Magazine - The Anco Story

By Sarah Gibson in Best of the Rest on 11th Feb 2010 10:15

Pitchcare Oceania travels to the Anco head office in Cranbourne, for a chat with owner and founder John Cotter and his right hand man manager Bruce Stephens. We have to travel back to the heady days of 1977 to South Melbourne to discover the beginnings of Anco. Discover how Anco grew from a 20 acre patch of dirt in Geelong to Melbourne's biggest Turf Supplier.








JOHN Cotter owner and joint founder of Anco with John Anderson both worked at F.H. Brunning a seed company in South Melbourne. John Anderson went down to Geelong to lecture at Marcus Oldham College and it was at this time that the two decided they wanted to go into business together. They started off on a small 20 acre paddock in Geelong on the Barwon river. John Cotter ran the business for the first twelve months while John continued to lecture to help with the cash flow.

John had the help of a young person in the day to day running of the farm for those first 12 months. He employed Chris Bell who happened to be a promising young football player with the under 19s Geelong team. The Geelong footie connection remained; through the early years several young Geelong players worked part time at Anco for an extra bit of cash. John Anderson came into the business full time after that first year. The two started the 20 acre farm with Rye grass and Blue grass- and the rest is history!

John Anderson sold his share of the company in 2005. The team today stands at 30 full time staff across Anco’s four farms.

With John scaling back on his hands on role, John’s son Ryan and daughter Sasha have taken on the role of joint General Managers. Bruce Stephens, Manager and “Jack of all trades” now works as strategic development and marketing Manager. Tim Elligate is Projects Manager. Each of the four farms at Cranbourne West, Clyde, Five ways and Torquay has their own turf manager with around 6 staff on each farm. There is also a retail shop in Geelong with turf displays.

In 1983 Anco made what was to be a sound business decision. They decided to expand their business over to the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne. At Clyde they purchased a 60 acre block of land. This enabled them to tap into the huge domestic market over that side of town. John built a property on the land to live in with his family. In 1982 John had to think of a solution fast due to the drought, nobody was buying turf, this could have been the death knell for the business. Not one to give up, John had an idea.

The family started to grow and sell vegetables which saw them through the next lean couple of years. The trucks would carry a few rolls of turf drop them off and continue onto market with their cargo of vegetables. It certainly shows a healthy spirit of enterprise that continues to be a trademark of Australia in times of hardship.


In 1985 Anco purchased another 135 acres at Lyndhurst-which is now covered over with housing estates. This is a trend that has continued with the rapid residential expansion of Melbourne, as sprawling suburbs continue to reach further out into the countryside. 

At this time John started to use recycled water. The farm was located next door to the Cranbourne treatment plant. The soil in Melbourne’s outer east is a fertile sandy loam. Anco had decided from the start that they wanted to use a sandy loam as opposed to the clay based soil most turf farmers were using. The reasoning behind this lies with the two founders of Anco completing agricultural diplomas. They took away enough knowledge to know that using a sandy soil made agronomic sense. Most people in Melbourne when laying turf put it onto a sandy base to start. It gave Anco a market edge making them stand outs in the turf growing business. John cites this as a big part of their continuing success and Anco still remains unique in being one of a few companies to use sandy soil in turf growing. Using that sandy soil and having great locations in Melbourne, being able to deliver the turf to landscapers first thing in the morning, have ensured continuing success for Anco.

The team leased a property of another 148 acres in 1985 on Manks road Lyndhurst which they eventually ended up buying. In 1998 they sold that property and bought 300 acres down in Torquay, which is now a successful farm. Today Anco has a total production area of around 550 acres, which is an impressive sized operation by anyone’s standards.



Bruce explains the issues that the region’s on going drought has bought. Melbourne is the only Capital city that does not give water exemptions of some kind for turf purchasers to grow warm season drought tolerant turf. They believe that the government has been slow to recognise the great environmental benefits of growing and laying this type of turf. The environmental benefits of turf are many. For example on a strip of eight houses, front lawns have the cooling effect of 70 tonnes of air conditioning. Turf absorbs pollutants such as carbon dioxide converting them to oxygen, and of course turf produces oxygen. If that’s not ticking all your boxes, turf is estimated to trap around 12 million tonnes of dust and dirt released annually into the atmosphere. Now, that makes even an industrial vacuum cleaner look positively redundant!

