Australian Country

Shedding light

If it’s not a rude question, how on earth did Robert Aernout, the son of a Dutch-Indonesian tea planter, end up as Australia’s foremost purveyor of antique lamps? Like most good stories, there are numerous twists and turns before reaching the conclusion. The first of what he modestly dismisses as a “few different careers” was when he trained as a fitter and turner in the Netherlands. Then he did an apprenticeship in hotel management and worked for a wine company, which just happened to have offices near

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