A wine with: Shannon Blackbourn

I was very young.

So I think I was 16 when I started.

School wasn't my favorite place.

I mean, I was very social, but I wasn't probably putting my best foot forward there.

So I started an apprenticeship very young.

And back then I didn't really, I didn't realise how important it was going to be later.

It was just a job to me.

So I started the apprenticeship.

And then, yeah, all these years later, I'm so grateful to have chosen this field anyway.

Yeah.

It's funny how like, you know, school isn't for everybody but, you know, we do have so many different options and obviously, you know, doing an apprenticeship and then starting your own business, that's something, that's a pathway that like people dream of.

So incredible.

Yeah,

it was a pathway and I mean I love school now and even when I left school I ended up studying for the next 12 years I did my horticulture and then landscape and also landscape design.

So I spent a lot of time studying anyway after that, but I really enjoyed it.

Do you think it was because it was a topic you actually cared about rather than all the crap we have to learn at school?

Yeah, it was just so fun and engaging and you're always outside and, you know, the rest of the time you were sort of off making money and I guess you had a job.

Although looking back now, I wish I wasn't in such a rush to grow up and be an adult because, yeah, but I am very grateful that, yeah, I fell into this field and then I got to start my own business only four years ago for myself.

So and, yeah, it's been really great.

Amazing.

So when you finished the apprenticeship, doing the study, did you work for somebody else first before you went into your own business? Oh, yes.

I mean, I've worked for many different companies all up the east coast of Australia.

I worked on Hamilton Island for a few years.

I worked in Sydney, Queensland, Melbourne, because I'm from Melbourne originally, and then back here in Canberra.

So yeah.