Rusty’s Markets born out of ‘a cloud of marijuana’
It’s now a staple for locals grabbing fruit and vegetables, but Rusty’s Markets was originally established in the wake of “a cloud of marijuana” says the founder’s son Wayne Rees.
Cairns
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BORN and bred in Cairns, there’s not much marriage celebrant Wayne Rees loves more than his hometown.
He’s worn many hats throughout his life but love has always been at the core of his work, and his childhood.
He’s attended about 3500 weddings as a celebrant himself, but many more in total while growing up with a mother who was also a celebrant.
“Mum didn’t have a licence so Dad and I would have to drive her to the weddings” Wayne said.
“After she retired I applied to become one and about 13 years later I got a letter saying I’ve been appointed.”
Wayne grew up in one of the most well-known business families of the ’70s through to the ’90s, spending his early days “running around Grafton St” as a child. “I still love Cairns but it was great in those days, it was very social, you could leave your car unlocked and you knew everyone.”
One of three brothers, he naturally stepped into the family business Llewellyn Motors, a motorbike and car dealership.
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After graduating from Cairns State High School, Wayne worked as an assistant accountant for the family business, but quickly realised it wasn’t for him.
While working at Llewellyn Motors, a workshop foreman had introduced Wayne to the Cairns Choral Society and he developed an interest in acting.
So he took off to Rockhampton to study arts, and soon after landed a gig with the Queensland Theatre Company, touring productions throughout primary schools. His first role was an egg that brought the gift of laughter to children.
“Some of the hot tin roof halls we’d have to perform at were hell,” Wayne says. “I had a giant costume and sometimes I’d faint from the heat, but they’d think it was part of the play.”
He endured the heat, but was forced to return home and rejoin the family business when his eldest brother Russell passed away in a speedway crash.
When he’d returned, Rusty’s Markets, named after his father and a staple in Grafton St to this day, was beginning to boom.
Wayne says the markets started with some hippies who approached his father to use the family’s car storage space.
“We’d clear it out on a Friday for them, and they’d have their markets on a Saturday.
“Eventually they disappeared in a cloud of marijuana, left town.
“But the old man kept it going and it just grew and grew.”
When Wayne returned to Cairns, he hadn’t lost the acting passion and he returned to theatre, where he met Noelene, now his wife of 36 years.
“One day she was looking a mess, working on a set and her hair was everywhere so I asked her what she was doing later that night. That’s how it started.”
Wayne also had a stint as a Cairns councillor in the late ’80s, but was never actually elected.
“They picked their top eight and I came in at ninth. Ron Davis was the mayor, and half way through the term, the deputy had retired, so they called me in.
“I remember reading the minutes of the very first council meeting and all the problems back then in my term … are still the same now. They had troubles with dogs, roads and flooding.”
After his two-year term, the Rees family business had evolved from the automotive to the hospitality industry.
Wayne focused his time on marriage celebrations and the Cairns Choral Society.
Last month, he directed the society’s flagship production Mamma Mia!, a show he’d been working on for a decade.
“I had been waiting for the rights for Mamma Mia! for 10 years and even went to London to ask the people there. I chose it because it’s fun, everyone knows the music and they can sing and dance to it.”
Originally published as Rusty’s Markets born out of ‘a cloud of marijuana’