The desert gardener

At his side was his best mate, Baron the golden labrador, wearing racing goggles. They passed Meekatharra, the last outpost – the road ahead was rough red dirt, the sun blazed down – then, suddenly, the country opened up, the ranges came into view. “We’d just passed Roy Hill and Nullagine,” says O’Meara, “and it hit me. All at once, I felt it: I saw the trees, the flowers, the mauve hills and yellow spinifex; I saw the way the features of the landscape held together and had their balance. The Pilbara had claimed me. From that moment I was hooked.”

He was looking at the course of his life to come. That country shaped him; it gave him everything, it took everything from him, and, in time, it restored his good fortune again. It taught him, also; it schooled him in wisdom, patience, persistence. It made him what he is today: the prospector of the deserts; the self-taught connoisseur of outback trees – the uncrowned king of Marble Bar.

At that first sighting, though, things weren’t quite so clear. He was just a young man, coming north for a government job with the mining registrar in Australia’s hottest town. It was 1959, and the Bar was still in its wild frontier glory: it was the place where all the strangest characters found refuge, and every tall story started out. “Travelling to the Pilbara in those days was like an interplanetary trip,” O’Meara says. “You came across people who played by completely different rules.” There were gold diggers and claim chasers, part-time drovers and outcamp dwellers; there were doggers and kangaroo shooters aplenty, and every kind of implausible bush tradesman and enthusiast. “It was a lovely old place, the Bar,” O’Meara says: “But it was hot!”

No shade to speak of, either, for the first ¬government officials had planted only English trees, which promptly withered away and died. O’Meara noticed a scatter of redgum seedlings in the sandy bed of the Coongan River nearby, and, following the lead of the previous mining registrar, he began collecting them in condensed milk tins and planting them in the main street of the town. Soon every prospector coming in for his mining right or exploration licence was receiving a free bonus: little gum-tree saplings to decorate his claim. O’Meara fell into a habit that has stayed with him ever since: growing trees and distributing them far and wide to friends,  neighbours, surrounding Aboriginal communities and stations throughout the East Pilbara.

Lynch Creek Wreaths: Corporate Gift-Giving is a Fine Art

• Corporate gifts should make the recipient feel good about their role in the life of the company, whether as a partner or client. Donations should let them know they are appreciated. Donations should be relatively uniform, with only variations depending on the circumstances. You do not want customers compare notes and I was wondering why it was a huge basket of fruit and fine wines, while another received a generic box of chocolates. • Gifts given during the holiday season should recognize the different cultural and religious traditions. Specifically Christian or Christmas-oriented items are not appropriate gifts for Jewish or Muslim clients or associates, but similar gifts can vary for these traditions: wreaths can come with decorations in Hanukkah colors of blue and silver or gold, for instance. Evergreen table arrangements are simply seasonal and most designs are appropriate for any cultural tradition. Of course the Lynch Creek Farm staff recommends wreaths, swags and centerpieces of fragrant Pacific Northwest evergreens, specially designed and selected for your gift recipients with your particular needs in mind. They're shipped fresh and fast, and they last the whole holiday season and usually longer. There's simply nothing like their fragrance and elegance. At Lynch Creek Farm, corporate gifts are a specialty. Christmas wreaths, garland and holiday centerpieces abound in a wide range of designs and price levels, and the Lynch Creek crew has worked for years to help members of the business community choose appropriate gifts. The shipping staff takes care to ensure that customers' luxuriant, fragrant evergreen gifts arrive in a timely fashion. Free samples of Lynch Creek's products are available; visit www.lynchcreekwreaths.com online or call 1-888-426-0781. The whole point of corporate gifting is to say "Thank you. We appreciate you." Each year the Farm gets rave reviews from customers whose clients are wowed the moment they open those classy red boxes and breathe in the aroma of fir, pine and cedar; Lynch Creek's elegant evergreens say "Thank you" as well as anything we can think of. Perhaps a little bit better.

Orange Coast Magazine

Orange Coast Magazine

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A New and copious lexicon of the Latin language, compiled chiefly from the Magnum totius latinitatis lexicon of Facciolati and Forcellini, and the German works of Scheller and Luenemann

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