The Bees knees
REFLECTIONS
The Scobie family hails from South Auckland where dad Jack grew anemone flower bulbs at Pukekohe Hill. Born in 1940, Scobie started mucking around in boats at the family bach at Orua Bay, and as a teenager built three Carl Augustin runabouts. He left school in 1956 to start a house-building apprenticeship.
Two years later Jack Scobie had a fatal heart attack while playing golf, triggering a major change in the family’s financial circumstances. In those days, even modest estates attracted death duties and, like most farmers, the Scobies were asset-rich, cash-flow-poor.
The death duties just about wiped them out – Scobie left his apprenticeship to help his two brothers run the 17-acre family farm. Trying to increase cash flow, they leased another 100 acres to get into market gardening. They had two good years before a bad year nearly bankrupted them. “We were selling potatoes below cost.”
One brother bought out the other two and Scobie returned to house-building for several years. In 1974 he was, originally built by the late Alan Warwick.