The start of 2006 saw Victoria’s water exemptions for watering new turf ending, resulting in a 90% drop off in business for Anco’s domestic market. People have adapted since then with drainage systems and water tanks. Anco as a business has also had to adapt and quickly. Today 95% of the turf grown by Anco is “new” turf- warm season grasses such as Couch, Kikuyu or Buffalo. John believes the turf industry in general has woken up to the fact that the Victorian climate can sustain these grasses. In the 80’s we had to educate the public to accept the broader leaf and higher cutting heights of Tall Fescue over the traditional fine fescue, rye, bluegrass mixes. It was an uphill struggle getting the public to accept the broader leaf Tall Fescue. John finds it ironic that the major sellers in the market today such as Buffalo and Kikuyu have an even broader leaf!

Anco have shown how farming warm season grasses can work down on their Geelong farm. They illustrated to Barwon Water what the minimal amount of water usage would be for consumers to grow this turf with a few weeks’ water exemptions. The water company were impressed with the stats and saw fit to implement exemptions with some limitations. With that go ahead the people of Geelong and surrounding regions can purchase and lay this turf and get a couple of weeks water exemptions while the drought tolerant turf establishes itself. Anco would like that to happen in Melbourne, and are more than happy to produce the stats.
The big selling points of these grasses are their ability to retain a good green colour for most of the year. Of course their hardy resistance to the prolonged dry conditions that Victoria now experiences is a major plus. After just a couple of weeks of initial watering the grass can sustain itself with perhaps a bit of recycled water from the house put on through the summer to see it through.

Santa Ana is the biggest couch seller for Anco and the most popular hard wearing turf for sports turf. It’s also popular for domestic use for those after a “fine looking” lawn. Runner up but still a big seller is Conquest Couch. It’s more of an aggressive back yard grass, or a lower maintenance sports turf grass used by councils. Anco also grow “Winter Green” and “Grand Prix”, which is a new type of Couch on the market.

The Buffalo varities the farm grows are “Sir Walter and King’s Pride”. King’s pride is a fairly new grass and growing in popularity. These grasses have great shade tolerance and stay green for most of the year. Anco also market an improved Kikuyu named “Village Green” originating from WA. This grass is a male sterile type and has less winter dormancy. Regular mowing can get it down to a fine appearance-it’s a hardy grass.

John has a chuckle looking back 15 years. Kikuyu was seen as a weed. Golf Courses still spray to eradicate it. To even mention the word Kikuyu on some courses will result in dirty looks from the Greenkeepers!

The winter grasses of the Tall fescue variety still sell to certain markets such as the housing estates that want the dark green look of that these grasses have all year round. They have the recycled water to maintain it so they buy it.

Anco also played a huge role in the reconstruction of Huntingdale Golf Course. John recalls 1996 when this course in Melbourne’s famed sandbelt had to be closed due to flooding for five weeks. The course made a decision at the time to redevelop all their fairways and greens for improved drainage. Anco grew the turf for the greens and began installing one or two new fairways a year. They took a turf harvester down to the course and harvested the turf off the fairways stacked it onto pellets and then put it under the trees. The course would then have the drainage installed and be contoured and landscaped. Anco returned a few weeks later to re-lay the Santa Ana Turf on the fairways. The turf was still in good condition, its time on the pellets causing no issues for the hardy grass.

Anco went onto to lay bent grass mixture specified by the Superintendent on the greens. This major project was completed over several years. Those that have visited and played Huntingdale can testify to what a superb looking course it is. John remarks what a difficult grass Bent is to grow and maintain. Anco grow it on an as required basis so don’t tend to have too much around at any one time, this ensures that the product is delivered with minimal thatch.

The use of a sandy loam at their farms has been hugely instrumental in the company winning a lot of race track work. Anco have laid turf at Caulfield race track twice and at Sandown. Sandown was a bluegrass/ryegrass mix; the same grass was used at Caulfield. Anco have recently been awarded contracts for race tracks at Gawler, Werribee and Mornington-a busy few months lie ahead.

