Rob Ikin

Owner, Managing Director, Sales and Project Manager

Rob began his career in Agriculture after leaving school in 1985 when he took a position with Roberts Ltd as a ‘general boy’ and counter jumper at the tractor spare part counter.

When there was a downturn in the wool industry in 1987 which lead to redundancies at Roberts, Rob jumped ship, crossed the road and joined Webster Ltd where he was employed in the irrigation department. After 10 years learning his craft at Websters he left as the State Irrigation Manager. His next role was as an irrigation sales specialist at the then biggest irrigation company in Tasmania - JR Stephenson. 

In 2000 he left JR Stephenson and travelled to Europe with his partner and upon returning 12 months later he started his own irrigation company.  Having such an expensive holiday prior to starting a business probably wasn’t the smartest business decision, but both agreed the memories of travel were worth it. His travel partner became his wife and so their journey as a family began. 

The turbulence of starting a business alone and competing against market leaders had its challenges and to maintain the vision of having his own irrigation business but maintaining cash flow he took a role in 2003 as a sales representative for local John Deere dealer, Midland Tractors.   

This role was a valuable experience for Rob as he further developed his knowledge and experience of irrigation, farm machinery and importing equipment.

As well as a growing love of green and gold tractors and an appreciation of the importance to agriculture of high quality machinery and equipment, the opportunity to start a business again presented itself again in 2009, and so Van Diemen's Land Irrigation was born. 

His years of experience importing quality irrigation brands from around the world culminating in the top notch mostly independent irrigation and pumping brands and equipment we sell today. 

In Rob’s younger years he was involved in Scouting which created a love of the Tasmanian outdoors, wilderness, bushwalking, mountains and snow sports. Because the Tasmanian summer is such a busy season, Rob enjoys his passions in winter and has spent a lot of his winter months in the alpine region of Ben Lomond National Park, where he enjoys skiing with his family. In Rob’s spare time, he loves spending time with his family and friends camping in the bush, exploring mountains and beaches throughout Tasmania.