#91: From Engineer to Farmer: Building His Way Into Agriculture with Luke St. George

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G'day and welcome to the A Place to Call Home Podcast, a podcast sharing the stories of people building a life in agriculture across rural Australia.

In this episode, I sit down with Luke St. George, a first-generation farmer, engineer and entrepreneur from North Queensland.

Growing up, Luke always said he wanted to become an engineer so he could one day afford to buy a farm. And at just 28 years old, that's exactly what he did.

After building his own engineering and construction businesses, Luke purchased Lancewood Station on the Burdekin River. But getting that first start wasn't easy, from negotiating a mortgagee-in-possession sale and getting knocked back by the bank to developing a rundown property with very little money left over.

We dive into how Luke built his businesses, financed his first property, created equity through property development and eventually made the difficult decision to sell Lancewood to focus on family and other opportunities.

We also explore his journey into investing and private equity, his approach to building wealth, and his latest venture, Stockman's Wallet, which aims to change the way producers value livestock and make financial decisions.

This is a great conversation about backing yourself, recognising opportunities, learning from failure and finding your own pathway into agriculture.

In this episode, we chat about:

🌾 Growing up with the dream of becoming a farmer

🏗️ Starting an engineering business at 24 and building Vision Constructions

🏡 Purchasing Lancewood Station at just 28 years old

🏦 Financing his first property, dealing with bank rejection and getting that first start

🔨 Developing rundown properties and building equity

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Balancing business, farming and family, and making the difficult decision to sell

🌱 Developing Hervey Range and lessons in regenerative agriculture

🥩 Starting Pure Produce and the challenges of paddock-to-plate beef

📈 Selling his engineering business and learning about private equity and investing

💰 Building businesses that have value beyond their cash flow

🐂 Creating Stockman's Wallet and bringing better financial tools to livestock producers

🤖 Artificial intelligence and the future of Australian agriculture

💡 Backing yourself, having a go and learning from failure

🏡 What a place to call home means to Luke

Learn More about Luke and what we chatted about

🔗 Luke St. George — LinkedIn

https://au.linkedin.com/in/luke-st-george-550a2952

🐂 Stockman's Wallet — Livestock valuations and financial tools

https://www.stockmanswallet.com.au/

🥩 Pure Produce — Regeneratively raised beef

https://pureproduce.net.au/

🏗️ Vision Constructions

https://www.visionconstructions.com.au/

Resources Mentioned

🎙️ Moonshots Podcast — Peter Diamandis 

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This season of A Place to Call Home is proudly brought to you by

Rabobank Australia.

A big thank you to Rabobank Australia for supporting the podcast and helping us continue sharing the stories of people building their future in Australian agriculture.

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