Aley stopped selling shoes, he decided to grow some lavender. Today, he says his hobby has got “slightly out of hand”. But, as RICK BAYNE discovered, it is one he enjoys and does not plan to give up.
Clyde Aley has seen a lot of lavender farms come and go over the years, but at 83 his enterprise is still going strong.
Clyde attributes the success and durability of Narrawong Lavender to the local soil and weather, but he reckons his retail background has played a part as well.
“I’ve always been a retail man,” he said.
“Without my retail background, we’d be like the others who tried lavender around here but have gone out of business.”
He describes Narrawong Lavender as a “hobby that has got a bit out of hand” and it continues to grow.
Clyde and his wife Liz bought the land in the late 1960s, built a house in the early ’70s and turned to lavender in the 2000s.
Clyde owned a series of footwear stores, including in Terang and Portland in south-west Victoria, and met Liz, a nurse originally from England, while travelling in India.
It’s only over the past five years that Narrawong Lavender has been seriously in the market.
“Before that we grew lavender and sold it at select markets, but we never had anybody here,” Clyde said.
“There was no such thing as Narrawong Lavender.
“Bit-by-bit we opened.
“Our oldest daughter Kate came back to Australia and said we needed to get more business-like, but basically, it’s a hobby that has gone slightly out-of-hand.
“I enjoy it and still like being my own boss. I’ve been my own boss since I was 16 … I could never work for anybody.”
Clyde estimates that about a dozen nearby farms started growing lavender about 20 years ago.
“In 2000 we saw the writing on the wall for small independent shoe retailers and started selling the stores,” Clyde said.
“We had to do something, so we decided to grow some lavender.”
Their land had been cleared in the 1800s and largely neglected since then.
“It was light, sandy soil that had been taken over by thistles, boxthorn, rabbits and bracken fern,” Clyde said.
“It was divided into 20-acre blocks from the highway to the dunes and we bought two. It wasn’t fenced and there wasn’t a tree or shrub of any description.
“It was a period of time when a lot of people bought small holdings. People were a bit more adventurous in those days.”
They eventually fenced and improved the land and ran cattle and grew lucerne.
People were looking for different opportunities around 2000, and Clyde and Liz were keen to give lavender a go.
“It’s a good area for it,” he said.
“It’s the right soil type, the climate is excellent and the water table is good.
“It was fashionable at the time and I did it because it was something I could do and it was interesting.”
While initially a minute part of the land was dedicated to lavender, that commitment gradually escalated. Clyde estimates they now have about 10,000 plants, although he hasn’t actually counted them.
“We started buying small numbers of different varieties but discovered an English lavender called Miss Donnington that had been introduced to Australia during World War I,” he said.
He also went online and discovered a system of planting in England where the lavender could be broken in half and replanted at 18 inches, with that system of root division repeated in following years.
Clyde wondered if it would work if he broke them in four.
It did.
“It’s easy,” he said.
“Before we knew it, lavender was growing over the hill. The climate and water were right and they all grew. They were like rabbits … we went from hundreds to thousands.
“We learnt about pruning them in winter and using electric hedge trimmers on four-wheel carts to harvest them.”
The plants have no irrigation and don’t need it in the high rainfall zone.
The next question was what were they going to do with them?
After trying some different varieties, they decided to stick with Miss Donnington.
“We started with five varieties but after the first year, I realised we had to produce something that people would buy repeatedly. That comes from my shoe retail background. Basically, people want continuity and know what they like,” Clyde said.
“All of them are good, but I liked Miss Donnington over the others.”
Clyde and Liz built a still to convert the flower to essential oils, a process they continue today, although the still has been upgraded over time.
“We were producing lavender oil and we’d go to markets and take a few bottles with us,” Clyde said.
“Up until five years ago it was very casual, but when Kate came back to Australia, we turned it up a notch.”
Their eldest daughter had some sage advice.
“Kate said it’s time to move from selling bags of flour and start selling bread. Most people want the bread made for them, not the flour,” Clyde said.
“Bit by bit we decided on different products that we could stick a label on and sell.”
Today, Narrawong Lavender sells lip balm, deodorant, insect spray, soap, hand and body lotion, wood polish, massage oil and moisturiser, among other items.
The raw pure oil is carefully stored in cleaned wine bottles after going through the still and condenser and then converted into a variety of products.
“We do everything by hand,” Clyde said.
“If we had to have machinery that you couldn’t buy at Bunnings, it probably wouldn’t be viable.”
The farm usually opens from mid-November to Anzac Day, although it sometimes opens earlier depending on the growing season.
The main markets are online and from visitors.
“I enjoy the people that visit because they’re here for a reason and because they’re interested. They’re not turning up for a pie and sauce,” Clyde said.
Although he’s not young, Clyde still likes the physical work that comes with the farm, although he has no plans for expansion.
“Like any retail, it’s a huge hurdle to go to the next level. We will never get bigger, we will get more expensive. All the others in the area are gone and you can’t get this product anywhere else,” he said.
“We’re classed as a hobby farm but you don’t do a hobby like this if you’re not making a dollar out of it. It’s just a hobby that got a bit out of hand.”