By Russell Bennett
Carey Williams is all about the birds and the bees, as well as the trees.
One of the most genuine characters of the hills, he’s also a constant visible presence throughout the likes of Gembrook, Cockatoo, and Emerald.
It’s people like him – who love nothing more than being out in the fresh country air – who are synonymous with that very community.
But Carey’s path to the hills has been a winding one, with its fair share of twists and turns.
Now in his mid-sixties, Carey actually grew up in Melbourne and went to private school. His parents bought their six-and-a-half acre farm – Chamomile Farm – in Emerald in 1971 when he was still a teenager.
“I didn’t know what to do with my life,” he said of that time.
“I was doing accountancy at Caulfield Tech and I’d had a go the previous year at Swinburne Tech and couldn’t hack it, quit, and worked for the railways for the rest of that year.
“When I went back to Caulfield Tech to have another go, I wasn’t enjoying it at all. I hated it, actually – you’re confined, and it’s just awful.”
Then Carey’s number got called up to the army in the last ever National Service intake.
“I was just happy to get out of what I was doing and I actually quite enjoyed going to Puckapunyal,” he said.
“It was hard, but it was fun because you were outside and there was plenty of activity. It was exciting.”
When ultimately given the choice of whether or not to stay in the army, Carey initially chose to stay.
After going back to training, the political landscape had changed so he changed his mind.
“I had to make a decision, and in the meantime my parents had moved to Emerald from Melbourne and I didn’t know what I wanted to do but I heard about this beekeeping course in Queensland at the agricultural college,” he said.
“Through National Service, even though I hadn’t finished my term, the deal was that you could get re-trained and they’d pay you a bit of money while you were re-training.”
So, he left the army and took off up north for his beekeeping course – the first time he’d ever done anything to do with it.
“I went up to Queensland and spent 12 months there in 1974, and I think that was the seed to me loving trees and nature – I just loved my time up there and learning about bees,” he said.
“For the first time in my education beyond primary school, I just suddenly became a good student and enjoyed every bit of it.”
In the meantime, the family farm at Emerald had started to take off. He’d worked there before heading up north.
“We tried all sorts of things, planting trees, growing carrots and other vegetables, and beans, and having all the problems in the world because we didn’t know what we were doing, but I’d had an introduction at Emerald and I loved it,” Carey said.
He returned to Victoria – and even spent a brief period in South Australia – in his pursuit of beekeeping.
He moved back to the Emerald family property and continued to develop his love of gardens, trees, and nature.
“The good fortune of my family moving to Emerald and me looking for things to do – I was just thinking of bees,” he explained.
“It’s because I looked at different honeys and different flavours and how interesting they were.”
Then, over a five-year period, Carey worked for the Department of Agriculture as an apiary inspector – inspecting beehives which had to be registered. His domain was north-east Victoria.
“I was on the road, I was out in the bush, and I probably would have stayed there forever but a number of factors came into play,” he said.
“There was no advancement, and there were a few things getting on my nerves by this time.”
But then Carey married the love of his life, Libby.
“She’d always lived in Wangaratta, and she said she wanted to get out,” Carey said. “She wanted to go somewhere – she didn’t want to live there forever.
“By then, my parents’ business had come good.
“They were a little herb farm, selling herbs and honey – mine, and when I couldn’t get that I’d get it from somewhere else.
“Honey and herbs was our theme in those days, and we were quite a little tourist attraction. This is before health shops and local markets took off. It was way back. “There were no local markets or health shops that I could think of – especially in our area. People wanted honey – not the supermarket stuff – and if you put a sign up, they’d drive in.”
Chamomile Farm was selling honey, a wide range of kitchen herbs, and vegetables … once they grew them.
An organic fruit and vegetable shop in St Kilda, which Carey’s family started selling to in the mid 1970s, is still a loyal customer today.
Before long, Chamomile Farm was into everything from growing kiwifruit, to supplying herbs to restaurants, to even supplying florists with foliage from the trees they’d grown.
“I went back there in 1981 to Emerald,” Carey said.
“I got married at the beginning of ’81 and we moved back later that year. I quit my job with the department, and we bought our property at Gembrook. I was full-time working on the farm then in Emerald. The herb thing got busy – growing herbs for restaurants. It was very labour-intensive stuff, and it was too much for my parents. That was the lure to get me back there.”
Though Chamomile Farm is no longer open as a herb farm, its business still involves foliage, and supplying herbs to restaurants.
“Everything changes over time,” Carey said.
“We don’t deliver to Melbourne anymore. We used to but that was so demanding – I grew to hate the city, driving around in the traffic and getting home late.”
The business has evolved over the years, and over that time Carey’s roots in the community have grown so much deeper.
“I just don’t know where 36 years went – it’s all flown by with all this activity,” he said.
“I’m always short of certain things (plants), so I go and visit people’s gardens and I’ve had a wonderful time mixing with good, like-minded people.
“That’s probably been my biggest part in the whole thing in recent times – the past 10 or 20 years. I scour out and gather stuff we don’t have enough of because you can’t predict the market and you can’t plan for it very much because it changes.
“My great joy of it all has been being out and about, mixing with people, and the warm generosity of people.
“There are so many generous people around Gembrook and the hills. Along the way, I’ve made some really great friends – often older people who I help out by doing things like mowing their grass, and they then let me pick stuff from their garden. It’s an old, simpler way of life.”
Carey also used to write for hills magazine, Signpost. In a five-year period, he wrote an estimated 55 profiles on a range of people in the community. People just like him.
“It’s a really rewarding thing to hear about people’s lives and their stories – people who genuinely love the hills,” he said.
Carey is in his mid-sixties now, his mum – in her late eighties – and siblings (also in their sixties) are all still actively involved in the farm.
“It’s a real team effort, and along the way – we’ve had two boys (Gordon and Robbie) who’re great members of the community, too,” he said.
Carey just loves the country and its natural beauty, which is why he’s been a vocal opponent of the Thomas the Tank Engine events through Puffing Billy in Gembrook.
“I’ve been a loud voice who hasn’t much support around the town because most people love Puffing Billy, and it’s everything to them, but to me it isn’t,” he said.
“I think that Thomas the Tank Engine stuff is a big intrusion.
“To me, it’s just spoiling the town. It’s big business, and it’s politically motivated.
“I’m community-minded, and I love the peace and quiet. I just love the country lifestyle and an atmosphere that’s not a circus or a carnival – that’s not contrived.”
It should come as no surprise that Carey loves the authenticity of the hills because that’s him down to his core – authentic.
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