one truck.
one client.
ten years on.
Grolife started in 2016 — when Cameron Stacey backed himself with a single truck and trailer in Logan. For years he'd been running the landscape maintenance and indoor plantscape divisions of his father's indoor plant hire business, looking after retail centres and commercial offices across South East Queensland. As his father moved toward retirement, Cameron was ready to start his own journey — with new technology and a fresh way of operating in mind. By the end of 2016, he set out on his own.
The early days were seven-day weeks running the new business by day and driving Uber by night. The handful of retail clients who came across from the family business — including Retail First Shopping Centres, still with us today — were the foundation everything else was built on. Even then, the focus was deliberate: commercial, retail, industrial and premium residential properties — clients who valued systems, compliance, professionalism and clear communication over the lowest price.
The name Grolife was deliberate too. More than a company name, it's a philosophy: we listen, we learn, we grow — for life. We never rest on our laurels and we never stop looking for ways to be better — for our staff, for our clients, and for the landscapes we look after.
In 2018 we moved into our current Fortitude Valley base. The following year, winning the Home Co portfolio opened up Cairns, Mackay, Townsville and Toowoomba — with contracts at ISPT Retail and Centuria Properties following soon after to round out the regional Queensland footprint. Today, Grolife sits under one banner with three core companies — Grolife Landscape Management, Grolife Property Services and Grolife Indoor Plantscapes — built to give facilities managers one accountable partner across the trades that keep their properties running.
Grolife was never built alone. Many of the people who joined in the founding years are still with us today — including Darren Bell, now our Operations Manager, and Shane Evans, who has worked his way up to Assistant Operations Manager. In 2019, Michael Spackman joined as Director and owner of Grolife Property Services, later partnered by Chris Abbott as co-owner and General Manager. In 2021, Michael Harding came on board as Director and owner of Grolife Indoor Plantscapes, completing the three-company group. The same year, Lachlan Van Der Horn joined as Operations Manager, stepped up to General Manager in 2023, and became a part owner in 2026 — the driving force behind much of the company's success today. The original vision still applies: lead the industry on technology, build a team that takes pride in the work, and never stop growing — as a company, as people, as a service.
