FIGHTING to preserve his idyllic acreage lifestyle has inspired Brett Rostron to develop a machine that recycles timber mill waste into a high-end kindling product.
After fine-tuning his invention, this Southern Downs businessman is putting the Rostron Kindling Splitter on the market, giving other small farmers the chance to diversify.
“Trying to make a living on a lifestyle block can be difficult
and they are notoriously hard to maintain,” Brett said.
“So we want genuine individuals who are struggling to make ends meet to contact us and have a chat.”
With the first design launched in 2006, Brett now has an upgraded design that is larger and able to handle more product.
Despite the success of the splitter so far, Brett said “the design is so simple that people overlook it and it flies under the radar”.
One radar it hasn’t managed to fly under is that of supermarket giant Coles.
After 12 months of intense negotiations, Brett has managed to score a contract with the retailer that has well and truly secured the future of his lifestyle block.
“Contrary to what everybody says we have managed to get decent prices and are actually really excited about it,” he said.
“It’s going to be really nice to see an invoice paid on 30 days.”
While the operation is no doubt an economic success, testament to his regard for the environment, Brett runs his house, cottage and one of his two splitters off solar power.
“Our business is light energy, so it really doesn’t take much to run our plant,” he said.
“We haven’t had a power bill in years and we aren’t being held to ransom by a power company!”
While it is wonderful to see environmental awareness in the business world, Brett said buyers are also responding well.
“We have found that people really support recycling and that is why our label is doing really well,” he said.
“It is made out of a waste product, all our plastic is biodegradable, and it just works.”
Brett confessed that he even used to have the “slash and burn mentality,” but moving out to his bush block has heightened his respect and care for the land.
“You wake up with the sounds of the animals in the morning and you learn so much out of the bush and nature,” Brett said.
“You feel like everything is just the way it is supposed to be.
“So to sustain ourselves and trade a waste product to survive, how good is that?”
Brett said while it had been a hard slog to get to the stage they were at now with only two machines in operation, this winter alone they employed six to eight people from their local village.
“A lot of them were young people who would find it a real challenge to find work so they love to be able to preserve their local lifestyle,” Brett said.
“It’s so exciting and it creates work in a small village where there wasn’t any.”
Despite producing anywhere between 20,000 and 40,000 bags of kindling per season, Brett insists the machine makes light work of any amount.
“We wanted to develop something that anybody can do,” he said.
A self-confessed adversary to manual labour, Brett said he used to cut firewood before realising it just wasn’t his gig.
“I tried it once, but I’m not really into hard work,” he said.
“I worked for a firewood company for a season but told them ‘thanks but no thanks’.”
Brett said that the feat had given him a massive boost in self-esteem.
“To say that you can be innovative and come up with new ideas and succeed is just awesome," he said.
“You have to look at something that hasn’t been thought of. It needs to be original."
Brett said he wouldn’t give up his acreage lifestyle for anything, but the reality is people still need to sustain mortgage payments, something he can now do comfortably do thanks to the kindling splitter.
“We just love our bush lifestyle. This is the only poker machine I know that pays every time you pull the handle and it is a great way to diversify.”
For more information about the Rostron Kindling Splitter call Brett 0409 681 963.
