Graham Patch contributed several decades worth of development to the Lismore community through his real estate business Patch and Taylor. This week he celebrated his 90th birthday. Graham and his daughter Leanne took some time to talk to Sara Browne about the adventure of life.

I feel that I have lived a full life. I went to high school here at Lismore High. I didn’t go through to year 12. I left and helped Dad on the farm, that was my first job.

It was a dairy farm but if you had to grow potatoes to make the farm work, that’s what you did. It was out at Spring Grove. I had two brothers. One of them left home fairly early and made his own mark on the planet. I wanted to be a man when I grew up. I think I became one.

I worked on Dad’s farm for a few years. I got offered a job in town at a real estate agency, that was 1962. I was born in 1933. It’s my birthday soon. That’s what all this fuss is about. I’d like a glass of wine for my birthday, I don’t care what sort, red or white.

Once I got my feet on the ground in the outside world, and in the real estate world, things started to open up for me. Others offered me different opportunities. I was in real estate for 40 years.

I was in partnership for a short time with a fellow named Ken Taylor, hence the Patch and Taylor. I had family work in the business in the later years. Leanne was my main salesperson in the high-flying days.

I met Joan at a dance in Casino. She was a Casino girl. I wasn’t a good dancer. Back in those days, it was the only opportunity you had to be with a mixed crowd. Other than that, you’d go to a function but there wasn’t the opportunity to socialise or dance with anyone. I really couldn’t dance at all.

Graham aged 4

I got a motorbike even though Mum and Dad didn’t want me to get one. I was just being a teenager. I’d get home at two o’clock in the morning.

We had four kids. Sheryl is the eldest, then Janelle. Robbie and Leanne. I’ve got seven grandkids and five great-grandchildren. Sheryl is in Brisbane, she has two kids and three grandchildren but the rest are still located around here.

I’ve thought about living in other places. I’ve travelled a fair bit nationally and internationally. I’ve been to the Grand Canyon twice. That was wonderful. We got left on the side because the bus was leaving. We went on ski trips down to Perisher.

Lismore has always been home. I love it because I grew up here. I’ve seen a few floods but they’re nothing, they go down.

I did a few developments in Goonellabah. That was the 70s and 80s. I did residential subdivisions.

I liked to tinker, see what I could make out of something that was thrown away. I just learnt from tinkering. My Dad was a bit like that too. Mum was a dear soul. Dad was happy to be a dairy farmer, Mum wasn’t. She was a town girl. She grew up in a little place called Rosewood, up near Ipswich. When she got to the age she could move away, she came this way. She’d met Dad by that stage.

Graham aged 21 

I’m proud of raising four kids. I think I’ve considered the kids. Religion has been a part of my life. I’m not one of those religious cranks but my understanding of this planet is connected to a belief. The reality of it is, something like this planet, or parts of it, they don’t just hang here, they’re part of a total picture. And we don’t know what part of that total picture we are. Men and women built this, what we’re sitting on, that was part of their contribution. They saw an opportunity.

If we look out into the streets and walk down them, to me there were and still are many opportunities for people to give something of themselves. It doesn’t have to be a monetary gift. It can be a gift of time, talent, energy – all those things. All those things are still out there. I used to get great pleasure out of sorting out which of those opportunities I was able to take part in.

I’ve been an elder of the Presbyterian Church for fifty years. I’m not as active in that now as I used to be, mainly because of my eyesight.

I had a large property that was subdivided but kept a large parcel for macadamias. We hand planted macas about forty years ago, hand planted them all from seed. That kept me busy until about five or ten years ago.

I can’t help laughing about some of the capers I used to get up. I don’t think I’ll tell you one. Anything that you can think of now, that you’d be likely to get into trouble for, that would be me.

If I were to give advice to anyone younger, I’d probably edge around something like – for every opportunity that comes up, try to take a piece of it. You may not always be able to take a piece of it because it’s under somebody else’s control. But then, if you think that it's worthwhile, you can approach people.

I always maintained that you’ve got to be fair dinkum. A handshake is a handshake, a deal is a deal. You have to be true to your word.

I’m looking for the advantages of getting old. You hope that you’re wiser. You hope that your last encounters you have with your friends and rellies are going to be remembered long after you’ve gone. Not just next week. You hope that there is something lasting.