RB SELLARS SPRING SUMMER 2021
THE CROKER FAMILY
Photographed by Abbie Melle in collaboration with Graziher Magazine
Surrounded by towering gumtrees, the hills of the Croker family’s property in the New South Wales Southern Tablelands provided a perfect setting to put our new collection to the test.
Elise and Craig Croker live here with their four children Bridie, Will, Sophie and Mia. Craig works with his father and brother at ‘Eldorado’, a sheep and cattle farm named by his grandparents, while Elise works as a nurse in the emergency department, at Crookwell District hospital. Elise gave us an insight into life as a nurse, mother of four and her latest venture — renovating and running two properties, Eldorado Cottage and Mister Munro, as AirBnBs.
“I met Craig at a local play in Crookwell when I was 21. I went to school with Craig’s sister Liana — she was the year above me — and there were a few of their cousins in the play. After the play, we all went to the pub and Liana introduced us. Craig was in a corner with a mate, just chatting quietly. The next morning, I said to a friend: ‘Liana’s boyfriend seemed really nice.’ And my friend started laughing and said, ‘No, that’s not her boyfriend, that’s her brother.’
A couple of weeks later, the Cowra Races were on, and my friend said, ‘Craig, will definitely be at the races.’ So I took myself off to the races and Craig happened to be there and that was it. I’d just come back from Sydney and I was home to save money as my plan was to go travelling and also to see my great grandmother who was turning one hundred. She lived in Coventry [UK], so my grandfather (who was her son) and my mum, my aunt and my uncle, all flew there to spend her 100th birthday with her. It was a wonderful experience. My grandfather was a ‘10-pound Pom’ and he left Coventry after World War II and all the bombing. He was only 16 years old when he got off the boat and went straight to Longreach to work as a jackaroo.
All mum’s cousins were at the party. For me, I had this new-found family there that I had never met before and it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I knew I had to do. Craig and I had probably only known each for six months or even less at that stage so I said to him, ‘If we’re still thinking about each other, I’ll come and find you.’
I travelled around, had a great time, but after a few months I realised I missed Craig so I came back. Being a nurse, I can work anywhere, so we lived in Armidale, New South Wales, where Craig was working before he got a job in Rockhampton. We had a great time there and made so many friends. We got married in June 2008 and moved back here. We bought part of Craig’s family farm and Bridie was born a year later.
“I grew up on a farm. I’m one of four children. We had horses, dogs and a couple of stray cats that you would feed out the back door. You could just run down the paddock and make a fort. You could pretend to be in some make-believe world. You had the room to grow and use your imagination and be creative. The freedom of being in touch with nature, that’s what I loved about growing up on a farm."
"Obviously, growing up on a farm really instils hard-working values as well: it’s not all just skipping in green grass. There’s livestock, and you’ve got dead stock; work dogs get run over and other things like that. I do think it makes you quite resilient and gives you that ability to be more adaptable. It’s probably not that talked about, but growing up on a farm is creative in a sense because you don’t have as much outside contact. You can’t just duck down the street on your bike or go to the movies like town kids. You have to be creative with your siblings and make your own fun.”
Our Spring Summer collection offers a range of lightweight linen styles, shirts and shorts, polos and seasonal workshirts in bright colours, with new fabrics and fits for the whole family.
Shop the first of our New Arrivals with more styles dropping online and in-store over the coming weeks.
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