Returning to Queensland, he farmed sugarcane and pineapples and joined the Liberal Party.
Nymphs of the pineapple gall adelgid form galls at the base of twigs which resemble miniature pineapples and those of the Cooley's spruce gall adelgid cause cone-shaped galls at the tips of branches.
The shield and lions stand on a silhouette of Mount Kenya containing in the foreground examples of Kenya agricultural produce - coffee, pyrethrum, sisal, tea, maize and pineapples.
His early garden plans are generally in the English Arts and crafts style of Gertrude Jekyll, Reginald Blomfield, and T. H. Mawson, but ornamented with Italianate detailing such as balustrades, hedges, urns, statuary, stone pineapples, and flights of water steps.
Project concerts, appeared on television shows, hosted their own radio show Kiss the Coconuts and even promoted Dole pineapples.