In Brief:

Nat Jaques was born into farming, in Tanzania East Africa, he grew up on the family coffee plantations, which were situated on the towering slopes of Kilimanjaro. As the years passed and when Nat finished his schooling, he took on the challenge of running the family business.  Where he met his wife Linda, whose family were intensive tea cultivators in Kenya.  Unfortunately political instability forced the end of the business and a close to the African chapter of their lives.  Faced with leaving the country with only $2000 worth of belongings and cash, Nat and Linda turned toward Australia to follow their dreams.  After a trip around Australia, finding North Queensland an ideal place for coffee and an even better lifestyle, they settled in to pioneer Australia’s Coffee Growing Industry. After a few major set-backs and on their second and current plantation, with the crucial development of the Worlds first mechanical coffee harvester under their belts, Nat and Linda along with their son’s Jason and Robert, produce a World Class Coffee, Winning Gold at national competitions in Australia.

Nat Jaques was born in Arusha,Tanzania and brought up on the family coffee plantation on the slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.  His wife Linda born on the Island of Zanzibar was brought up on tea estates in the Highlands of Kenya.

Nat and Linda Jaques chose to live in Australia because of the political instability and high security risks in third world Tanzania. They left with the equivalent of $2000 minus the value of their personal possessions, their life savings frozen by the Tanzania Government with a promise of releasing $1000 a year.  To date no money has been forthcoming and would be worthless now due to massive inflation.

They arrived in Perth and drove around Australia looking for a potential coffee farming area.  In Brisbane while researching the Queensland Agricultural Journals they found that coffee had grown on the Atherton Tablelands at the turn of the century.  The coffee had won prizes for best quality on the London and Marseilles markets. They discovered that the industry demise had come about with the native workforce being sent back to New Calendonia and sugar cane farming needed intensive labour. Armed with this information the area was narrowed down and in 1979 Nat and Linda leased from the Government 80 hectares of virgin land west of Mareeba.  They were joined by Nat's brother Dick and his wife Mariolyn.

A selection of the best cultivars of Arabica coffee were imported into Australia and one variety was found growing at the research station at Kairi, on the Atherton Tablelands. These 20 trees had been neglected for years and it was a pleasure to see that the trees were disease free.  Nat Jaques labelled these trees Kairi Typica.

Hard work, blood, sweat and tears created the first commercial coffee plantation in Australia in the 1980's.

The trickle drip irrigation scheme was the largest in North Queensland with special care given to fertilising regimes direct to the roots of the young coffee trees.

The need for a mechanical harvester became a priority and after a visit to New Zealand to modify a PECO berry picker, the machine was imported into Australia.

Unfortunately, the machine was unsuitable for coffee and fell apart.  With an R&D grant and Nat working for a year with the engineers at NQEA Shipbuilders in Cairns- Coffee Shuttle One was Born.  This coffee harvester is a superb piece of precision workmanship and can harvest a tree a second.

Again fate paid a bad hand and in 1986 with the Keating Government and the "Recession the country had to have" with interest rates at 22% on the 1 million dollars of borrowed money the Jaques Plantation went to Liquidation.  There was a magnificent 80 tonne crop on the trees but the banks would not allow the Jaques to harvest the coffee - so they lost everything.

In 1990 the never say die Jaques, bought on Auction a block of virgin land at Emerald Creek, Gilmore Road.  The whole process of clearing the land, installing irrigation and planting a nursery saw the 2nd Jaques Coffee Plantation emerge. After 5 years and a beautiful flowering indicating a 20 tonne crop, fate decided the Jaques needed more character building.  The Department of Primary Industries  decided in their wisdom that as there was an outbreak of Papaya Fruit Fly in the region all coffee plantations must be sprayed. This in itself extraordinary as Payaya Fruit Fly does not affect coffee.

The Jaques did not use any Insecticides or Fungicides on the coffee trees and informed the DPI that they did not wish the Plantation to be sprayed. Despite the protests, the DPI came onto the property and with motor bikes, mist sprayed the entire plantation over 10 consecutive weeks.  Result - 50,000 coffee trees poisoned and destroyed. Their dreams shattered once again. Undaunted and rather than use contaminated trees the Jaques started all over again for the third time with new seedlings on new ground, and have established 25,000 healthy producing Arabica coffee trees.

Despite the enormous hurdles placed in their way the Jaques have remained focused and determined to create a coffee plantation for their sons Jason and Robert and this has been achieved despite the odds. It has taken 12 years of hardship, heartache and enormous stress to finally receive justice for the loss of their 50,000 coffee trees. Four weeks in the Supreme Court, then two separate Appeals in the Supreme Court, compensation was granted on the 20th January 2009 and the Jaques Family can finally have closure and get on with their lives.