Dan Bright grew up on a dairy farm in Fish Creek forming, a strong connection with the local landscape, particularly the wild places left uncleared and still full of old trees. Dan dreamed of having his own piece of that landscape but was not inclined towards dairy farming.

So he wandered a circuitous path towards the goal, leaving school early to do a diesel mechanic apprenticeship, then travelling for 2 years through South and East Africa, living and working in Guernsey for a couple of years, then coming back to Australia to work in the mining industry which allowed him to save up enough to buy the farm next door to the one he grew up on. It was an undeveloped block with heaps of bush and 3 creeks running through it, no buildings or internal fencing, not even a driveway. A blank canvas.

Dan started making it habitable and accessible. He needed timber for the buildings so he bought a portable mill to cut fallen trees into timber with. He found the sawmilling to be interesting and enjoyable work and set about learning as much as he could about it. Soon other landowners were asking Dan to mill logs for them on their properties and Amber Creek Sawmilling was created.

In the 15 years since he has continued to improve his skills, expanded the range of services and products the business offers, trained quite a few employees and installed a lot of equipment to keep up with the increased demand as well as planting thousands of trees on the property he lives and works on.