Cameron Marks is the fourth generation to work for the family business, taking over from his father Ken and continuing the legacy that his great-grandfather Percy Marks began in 1899. I started working at the shop when I was 13. It was during school holidays and I did things like moving jewellery boxes from one side of the store to the other for cleaning. In those days I went in with Dad and I would do lots of jobs, everything from cleaning and buying the biscuits to running around town delivering items to different jewellers. Everyone was very helpful back in those days, they were happy to help you learn. I learned a lot about jewellery just by sitting with a valuer who was identifying gemstones.

I didn’t have any pressure from Dad to enter the business, but I like talking to people. My strength was always communicating with people, whether
it be when buying the gemstones, designing the pieces, or during manufacture. We had staff of 50 at some stages – during times of tourism booms
and you become something of a social worker managing people’s personalities. If you can, start at the bottom. You don’t have to be the managing director the first week out. I used to work at the repair section running items to the workshop.

You need to sit there and learn, and it takes time. I would sit next to Dad and listen to him talk to customers, and we would go o on buying trips overseas together. People come to us for our expertise in opals and I travelled with him to look at opals, and we would be sitting with the old miners
and I got to hear the yarns that went on and on, and what the miners thought [of the stones]. We don’t have a need to travel as much anymore, as the world’s a closer place. And I like to buy local. We are the generation which has taken over from the parents. I have found that you have to listen to
your parents, and you have to help them adjust to things that have changed.

But there is a longevity to this business. We have quite a lot of customers now who used to come into the shop with their mothers. One particular customer’s mother used to love my grandfather when he was running the shop. She is now in her eighties. Another customer came to me with her late mother’s brooch but at the time she wasn’t ready to do anything with it. She came back 26 years later and we made modern earrings and rings which means her kids can now wear grannie’s diamonds. I said: “I told you this 26 years ago!”.

There’s a lot of maintenance that goes on with jewellery. You might sell a piece 10 years prior and the customer will come back over the years for
things like repairs, cleaning and revaluing. I also give out lots of advice. It’s important to listen to people about what they want. Use your basic sales training of asking the right questions and listening to the answers. I find young people want to be designers but you need commercial experience to know what actually sells. You can’t force something on a customer, you can only listen to what they want and adapt to it. It’s about opening up communication with people, and not necessarily about putting a product online and trying to sell it.

We are not mass-producing jewellery. The mass market is competing with people all over the world, and the Internet is all price driven. Our type of jewellery is for people who want something different. Coloured gemstones are making a comeback because it’s something different. The market here in Australia is very different to the world market, and we all used to be friends. We started the Diamond Guild so that we got to speak to each other and we realised we all had the same problems as everyone else had.

I am mentoring some younger people in the trade, and I am always helping people, particularly with opal and with other gemstones. It’s not easy for
young people to have staff . I advise them to go and work for someone, because you learn so much, and then go and do it yourself.