By Aaron Cordy
MOST people have a few good stories in them, finding the courage and encouragement to sit down to wrestle that story onto the page is sometimes all that is needed to discover everyone has a book in them.
For Robert Bryant, it was walking with a mate through his old stomping ground of Numurkah, when he pointed out a few landmarks with a little yarn about them. His mate gave him a gentle push that Robert should be writing these stories down.
Retired from his last business gig, chairing Geoffrey Thompson Holdings in September 2023, Robert tried some hard manual work but broke down physically. He then had a crack at writing his memoir Life is a Daring Adventure, the story of a man’s quest into the unknown. Never learning from a textbook and slow to learn from experience Rob was born into dairy farming, drifted into grain trading and flowered into finance, eventually listing his company on the Australian Securities Exchange. His book delves into a life of hardships and finding a way through the hard times.
“A lot of it in the book is about the breakdowns that occurred in that time. Interest rates at 17-18 per cent during the late 80s, we owed $1M at that stage. It’s an interesting story. How do you survive owing that much money in a farming environment and you are paying that much interest,” said Rob.
To find out the full story of how he survived and much more, you can find copies of Life is a Daring Adventure at Collins Booksellers, 262 Maude St, Shepparton, The Wunghnu, Nathalia and Strathmerton Post Offices, the Numurkah newsagent on Melville Street and the Cobram newsagent on Banks Street. You can also purchase the e-reader version for your Kindle.
All proceeds from the sale of Life is a Daring Adventure will go to The Cottage, 8 St Andrews Rd Shepparton where over 450 people have been residents since 2017.
