The year was 1992 and the former Glen Dhu School caught Errol’s eye as he was dropping off a friend at the airport.

“I came back, broke in and had a look and I said ‘I've got to buy this place’, as soon as I walked in I said I had to buy it.”

Wife Adie said he could barely wait until the Monday morning to start making calls and her only thought was “oh my lord”.

It was the couple’s first redevelopment in Launceston and the start of their 25-year Tasmanian journey.

Moving back to the state had never been part of their long-term plans, despite the fact that Errol was born at Smithton and Adie’s mother was from Ridgley.

“We met through woodchopping. My father was a woodcutter and Adie’s grandfather was a woodchooper and we met through the royal show one year,” Errol said.

The Stewarts married at the tender aged of 20 and are now just shy of their 45th wedding anniversary.

“We worked two jobs when we first got married to just get a deposit on a house, that was the ultimate thing to start with,” Adie said.

“Fortunately in those days we bought a house that was about $24,000 and in two years we sold it and doubled our money.”

But the sale was not about making a quick profit.

“A guy offered me half a Ford dealership and we eventually took the opportunity, sold our house and tipped it all in and nearly lost it,” Errol said.  

“We were 25 when we did that, we were young, pretty naive but we worked hard.”

Almost 300 kilometres east of Melbourne the Stewarts had their first foray into development, building the dealership at Bairnsdale.

It was in regional Victoria where the couple began to raise their children but a recession in the 1980s led to the decision to move, as there was not enough income for both the Stewarts and their business partner.

“From the time that we made the decision, we were here six weeks later, it was pretty daunting,” Adie said. “I remember thinking that Christmas that if anyone had told me I would be having Christmas dinner in Launceston a year ago they were mad.”

But move they did and immediately dived into more hard work, buying a dealership in Launceston.

“My father used to say you’ve got to get out of bed early and get into it, and if you don’t get it done you’ve got to get up a bit earlier and go a bit harder, and if you still don’t get it done you're probably not really having a crack at it,” Errol said.

One of his proudest achievements is the growth of the Jackson Motor Company, which today has six locations across the state and employs more than 350 staff.

“The purchase of our big main JMC centre was a really good one,” Errol said.

“We bought that in ’96 and it was a big parcel of land right in the hub of town. It was pretty derelict and just a mess but then I tried to buy everything around it and I always try to buy next door.

“That’s one philosophy, if you own a place and you like it and you either live there or your business is there and next door becomes available you should always buy it, that’s my rule, irrespective of what it is. One day you will have the ability to advance your business or advance your house or whatever.”

That philosophy is a major reason why the JMC group made the decision to purchase the K&D site in Hobart next to the dealership and the land behind Bunnings at Invermay.

A potential “big box” development had been on the cards for the Launceston site but plans were pushed backed after Errol was convinced to tackle the city’s notorious CH Smith site.

He said the investment would be in the order of $10 million and with the Silo Hotel project and CH Smith on the go, it had been “put on the back-burner”.

“You’ve got to make sure it stacks up financially, I’ve got to convince the investors, I’ve got to convince my wife to let me spend the money and the children,” Errol said.

“I remember when we did the Seaport my son saying ‘I hope you know what you’re doing here because it doesn't look like you do’.”

But could his wife have ever convinced him to say no to CH Smith?

“I doubt it, he has always had a bit of a thing for that site,” Adie said.

“It’s probably a little bit of stubbornness that helps the motivation, if someone says he can’t do something it makes him more determined.” 

At the start of 2016, Errol had said he was not going to “do anymore big projects” but the opportunity came knocking.

“I don’t know that you ever know if it’s your last major development but my priorities have changed because the grandchildren are here and if you do a big project it's really a commitment,” he said.

Their two children are each managers of dealerships in Hobart and have Errol and Adie’s complete trust.

“It’s theirs at the end of the day … and the kids impound that into the other managers, my son and daughter talk to the other managers all the time,” Errol said.

“I might have a different view than my GM here, he’ll talk to my children and then my kids will come in the back door and gang up against me, but that’s a good, strong healthy thing.”

Despite more than three decades of commercial success, the Stewarts maintain that their proudest achievement will always be their family.