Aubrey is celebrating his centenary year; his garden remains his enduring passion.
At the age of 12, Aubrey began his horticultural journey by cultivating beans for his mother, selling them to her for six pence a pound. Since then, he has been dedicated to gardening on the North Shore of Sydney, with the exception of a four-and-a-half-year period during which he served in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. In that time, he excelled as a telegraphist with the 36th Wireless Task Section attached to the 9th Division. Remarkably, he still possesses the Morse code key he used in the jungle.
After the war, Aubrey grew interested in growing orchids. He began importing seedlings from Great Britain, and to this day, he continues to cultivate some of those imported varieties. Among his favourites is the well-known is Mildred var. Hunter, an orchid that has earned him numerous prizes.
He has been the recipient of the President’s Shield of the Ku-ring-gai Horticultural Society, winning the title of the Best Annual Exhibitor for the past four consecutive years: 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023. Notably, the award was not presented in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, he achieved the Annual Benching Point Score of the NSW Rose Society’s Upper North Shore & Hills Region (UNSH), securing 677 points. Currently Aubrey tends to a diverse garden, including 203 roses alongside camellias, orchids, citrus, and a selection of vegetables.
Aubrey's horticultural interests may be rooted in his genes, tracing back to his ancestor, Major Benjamin Sullivan. Major Sullivan, who arrived in Australia on the ship 'Mary Hope' on 6th October 1828, was granted 2,560 acres on the Williams River near Clarence Town. He named the property Thalaba and dedicated the next four years to its development. Accompanied by his wife Margaret, four children, and three servants, Major Sullivan resided on the land for four years. After completing the development, he sold Thalaba and went on to become the first police magistrate at Port Macquarie, followed by serving as the police magistrate at Wollombi, where he eventually retired.
Aubrey's diverse interests, extending beyond gardening, may be contributing to his longevity. A skilled musician and violinist, he played with the Lindfield Light Symphony Orchestra. During his school days at Newington, he honed his rifle shooting skills at Long Bay Rifle Range, becoming a crack shot. Throughout his extensive life, photography remained a constant passion. As a member of two camera clubs, Aubrey garnered numerous prizes and even built his own darkroom for developing and printing enlargements. Wood turning has been a lifelong pursuit, and he completed a four-year course at Sydney Technical College. His craftsmanship was recognised when he secured first prize forwood turning at the Sydney Royal Easter Show in 1980, surpassing all competitors.
Aubrey was awarded the OAM in 1985 for services to banking as General Manager of the Rural Bank. His proud achievements were pulling the National Opera and the RSL Building Society out of the mire. Upon his retirement at sixty, Aubrey ventured into entrepreneurship, founding Ethinvest Proprietary Limited, a financial planning company that has since grown to encompass 38 employees and branches in Sydney, Melbourne, South Australia, and the Central Coast of NSW.
Aubrey’s motto has always been, “Bite off more than you can chew, and chew like hell.”
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