From droving drought stock along the long, dusty stock routes in Queensland and New South Wales, to negotiating international trade deals around the world, Roger Fletcher has seen it all.
His family company diversified from droving into small-meat processing operations in rural NSW, and from there into a large abattoir at Dubbo.
Today Fletcher International Exports (FIE) continues to grow and develop new commodities, new markets, and new customers.
As part of Australia Day commemorations Mr Fletcher's success in business and his contribution to the community has been recognised, as he was announced as a recipient of a medal in the Order of Australia.
Fletcher's constant growth
FIE is an integrated processing and export business, operating abattoirs at Dubbo in NSW and at Albany in Western Australia.
In 2015, the company bought three rail locomotives and 62 wagons to freight containerised export commodities from central-west NSW to Sydney ports.
It trades grains, fibres and other commodities all around the world, and Mr Fletcher said he believed international commerce was the best way to breakdown barriers between countries.
"They need us, we need them," he said.
"This is better than politicians going to a country and trying to argue things out, because they have nothing to sell or buy."
Mr Fletcher said the key to his company's success had rested in its keenness to understand and satisfy a customer's needs, and also in the work ethic and willingness to seize opportunities when they present themselves.
"You have to take a ticket to be in with a chance of winning," he said.
"If there are opportunities you don't take up, you miss out on the rewards — you have to take a risk."
Mr Fletcher and his wife Gail have three children, all of whom have an active role in the family company.
He said he sees his family as integral to the operation's success, and that it stems from his early training from his mother.
"We were taught to work from the beginning and that has stayed with me; making-do and saving money," he said
"I got my start as a kid, sitting on the back of a Shetland pony, minding drought sheep on the stock route outside Glen Innes."
He said being an Australian has also been an important part of his life; a country where people can get ahead, can be accepted on their merits, and where the Australian community accepts and values immigrants.
The abattoir at Dubbo has a very diverse workforce, employing local residents and also foreign visa workers and Mr Fletcher says the multicultural mix is good for the workplace and the community.
"You look at Dubbo now, with the number of multicultural people here; it's like this big mix.
"It's almost as though we used to have two societies, now we have a big mix of a society - the world is getting smaller."
Each year, Fletchers Dubbo plant put aside their regular processing operations to accommodate the ritual slaughter and processing for Muslim clients for the festival of Eid.
These clients come to Dubbo from Sydney, but also from abroad, to oversee the slaughter of stock and packaging of meat which is then distributed to underprivileged people around the world.
The work is done as a part of Muslim religious obligations.
It is a service the company has been providing for years, and both Roger Fletcher and his customers agree that this sort of relationship helps to build their personal and commercial ties.
Surviving in drought
As drought continues to plague rural and regional NSW and Queensland Mr Fletcher's attitude is pragmatic — he sees opportunities in all things.
"You have to look at how I started out," he said.
"I was looking after stock in the long paddock. We used to go around picking up dead wool — there's always money to be made, in all seasons.
"I hope I see a few more droughts, because that means I still have a good few years in me."
