While eucalypt leaves are about as Australian as kangaroos and Anzac biscuits, our share of the global market for the rich-smelling oil has slipped markedly in the past 40 years – although the tide is now turning, says Richard Davis.

Mr Davis, the managing director of his family firm, GR Davis, said low cost Chinese production had boomed in recent decades, leaving Australia producing less than five per cent of the world’s eucalyptus.

His father, Geoffrey, who started the business, had seen the “writing on the wall” and set out to highlight the quality of local product harvested from plantation and natural gum tree stands around West Wyalong, he said.

Eucalyptus is used in a diverse array of products from confectionery to toiletries and cleaning agents.

“My father knew we had to offer oils with a different aroma and flavour,” said Mr Davis, whose company also runs Merinos and grows cereals on its plantation farms.

He hopes this emphasis and rising Chinese costs will help companies like his be more competitive.

And the signs are promising: “Last financial year was our best ever,” he said.

The business, which sells more than 350 tonnes of oil a year, predominantly to Asia, has undergone many changes since its establishment in 1964, including leading the way in harvest mechanisation and processing – and this despite Geoffrey Davis’s lack of formal training or experience in technical design and engineering.

Previously the company had relied largely on manual labour and hand cutting, and the improvements still help it compete against the growing Chinese output.

The company, with three farm staff and three Queanbeyan-based employees, now sells into 24 countries, including Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand, and is boosting plantation production around West Wyalong by planting an additional 100,000 trees across 30ha each year.