20 Years in Business

Back in 2005, we had a lightbulb moment… what if we didn’t just help shepherds find their next job but supported their career paths?

Some traditional farmers scratched their heads and said, “What the hell are you on about?”, but to me, it was clear. If we wanted to attract and retain great people in our industry, we had to start treating them as assets, not liabilities.

At the time, my experience in recruitment and HR could be best described as bush la and handshakes. I had a few solid networks (most of them formed at bars) and some strong instincts. But it was our Bank Manager, Alastair McDonald, who suggested we talk to someone who had been in the recruitment world before and could help with the start up nature of the business. Welcome Gretchen Parkes to Rural Directions.

Gretchen joined in August 2005, bringing her background in commercial recruitment and HR to the business. Having married Syd the farmer and being in a new farming business in Kereru, Gretchen’s love of all things ag and her knowledge of the industry was growing. Agreeing to take on a part time role, together they generously offered up a cupboard sized space in their small three-bedroom cottage as our first office. With two kids under three and a noisy new printer, we were in business.

From day one, we were values-driven. Our values …

‘We relocate families, we don’t just place people into jobs.’
‘We work with good employers and those committed to becoming great ones.’
These principles still guide everything we do today.

Not long after we kicked things off, Robyne Small (now Robyne Brooke) came on board and is still with us as our specialist on-farm recruiter.  Robyne has incredible networks throughout the farming sector and has worked with a huge number of clients to successfully place new job seekers into roles.

Our first manager, Jack Tarrant (now owner of Ruminate), was a bold character and a natural salesman. He proudly parked our branded Holden ute at Showgrounds and Racecourse entrances, spreading the RD message far and wide. His belief was “There’s always someone for someone, you just have to find them.”

When we started, some folks said, “why would you use a recruitment company to find staff?”
But it didn’t take long for that to shift to “those employers must really value their people to get professionals involved.” And that shift? We like to think we played a small part in the evolution of how the primary sector views and values their people now days.

We’ve always embraced learning by doing. I’ll never forget the time we got a call to recruit for dairy farms, despite being sheep and beef specialists. Two days later, the whole team was up at 4am, pulling on gumboots and milking cows in Patoka. That’s how we roll and this was the start of expanding into the broader primary sector.

Over the last 20 years, we’ve been lucky to work with great people, building long-term relationships. We’ve rarely dealt with bad debts and have had the privilege of walking through countless farm gates to see rural businesses evolve and thrive. Fast forward to 2025 and we now proudly recruit across the entire primary sector supply chain, in New Zealand and Australia.

One of our guiding principles in the office is the 80:10:10 rule. This refers to if someone has 80% of what you’re looking for, you can teach 10% and live with 10% then take them. No one’s perfect… not even us!

We’re proud of what Rural Directions has achieved. Every member of our team over the years has helped someone, or many people make life-changing career decisions. That’s a responsibility we don’t take lightly.

Looking back, we see ourselves as the winners in this journey because we’ve had the privilege of working with great employers and job seekers.

To all of you, thank you for letting us be part of your stories. It’s been our privilege and we’re just getting started.