Installing the turf at the Flemington Race track remains Anco’s “Jewel in the Crown” and the team are extremely proud of the project. It consisted off 155000 square metres with the 2 hectares of lawns and the turf nursery. This turf was taken from the Torquay turf farm, whose sand profile matched the profile at Flemington which the track was built on. The turf wasn’t washed and none of the turf they’ve installed at race tracks has been. The grass used on the tracks doesn’t differ. Its Kikuyu based with a mixture of pasture rye grasses and Kentucky Blue grass. The task for the track manager once the turf is laid is to maintain the percentage of Kikuyu along with the pasture Rye and Kentucky. The grasses grow more dominantly at certain times of the year; obtaining balance throughout the year is key.

At the time controversial water offset scheme saw Flemington pay a third party business in exchange to use an extra 23 million litres of drinking water consumption a year. The deal is meant to save millions litre of water as the investment paid is put into increasing water efficiency.

40% of the water used at Flemington is used off the track. The course does what it can to lower its water usage. A wetland program of recycling their water was established at the course. In early 2009 a direct sewer mining process that utilised the nearby Epsom rd main sewer was started.

Bruce recalls attending the first meeting at the track after the new turf had been laid. There were a few clever remarks in the committee room about him having a fast car in the car park to get away if the race didn’t go well!

The race went without a hitch with the horses galloping down the straight on a perfect track. No doubt both John and Bruce would have had smiles on their faces whether they’d been lucky punters or not! Anco’s aim for the Victorian Racing Club, was to produce a track with no bias if the horses raced inside or outside the track. The VRC achieved their objective.

All of Anco’s turf farms use recycled water. This was an initiative the company were keen to establish from the get go. All of the water at the Melbourne east farms is good quality Class A water from the Carrum treatment plant.

The water used at the Torquay farm comes from the Black Rock treatment farm and has a much higher salinity with some chloride content and is a C class water. This has created some issues for Anco. Calcium additives are used to flush the high saline content out. A calcium injection unit attached to the irrigation system has made a difference.

The team do a lot more de-compaction work at the Torquay farm as the high sodium content makes the soil harder and more difficult for the turf to bed down and establish a good root system. After a big rain fall, the Torquay farm will divert the initial run off which has a high sodium content. The team then take the flush from the run off a few days later for use in their dams. John explains without these amendments the soil would simply not be suitable for long term turf farming.

Each farm has its own dams of varying capacity of between 40 to 80 mega litres. It makes sense for the dams to be as full as possible going into the summer, as John remarks the water has to be paid for whether it’s used or not.

The drainage at the farm is surface drainage which is perfectly sufficient. All of the farms were fumigated with methyl bromide in preparation for turf growing that guarantees a pure first crop.

John remarks cost is not a factor when ensuring the soil is fumigated to produce a high standard pure quality crop. The farms normally get 1 to 1.5 crops a year for Couch. Kikuyu usually yields 2 crops a year in the southern Victoria climate. Various fertilisers are used throughout the year depending on the soil testing that’s done regularly each year. The only fungicide the team use would be on the bent grass and that’s a rarity. Fungicide tends to be of an issue at Torquay as a result of the high salinity content of the water.

Anco is a member of the NGIV (Nursery and Garden Industry Victoria). John sits on the board and states they have a good history with the organisation. The NGIV acts as an advocate and a voice for its members when dealing with state government directives in regards to water management.

Bruce hopes there can be farming intellect cohesion between the 400 or so turf growers around Australia. Most of the farmers are smaller growers. A sharing of ideas and practices would only be of benefit to the turf industry.

Pitchcare was impressed with the set up at Anco’s Cranbourne site and would like to thank John, Bruce and all the Anco staff for a warm and friendly welcome.

Loving Anco?
Check out more articles in the Pitchcare Database
Shed Raider Anco Turf Farm
21 Questions with John Cotter
21 Questions with Bruce Stephens
Flemington Racetrack Reconstruction
How to Lay Turf the Anco Way

Read more articles in Best of the Rest, by Sarah Gibson or from February 2010.