Where you come from shapes eveything.
The Grylls family has farmed at Corrigin in the Western Australian wheatbelt for five generations.
Corrigin sits roughly 230 kilometres east of Perth, at the edge of broadacre cropping country that runs through the central wheatbelt and out toward the eastern Goldfields. It is country defined by long horizons and a working relationship with the land – where what you do is shaped by where you come from.
From the land.
Through parliament.
Into the future.
At twenty, Brendon starts his first business, milling wheat from the family farm and selling downstream. The pattern that defines everything that follows is already there: take the thing in front of you, find the next step up the value chain, build the bridge.
Elected to the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia at his first attempt. Holds the seat until a redistribution in 2008, when he transfers to the new seat of Central Wheatbelt.
The Nationals hold the balance of power. Brendon leads the negotiations that establish Royalties for Regions, quarantining 25% of the state's mining and petroleum royalty revenue for reinvestment in regional WA. Over the decade that follows, several billion dollars flow into regional infrastructure, services, health, and community.
After sixteen years in the Legislative Assembly, Brendon departs parliament. GG Advisory is established the same year. The work continues from a different chair.
Appointed AM for significant service to the people and Parliament of Western Australia, and to the community.
Elected to the Corrigin Shire Council.
Elected to the Corrigin Shire Council. The following year, at twenty-eight, he resigns the seat to contest Merredin, held for sixteen years by the long-serving Leader of the WA Nationals.
Elected Leader of the Western Australian Nationals at thirty-two. The youngest leader in the party's history.
Serves as Minister for Regional Development and Minister for Lands in the Barnett Government. Sits on the Economic and Expenditure Review Committee. Delivers six state budgets and directs more than one billion dollars a year into new regional development projects across Western Australia.
Made a Life Member of the WA Nationals, the party's highest honour.
One has the strength of an army.
The original Grylls family crest, granted in Britain generations earlier, bears the motto Vires Agminis Unus Habet – meaning one has the strength of an army. The motto is retained on formal materials as a quiet acknowledgement of where the family came from.
The farm at Corrigin, "Bendicoorie" – owned by John and Jeanie Grylls and operated through JT Grylls and Sons Investments under the management of John and Nathan Grylls, remains the family's continuing presence on the land. It is also the starting point from which the work that follows can be read.
Vires Agminis Unus Habet
The family behind the Group
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