FREMA
ABOUT FRED MELLENBERGH
When my second wife, Mary, became life and business partners in 1985, we created a company to carry out our business ventures. When we sold our last business (and retired) in 2006, (mind you not a small operation with 3 factories and more than 30 employees) it was the company that sold the operations and assets used, so we kept the company shell that received the sales funds. We had to rename the company. We tried Fremar, which stands for Fre(d) and Mar(y), but we did not like the sound. But my true boss “Mary” relented and we chose Frema. But that name singly was no longer available, so we stuck Holdings after it. When Mary died in 2018, I became the sole owner/director of Frema and then I moved to country NSW, where I started my new business project.
Just a short bit of background of me,
about fred mellenbergh.
I consider myself immensely blessed, a lucky man. I have a good brain, an excellent education (well qualified), and the ability and desire to add more. In addition I am handy with my hands (I have a good tool sense and I can invent and build most things) and I always had a good health.
I was born in the Netherlands (Holland — being Dutch) (wow, what a mixture of names!) in 1938, but 8 generations earlier my ancestors came from Sweden. My DNA heritage constitues 59% west European, 21% Scandinavian, 12% Great Britain.
It is common knowledge that the German engineers have a well-known reputation. Why else would the USA and USSR, after WWII, go head over tail to invite them (several thousand to each side) and their families to migrate to their new home countries. Mind you the Dutch engineers have a good reputation in electrical/electronic engineering and water works related civil engineering (for example dredging and the “Delta works”). All my male family members were engineers.
I got my bachelor degree in Holland in Chemical Engineering and later I did my Masters in Sydney, as well as Business Administration. My first job was with Shell in Holland. Having taken Chemical Engineering as my profession, science studies were an integral part of that profession. In addition, I always had a lifelong interest in astronomy, weather, photography, biology, history, ecology, geology, and I privately studied those areas.
I migrated to Australia in 1961 with my first wife and 9-month-old son.
I have been a business owner (some with partners, some with my second wife, Mary) for some 45 years. But something that I am very proud of is the fact that I was head hunted (never initially applied) for 2 jobs in my life. That meant that either my background or personality or reputation made some companies target or select me. Hence, they invited me to join, which I did.
The second thing I am proud of, is that I was always chosen for, and I excelled at that, trouble shooting.
Where did I land?
This is yet another family activity, but with different partners.
In July 2018 I became a widower and started to live and work on a 60 acre property, 50km North of Bathurst and I have been there since 2018. That is where I started building my container city, comprising of 10 containers, 2 of which became my home.
My son owns the property as a weekend getaway. Now, recently, things have changed, in that my son Erik and wife Karen are now living on an adjoining 350 acre property. We, being me, my son and one of my grand sons, are all animal lovers. When Erik moved onto the property his first task was to do a renovation to the home. Mind at the same time he started breeding farm animals, like goats, sheep, chickens, fowls, ducks, geese, ferrets. and more recently he started to breed rabbits for meat consumption.
We are all concerned about sustainable living. My pet project is growing say vegetables in a hydroponic hot house and enrich the air inside with CO2. But Erik likes to breed rabbits as a food source of animal protein, rather than eating cow meat, which is environmentally undesirable. (as explained in one of my Essays). So, we are all about sustainability. But we only just recently were free and had time to start on those projects.
Even though we are each involved in our own project, there is a reasonable overlap and we extend a helping hand when needed.
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, PLEASE READ SOME PAGES OF MY LIFE BACKGROUND BELOW. (2 Choices.)
