A new short video tells the fabulous story of the Steinhardt family and how they built Macadamias Australia in Bundaberg.
With a large parcel of bush land and a big dream, 1958 was the year Ron and Marion Steinhardt set their hearts on creating a food mecca in the Bundaberg Region.
Through hard work and years of planning, the family shaped what is known today as one of the country’s largest macadamia producers.
It was their tenacity and passion that spurred on the couple’s children and grandchildren to continue their legacy, with the company recently celebrating over 60 years in business.
In a short film recently created by local videographers Pluggas and James Latter, the family explains how their work together has helped them overcome many obstacles and paved the way to their success.
And it’s all thanks to their parents, according to daughter Janelle Gerry.
“I think Mum and Dad had such a pioneering spirit. To even look at a piece of bushland and think ‘this is our dream, we are going to make something wonderful of this’,” she said.
“That spirit just kept going all throughout their lives.”
Ron and Marion’s son Trevor Steinhardt said when the company first started out, there was a focus on more than just macadamias.
“We started with many different crops from pumpkin, cotton, tobacco, peanuts and going into sugar cane,” he said.
“We soon found that you probably need to be master of one.”
It was in 2004 the idea of macadamias came into play and the family never looked back.
“Seeing how they are harvested, it all clicked that this would be a good thing to diversify into,” Trevor said.
“We knew the product was diverse for snack, bakery, confectionery and ice cream.
“We thought yeah we can make that work so we put in about 130,000 trees in the first round.”
Trevor said today, Macadamias Australia continued working to create the best possible product in the best way for the environment.
“We make our own compost on site and we add that, as well as calcium products and organic matter, and put them back up under the tree,” he said.
“By doing that we are looking after our biology. If you get it right here, your quality and what you get out of the tree is perfect.”
Macadamias Australia a family business
Today, Macadamias Australia continues to expand its orchards with over 200,000 trees now planted and completion of their cracking, value added and tourism facility due to be completed in June.
The company exports 100 per cent of its products throughout the world and is looking forward to growing it’s international markets by collaborating with local growers for supply of nut in shell into their new facility to meet increasing demand.
Janelle said there were many great plans for the company moving forward and one thing that would always remain a constant would be their family values.
“Having a clear vision and purpose is a wonderful thing for the next generation to see,” she said.
“In our family situation our strengths really complement each other.
“We are all very different and have our own skill-set. When you put us all together around a table it is magic.”
Twice a year, three generations of the family meet to review and set a clear direction and purpose for Macadamias Australia and Farm Fresh Fine Foods.
Family council meetings help ensure that the values their parents taught remain at the heart of every business decision made.
“The values that mum and dad passed on, an attitude of gratitude, is something they have always instilled in us,” Janelle said.
“Throughout our lives and our business life there is always going to be challenges and mum and dad taught us always to just be thankful in all circumstances.”
Video a special project to work on
Director of the short film Sabby Rasy and producer Fisch Rasy said working alongside the Macadamias Australia family had been a great experience.
“It was amazing to work with such an inspirational family,” Sabby said.
“They all just got on really well and even though they were all different, they played to each other’s strengths amazingly well.”
The video was produced for the company’s 60th anniversary and showcased at their dinner event.
To find out more about Macadamias Australia click here.