Winners: Cactus Country owners John, Julie and John Hall, with Australian shepherd Oreo and kelpie Prickles.
Photo by
Jamie Salter
Cactus Country in Strathmerton has taken out the top prize in the Tourist Attractions category of the NSW Tourism Awards.
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Co-owners Jim, Julie and John Hall accepted the award on February 3, celebrating a move upwards from the Bronze prize in 2019.
“Julie — my mum — and I went down and were sat on a table right up the back of the room, enjoying the entertainment and soaking it all in,” John said.
“Julie and Ann put six weeks of hard work into our application, and we received a certificate recognising everyone who had become a finalist.
“That award came out prior to the award being announced, and so Mum and I took that as a bit of a sign that we hadn’t won the award.
“We were sitting there, a little doom and gloom, thinking we hadn’t even placed in the top three.
“Then our award category comes around, and the six names of the finalists come up in the Tourist Attraction category, and Bronze was announced — not us — Silver gets announced — not us — and then Gold: Cactus Country.
“We both looked at each other like ‘what has just happened? How the hell have we done this?’
“We went from one end of the spectrum of emotions to the other, and we were just on cloud nine for the rest of the night.”
The Strathmerton business has flourished in the past few years.
It is now a five-hectare garden encompassing more than 1000 different varieties of cacti from all corners of the world.
During the pandemic, the business has expanded to online cacti sales, meaning that visitors and admirers alike can take a piece of the expansive range home with them.
“Another big aspect of the night was the opportunity to network with so many people that we haven’t been able to see for the last two years, and see how they’ve changed or adapted or increased their business during COVID,” John said.
“When COVID first hit, a lot of businesses took it as an opportunity to take a break, which is totally understandable.
“I immediately thought ‘we have to do something’ and got to building up our Instagram account, and figured now would be a good time to build up the plant sales side of the business, so now we have a whole new website with an online shop.
“I thought it was an opportunity to try something different: we can’t open our doors to the public, and we’re too far from the highway for people to drop in for take-away food, it just makes sense that plant sales was something we could still deliver or post.
“We tried it and it worked.”
For more information about Cactus Country, or to purchase plants or tickets, go to www.cactuscountry.com.au
Attraction: Cactus Country in Strathmerton.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
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