A History of the Company
Countrywide Photographic Services P/L was established in 1985 by TAS Smethurst.
Whilst undertaking a Forestry Degree at the Australian National University in Canberra, TAS became interested in sports photography (that was probably because there were a whole heap of young netball players living in the same college, Bruce Hall, at the time). These netballers were the initial intake for the Australian Institute of Sport and due to a lack of accomodation at the institute at the time, all of the athletes were billetted to the University. Bruce Hall had the soccer players and the netball girls. The netball girls complained that they never had any photos of themselves playing and convinced TAS to come along. This led to a 20 year involvement with netball around the world, including taking photos at the World Tornament in Glascow, Scotland in 1986, and numerous other trips overseas.
With the early indications that there could be a life in sports photos, after finishing the Forestry degree TAS took up photography full time in 1985 calling the business, TAS Photographics naturally, which soon became Countrywide Photographic Services P/L.
Following the same line of thought TAS ended up taking photos of netball, womens hockey, touch football, womens soccer, volleyball, gymnastics and indoor soccer.
Taking so many photos and requiring so many team photos to be printed, it was decided to buy a photo mini-lab in Kogarah, Sydney. This was the first of three retail outlets in the St George area which were set up in the boom or bust heydays of the late 80's (you can probably work out what happened next)Yep, that company(Countrywide Photo Processing P/L) was wound up and the photolabs were no more. During that time period, the original company set up a shop in beautiful Moss Vale in the Southern Highlands of NSW which was going to be a party shop (you know, balloons etc) Well one thing led to another and we had a very small costume wardrobe. Given that there was not, and still isn't a fancy dress hire shop in the highlands, the wardrobe kept getting bigger and bigger, until we ran out of room and had to shift the shop to its present site in Bowral. Hence, that is why the company now has Fancy Dress Hire.
After so many years on the road taking photos, travelling was wearing real thin, and life was almost depressing, so a real job was in order. So for the first time in his life, TAS went and got a job with some-one else.... HarperCollins Publishers in the Moss Vale distribution centre. It was during his 12 months in the warehouse that an old employee, Karen, who is a property manager at a local real estate offfice now, rang to see if he still had a ride-on mower, and would he be interested in mowing a place at Sutton Forest. Naturally the answer was yes. This progressed to such a stage that there was more work after work than at work, so it didn't take long to establish Countrywide Garden Care as a division of Countrywide Photographic Services. After 6 months of winter which kept TAS extrememly busy doing everything and anything around the house and garden, the business expanded an put on its first employee, Steve, who was in charge of the lawn mowing. After another 6 months the next employee, John, was put on just to look after the gardens. Now it's into its second year, the company now has it's own web page and business is booming with the sky being the limit.
Oh, and where does the hockey club come into it. Well you have to have something to do on a free Saturday afternoon, and I consider that after taking photo of it for so long, that it couldn't be that hard to play (wrong), and besides, I had to have some-one to drink with on Saturday nights!!
Well, times change and things change with it. The fancy dress shop was sold in 2004 to some-one who took it out of the highlands and yet again the highlands is without a costume shop. The business was fun and there was heaps in the wardrobe, but eventually economics took over and is was best if the business was sold.
The gardening lawnmowing business continues to grow, even in the worst drought on record. Gardeners came and went and in the end decided to give up on the idea of having a full time gardener, so now the company essentially just cuts grass.... big time. From little grandma lawns, to large factory complexes and council roadside slashing. The drought for the past 4 years has been very testing at times but the company still exists!!
I suppose it had to happen eventually, but some-one, namely Mandy, caught up with me and was successful in tying me down. So got married in 2004, 24th April to be exact with Mandy's daughter Sophie as the bridesmaid, and our little girl, Georga arrived on 5 March 2005. We bought a 60 acre property out of Moss Vale in Werai (actually we bought the entire town) and moved to the country lifestyle.
In 2006 the company diversified yet again by setting up a plant hire business to cater for wedding, conferences and special occasions. All short term hire and mainly flowers. This should give Mandy some input into the company and become a good work from home business..... only time will tell.
Well time did tell. That little idea went nowhere - a bit like
re-inventing the wheel. However out of that came the thought of opening a
retail nursery and associated cafe. In October 2009 the Werai Teahouse and
Nursery was opened here on the farm. After continuing to mow lawns for a
short time as well it all became too much, so most of the mowers were sold and
now the main emphasis is the teahouse and nursery which is going real
good. Open 7 days, and now fully licensed, there is plenty of opportunity
for growth.
So for those that have read this history, I hope it has given you some insight into how this company
has unfolded. It was started with nothing, and travelling around Australia on buses to get to jobs
(and I wouldn't recommend that to anyone, afterall that is what planes are for) and could still end
up with nothing, but in the process a good time is being had, and the old attitude of you don't know
unless you have a go must still hold.
Cheers
TAS