Town Talk

Smell the joy of Christmas with Marcus's trees

By Marnie

Dec 12, 2025

Welcome,

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Recently I had the very real pleasure of meeting Marcus O’Dwyer.

Marcus is a businessman, a soup chef, a former footballer, a hunting and fishing type, a farmer, a miniature dachshund breeder – and good company.

He also grows and sells Christmas trees.

This is why I was meeting him, and we didn’t have a lot of time.

However, we regularly got side-tracked.

He showed me photos of his three children, one of which has graduated from University, the other two are studying (at different universities).

I shared a video of our grandson’s 65 metre, left-foot goal in a grand final. (Marcus had listened to the grand final} and now, with my phone, watched several other highlights.)

Some customers arrived, and he invited me to ‘come and see what I do’.

I heard him tell the customers to be prepared to have their photo taken because he had a reporter from the newspaper with him.

I hastily assured the ladies that there would be no photo because I was definitely not a reporter.

We all went to the sales shed, where dozens of beautiful, aromatic trees were ready for his customers.

One of them was selected and Marcus carried it to their vehicle.

He repeatedly asked me to smell the trees.

I told him about our aged artificial tree, for which I paid $300 for 30 years ago.

And I still miss the smell of pine.

I’m sure that most of us were raised in homes which had branches of pine for our Christmas trees.

I’ve tried expensive room fresheners, and they are nowhere near the perfume I’m looking for.

For some years, I pinched a small branch from an orchard, where my dad had permission to help himself.

But the pines have gone now, along with the orchard.

I told Marcus that one Christmas, when two grandchildren were with us, I bought a small, live tree for their bedroom. (I think I bought it from a nursery, late in the last century).

I spent an inordinate amount of time in that room, smelling Christmas.

He said the smell is what many people are looking for and one of the reasons he sells so many trees; that, and the rich colour of the tree.

I had noticed that Marcus’ trees were all a very attractive shape, too.

The backstory

Marcus came to Shepparton in 1993, and worked with a veterinary manufacturer.

In 1998, he married and purchased the land in Mitchell Rd.

He planted his first trees that year and sold the first one in 2003 for $20.

He remembers saying that they were on their way to success.

Furthermore, he grows 1000 trees to the acre, and it’s not a matter of plant and forget for five to six years.

They need pruning every year, which would be why they are all beautifully shaped.

They also need fertilising, and I reckon, there would be times when they might need water.

Do you miss the smell of Christmas?