OUTGROWING HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

Tall Trees started in a quarter-acre block behind the family home of General Manager Joel Vanderuit. Directors David Vanderuit and Garry Evans, both of whom worked in varying roles for other nurseries, saw a gap in the advanced tree market. David and Garry purchased a vacant block behind the Vanderuit home in Balnarring; a true backyard nursery with no automatic irrigation, rock, tractors or staff.

Joel remembers his father, David, driving trucks for work from 4 in the morning then coming home and hand-watering every tree in the nursery well into the night. Four-year-old Joel himself assisted as much as he could by running around and creating chaos, or hanging off the hip of his mother as she watered plants in the summer months.

It didn’t take long for Tall Trees to outgrow its backyard beginnings, and a 10-acre site was leased just 100 metres up the road from the original site. This is where Tall Trees started to gain momentum and become a legitimate player in the advanced tree market. It was on this site that Tall Trees won a contract to supply all trees for Caroline Springs, a huge breakthrough project for the company at the time. This led Tall Trees into the domestic and commercial landscape market.

The company began to grow significantly from this point as staff were hired, trucks were purchased and expansion opportunities were constantly on the horizon. It wasn’t long until Tall Trees had again outgrown their site and needed to expand further.

It was here that the beginnings of the current sites took shape. Originally 10 acres were purchased on the corner of Bittern-Dromana and Coolart Roads in Balnarring. Joel remembers working for pocket money on this site that had nothing more than a small garden shed, a porta-loo for amenities and only two staff. The entire site was under production when the opportunity to purchase the neighbouring property presented itself; a block that included a family home and an additional five acres. The home was repurposed as an office and the site in Balnarring Beach Rd was painstakingly transported to the new site and cleared of any remnants of ever being a nursery.

All the while the business was steadily growing year after year, keeping up with demand as the delivery fleet was expanded, staffing requirements kept growing and, yet again, the production area proved too small, resulting in leasing an additional 3 acres from a neighbour. Having developed an excellent reputation for growing trees, the directors wanted to capitalise and so moved from growing only advanced trees to growing all sizes from 140mm pots up to 160Lt trees. This development offered customers a “full service” green stock supplier to immediate effect, further pushing the advancement of the business.

Never one to pass on an opportunity, another site presented itself at the existing Eynesbury nursery near Melton. Without hesitation, Tall Trees jumped onto this 10-acre site and began growing large low-maintenance stock 100Lt and above.

The accumulation of 30 years of evolution and development brings Tall Trees to today, a company with an excellent reputation in the industry and an ethos of constant innovation and opportunity. Tall Trees now employs over 20 local workers and supplies green stock to some of the biggest projects throughout the state and abroad. It is difficult to condense a rich history into such a small space, however the fact that Tall Trees still thrives in an increasingly competitive market speaks volumes for the now-retired directors, family and long-term staff, and the future looks brighter than ever.