BOXING Day 2019 heralded the 46th work anniversary at Almondco for Adrian ‘Adey’ Nickolai, a maintenance supervisor at the company’s hulling and shelling facility at Lyrup.
His tenure traverses Almondco’s takeover of the site, after spending a fair portion of his career at the site previously owned by Simarloo, under almond industry pioneer, Noel Sims.
He was born in Loxton but grew up on the family farm at Meringur, over the border in Victoria. Adey left the farm in 1969 and joined a shearing team as a rouseabout, before meeting and marrying wife, Kaylene.
“In the shearing sheds, it was nothing to travel 200 or 300 miles to come home on a weekend and I thought ‘this is no bloody good’,” Adey laughed.
He approached Simarloo block manager, Trevor Thiele, who was friends with one of Ady’s uncles.
“Trevor said ‘sure, start the day after Christmas’,” Adey said.
“I walked out the back and it was just orange, apricots everywhere and pickers scattering about.
“We often worked through New Years Day, everything.
“When you’ve got apricots ready, and they had 100 acres of them in four varieties, you’ve got to pick them.”
American, Jim Trowbridge, was Adey’s first general manager.
His penchant for maintaining all things mechanical was quickly identified as a strength and after just four years working as a general laborer, Adey was promoted to a supervisor’s role, where he has stayed since.
“I think it’s in your blood, maintenance,” he said.
“I was pulling motors apart in my teens, we’d fix them up and messed around with them, it was just something we did and it carried on into life.
“I like to see things run properly, I hate things that are shabby and not performing like they should.
“Dad was the same way, he maintained all his own machinery, engine overhauls, he never paid anyone to do any of that.
“Even the almond plant here, we improved things all the time, just little things.
“We all think pretty similarly here, if we see something that could be improved, we discuss it and do it.”
There have been three major upgrades at the site in Adey’s time.
“The first major one we did in 1989/1990, we had a permanent engineer here then, who was Dennis Thiele, an uncle to Trevor,” he said.
“A lot of engineering things I’ve learned, I would have learned from him
“He had his own engineering business, he was probably self taught but back then in the 50s and 60s, everyone was.”
The Thiele trifecta was completed with Trevor’s brother, Neville, who managed the factory.
“It was good, it worked well, they all knew what they were doing,” Adey said.
Under Neville’s guidance, Adey did all the welding on the factory’s second major upgrade.
“Nothing has fallen apart but both Neville and myself always built things four times stronger than what they needed to be,” he said.
“We’ve never had anything we’ve made collapse.”
Adey’s work vehicle, a Mini Panelvan, was a bit of an icon at the site before being retired about six years ago.
“You could only sit on 50m/h and it would be revving so hard, you’d think it was going to blow to bits,” he said.
Adey counts himself extremely fortunate to have worked under Simarloo pioneer, Noel Sims, and his family.
“The Sims family was a fantastic family to work for,” he said.
“Noel, you couldn’t get a better guy, he was at our level, he wasn’t a boss unless he had to be.
“He was years ahead with his thinking, he was always working out what he’d do next year already and telling you about it too, so we always knew where we were going.”
Noel’s drive helped drive expansion of the almond industry, including his development of the Simarloo site.
“It’s got a lot bigger, but we had to,” Adey said.
“The first almond plant we had here cracked half a tonne per hour.
“Our first upgrade went up to two and a half tonnes an hour and I thought it would do us out of a job.
“By 2000, Noel said we’ve got to go bigger, so we pulled the plant down and shifted it into the other shed, and 10 years after that we added more onto it.
“We’re at about five tonnes an hour now, and they’re looking at going faster but everything is going pretty much flat out.”
Almondco’s takeover and further development has largely mirrored Noel’s approach to growing the industry.
“Noel had a big say in Almondco too and he knew what he was doing,” Adey said.
“Obviously the company wants the best from this plant and we try to deliver that too.”
Adey’s commitment to the company is unquestioned and even a stroke he suffered in June only kept him off site for about a month.
At 69, he fills his spare time tinkering with old tools and bits of machinery, including typewriters and sewing machines, with plans to build a display area at his home.
It looks like, at this stage, the magical 50-year milestone will remain unconquered.
“No, I told them one more year, maybe two,” Adey laughed.
“I’ve thought of it, I know it would be a milestone.”
He plans to volunteer at the Historical Village in Loxton, while a local machinery group also piqued his interest.
“I think it will be a bit strange when I do retire but I’ve got plenty of community groups to get involved with,” Adey said.
His service record is something to behold, standing alone in the 20, 25, 30, 40 and 45 year contributors at the hulling and shelling plant.
“For sure it is, I’m very proud of it, he said.
“I loved the job here, ever since I started.
“Wouldn’t have it any different.
“When you love a job, you want to keep going back.”