TWO days before he and his father lost their lives during a rescue on Easter Sunday, Andrew Powell told The Weekly Times why surf lifesaving was so important to the pair of dairy farmers.

“You get three times as much back from volunteering as you put in,” Andrew said simply.

The Weekly Times had sought Andrew out because he and his father, Ross, had it all: a multi-generational dairy farm ranked in the top 10 per cent, respected place in the community and real work-life balance.

Andrew had explained how his parents, Val and Ross, instilled the importance of a well-rounded life.

“Everything’s based around lifestyle,” he said.

“We could push our farm and our stock harder but the more effort you put in, the less time you have to do other social stuff.

“We’re heavily involved in the community and look at working in the community as a way of value adding to our experience.

“Surf boat rowing is one of my big passions and I’ve competed in the Victorian State Championships and Australian championships.”

Following the tragedy, tributes to the men flowed from the dairy community, the CFA, SES and, of course, the Port Campbell Surf Life Saving Club. Both father and son had contributed decades of service but, in the interview, Andrew was keen to emphasise how much the family had benefited from volunteering.

“The community we live in here is amazing,” he said.

“Lots of different personalities and skill sets get drawn to those community groups.

“They’re a wealth of knowledge and different industries have the same issues, just in a different way.

“I’ve learnt a lot of my HR skills through Surf Life Saving and SES, working with different people and learning how to set up good business cultures.

“It’s all come from volunteering and having a balance between farm life and off-farm life.”

THE Powell’s on-farm investments reflected that ethos, too.

“I’m 32 but I like to look at what I want to do in 30 years’ time,” Andrew said.

“We’re about to make a major investment on our farm with the dairy and we’re deciding where to go with technol­ogy and what we want to do.

“That’s going to shape how we farm for the next 20 to 30 years.

“My partner, Amber, and I are expecting our first child this year. Priorities change a bit.

“It’s working backwards from 20 years’ time when the first kid’s going to be 20 years old.

‘How do I want the farm to be set up, what do I want to be doing in 20 years’ time?

The family’s long-term outlook was mirrored in the farm succession plan.

“I’m very, very, very, very lucky with my parents and family,” Andrew said.

“There are five siblings in our family. I’m the one who stayed on the farm and there’s a succession plan.

“My father wants to see the farm succeed through the generations.

“I’ve been doing a 15-year apprenticeship, almost 20 years, under him.

“In the last 12 or 13 years, I’ve been on the farm full-time and Dad’s been giving me more and more management opportunities and gradually drip feeding me into the business.

“We think alike and both believe in what we’re doing. I’m really fortunate my parents and Amber are on the farm.

“Dad still does maintenance work in the background. If I’m not here, he makes sure the ship’s going ahead.”

Breaks were essential to Andrew’s farming career.

“Dad’s always said that a holiday’s an investment because it gives you something to look forward to,” Andrew said.

“I’ve been very fortunate — it’s not something I brag about — but Dad’s always given me time to go on holidays every year and there’s something like 43 countries I’ve been able to travel to around the world.”

Andrew was also building a team of staff members with work-life balance in mind. Two of the three full-time staffers worked four days followed by two days off each week.

“We don’t consider a farming business much different to people who do shift work in hospitals or boilermakers,” Andrew said.

“Why can’t a four-and-two roster work on a dairy farm as well?

“Weekends are shared and staff have set days off.

“People can plan their lives around it and be fresh, not tired, when they come back to the farm.

“The third staffer is the farm manager, James, who’s only been on board for a short time. I want to set the farm up to be able to have a lifestyle.

“The physical side of the business is too big for me to run by myself and, if I go away, we just need that backup.”

The daily farm routine was structured to avoid burnout.

“Staff are really good for me, too, making sure that we all finish work at 6pm,” Andrew said.

“We start early in the morning but we work backwards from six o’clock to plan our day to make sure we are efficient.”

Andrew hoped staff members would stay with the Powell farm, “Warraboon”, for at least three years while preparing them for broader industry roles.

“I believe if you want to learn a farming system, you need to hang around for three years,” he said.

“We offer people traineeships on farm because we want to train the next generation of dairy farmers.

ANDREW was very careful about who joined the team.

“Finding staff is a challenge,” he said. “We are extremely picky — we don’t just put anyone on. They have to add to our farm culture.

“People buy into OHS policies a lot better because we don’t employ people who won’t fit in.

“No one’s allowed to drive or ride any piece of equipment on the farm until they are signed off.

“If you go into any other culture like the SES and Surf Club, they say ‘that’s just what we need to do’.

“Culture starts at the top. People are not going to wear their helmets if I’m not wearing mine.

“You’ve got to expect people, including myself, to make mistakes. That’s how you learn.

“It’s about making sure those mistakes are made in an environment which is low risk and low consequence to the business.”

Asked why he loved dairy farming, Andrew struggled to narrow his answer down to just one reason, instead giving four.

“The challenge and being able to implement plans, see them come off and seeing the staff grow on the farm,” Andrew said.

“You do the same job every day but every day it’s different.

“Trying to be good at what you do.

“Being able to do what we do on the farm and still maintain a lifestyle is something I really enjoy.”

Andrew’s hopes for the dairy industry were every bit as big and forward thinking as his farming ambitions.

“I’d like more young people to see dairy farming as an opportunity,” Andrew said

“I think the industry has got to change the way it thinks and how we do things to make farming more attractive to the next generation of farmers.

“We need to keep driving more young people into the industry and give them opportunities to make sure they are nurtured and not burnt out.

“Agriculture being pushed in schools is where it starts.

“We’ve had school groups from Melbourne come down to the farm and blown their minds.

“We need to keep educating city people about all the good things about agriculture.”

Andrew Powell himself was perhaps the best advertisement for which agriculture and dairy farming could ever have wished.

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