Article by Alice Armitage Photography by Jasmin Morrison

Inland Vegetation Management has come a very long way since Reece first started the business when he was sixteen. Now at just twenty-three years old, Reece has six staff, over thirty machines and a booming business.

Reece Thrift was sixteen years old when he bought a second hand lawn mower for three-hundred dollars and started mowing the lawns of his neighbours after a chance encounter with a local real estate agent. In his home town of Moree, NSW it didn’t take long for word to spread of this humble hustle and Reece became a very busy man.

“I started with a second-hand push mower – I still have it here in the shed. I bought it for three-hundred dollars and I would borrow mum and dad’s whipper snipper and leaf blower. It was initially a very basic set up. Every cent I made, I invested back into the business. I slowly started buying my own gear.”

In these early years, Reece juggled these small scale maintenance jobs with his full-time electrical apprenticeship in the family business, working alongside his dad. But as things started to ramp up and Reece saw an opportunity to really turn his small side hustle into a fully fledged business, he took some action to really turn things up a notch – old school flyers. “At that stage I could see that this lawn mowing business had some real potential. I thought I would start advertising. My way of advertising was handmade flyers that were delivered into mailboxes around town. It worked, it really did. Sometimes the simplest and most basic idea is the one that works out, I was still getting phone calls from those flyers six months later.”

“I still remember the first ride-on lawn mower I bought – we actually still use it – it was four and a half thousand dollars. At the time it was every cent I had. It essentially sent me broke but I took the risk of buying it because I was able to get through jobs quicker and ultimately take on more work.”

It’s evident that from the very beginning, Reece has carried with him an ethos that is contained in a series of simple moments of care and attention executed perfectly and with great skill that Reece’s clients are very happy to subscribe to. Paired with his grit and determination, this approach to doing good business continues to see things thrive. Whatever it is, it seems to be working as the operation continues to go from strength to strength.

When asking Reece about his success, his humility leads him to suggest that his story isn’t a very interesting one. But his gradual and continued growth tells a story about the power of consistency and compounded disciplined action. “You just try and make good choices everyday, all the little ways you show up for people, for your clients, all add up. Follow up calls for example, are such an easy thing to do but they make such a huge difference. I make sure once we finish a job that they’re happy with it before I send out a bill. If they’re not happy, we rectify the issue first.”

Thinking about success stories from regional Australia it’s unlikely that a ground maintenance business is one that immediately comes to mind. But as we ponder what success looks like, done right businesses like Reece’s can be an example of how good business can emerge from the most unexpected of places.

After spending some time with him, it’s hard not to feel as though Reece was born to build a strong business. His knack for the trade seems to be innate but perhaps that has more to do with nurture than with nature. “I think a lot of it comes back to how I was brought up family-wise. Mom and dad were very open with us about their business and money. Mum and Dad had always run their own business and it was something we talked about around the dinner table. They would talk to us about how things were going, whether it’s busy or not, what projects were worth. I was just brought up in that environment so I guess you naturally learn about the nature of a business,” shares Reece. “It’s almost a privilege that I’ve been taught how to do so much in that subconscious way. When I think about it, probably a lot can be traced back to those times at the dinner table.”

Now with six staff, over thirty machines and a booming business, Inland Vegetation Management has established itself as the go to for all things maintenance, mulch, arboriculture and horticultural maintenance in the New England and North West region. Giving local options for essential services that would otherwise be outsourced. And as Reece and his team continue to take on bigger jobs, these big contracts and associated big dollars also stay within the local community’s economic engine.

In an era where technology, automations and artificial intelligence seem to be reigning supreme, these people and community focused businesses are still winning when it comes to long-term community impact and positive outcomes.

Reece’s foundational success has paved the way for him to explore new ideas that he intends to bring to fruition in the years ahead. With the foundation of the business set, Reece’s keen mind and youthful enthusiasm means his focus is still earnestly on growing the business and ensuring a successful future.

With a keen focus on contributing to the way we approach the use of green waste, Reece has a unique lens into how we can problem solve for the sustainability conundrum. Solving the problems around waste sustainability requires multidisciplinary input and an array of approaches. Reece’s experience and insight brings a unique perspective and his strong vision is likely to take him very far from his humble business beginnings.

Reece might have found a practical way to implement the simplest of solutions when it comes to green waste : simply reusing it.

“Big picture, I want us to end up in green waste recycling. There is no-one out here doing anything in the space, creating a phenomenal opportunity for us to solve some big problems.”

This piece has been created in partnership with Ranger Outdoor, our favourite Aussie workwear brand.