David and Ros Sutton never expected to be farmers, fishers and fruit growers.
They knew nothing about trawling and had never even seen an apple tree until they bought an orchard.
But a devastating setback early in their careers switched their thinking and opened them up to change, making anything seem possible.
“Our philosophy has always been: ‘Sometimes, the less you know the better’,” David said.
“You really have a new view of how you may be able to do something.”
This philosophy, coupled with the drive to provide for their three children, gave the husband-and-wife team a positive attitude in the face of adversity.
Whether it was floods and drought, late nights and rough seas, or supermarkets and pandemics, they knew they could face it together.
Now, after 30 years, the name “Sutton” is synonymous with apples around the fruit’s Queensland capital of Stanthorpe.
Visit the factory and cafe nestled in the tiny nearby town of Thulimbah and you’ll find Ros carefully sliding one of her famous apple pies into the oven while David bottles a fresh cider.
Ros Sutton has made thousands of apple pies over her career. (ABC Rural: Brandon Long)
Not for much longer, however, with the pair, now in their mid-70s, announcing their retirement.
With their children pursuing their own careers, the duo has decided to list the business for sale.
It will be a major change for them, but instead of getting teary-eyed, experience has taught them the next adventure is just around the corner.
Farmers first
David and Ros’s amazing story began in the small north-west New South Wales town of Yetman, 50 minutes south-east of Goondiwindi.
Her father was a livestock agent who leased property and ran cattle and sheep, and “farmer Dave”, as he became known, was brought up on a 1,200-hectare mixed farm.
After getting married, they were prepared to stay at David’s family farm indefinitely, but it was not to be.
In 1976, one of the state’s worst floods ripped through their property.
“The nice topsoil was taken, and all that was left was gravel and big gutters that you couldn’t even drive a tractor over,” David said.
“It was then that we decided, ‘Okay, we’ll go and take a total change and do something else, because we’re never going to be able to use that farm the way it was’.
“We just happened to choose prawn trawling.”
They bought a trawler and settled in steamy Lucinda, two hours north of Townsville.
Applying their strong work ethic to the new venture began to pay off, and it was then they realised they had made the right move.
“We were making more money in a month than we ever turned over on the farm in a year,” David said.
David Sutton captained a fishing trawler in another life, searching for prawns, scallops and bugs for a living. (Supplied: Suttons Farm)
From hot to cold
After 14 years of breathing in the sea breeze, it was time for another change, so the couple and their children packed up and headed to the state’s coldest region — the Granite Belt — in 1994.
The Suttons set up shop across the highway from The Big Apple at Thulimbah in 1994. (Supplied: Suttons Farm)
They bought a working orchard with apple and stone fruit trees at Thulimbah near Stanthorpe and got to work, initially selling to supermarkets.
“We knew nothing about those, so we just jumped in, boots and all, and off we went,” Ros said.
“[But] we were forced to change because of the supermarkets becoming very picky about the apples they wanted in size, shape and colour.”
They soon removed all the commercial apple trees and replaced them with smaller cider varietals, built one of Queensland’s first commercial cideries, and started sourcing food apples from a local grower to make juice and apple cider vinegar.
The next logical step was to open a cafe.
Everything was going steady until 2019 when COVID-19 started spreading.
But rather than put the brakes on and lay off staff, they approached it the only way they knew how.
“Even though it was doom and gloom about what would and wouldn’t happen, we just kept processing and kept building up stock,” David said.
After restrictions lifted, they had 14,000 people through the doors in the first 20 days.
Ros had to take on the cooking and David took on the processing.
“We certainly worked some very long days to accommodate all those people who came to enjoy the fruits of our labour,” Ros said.
“[They were] challenging times, but incredibly rewarding, and we worked together to make that work.”
Suttons Farm staff member Deb and owner David Sutton put the final touches on their preserves. (ABC Rural: Brandon Long)
David remembered the rush with a twinkle in his eye.
“It just blew up — just took off — and that was pretty satisfying,” David said.
“That was probably when we knew we’d got to where we should get.”
New adventures
Ros and David Sutton replaced all their commercial apple trees with cider apple trees after dealing with supermarkets became too difficult. (ABC Rural: Brandon Long)
From then on, the business has been busier than ever.
Suttons now uses about 100 tonnes of apples a year — enough to make 20,000kg of pie filling, 80,000 bottles of juice and 10,000 bottles of cider.
“I’ve made literally thousands and thousands of apple pies,” Ros said.
“It’s absolutely crazy, but look, it’s wonderful.”
Whether the new owners keep the Sutton name on the factory or choose their own is up to them.
David and Ros just hope they enjoy the adventure as much as they have.
