• Josh Murray from Victoria started collecting and selling eggs as a 9-year-old just to earn pocket money for Lego toys
  • His business, Josh's Rainbow Eggs, now operates across two farms and supplies both Coles and Woolworths stores across Victoria
  • The family company has donated 2.3 million eggs to food charities since launching a giving programme in 2017

A Victorian boy's determination to fund his Lego habit has grown into one of Australia's most remarkable agricultural success stories.

Josh Murray, now 24, runs Josh's Rainbow Eggs, a free-range egg business operating farms in Macedon and Healesville that together produce around 250,000 eggs every single day.

From Basket in the Paddock to Semi-Load Deliveries

It started at age nine, when a young Josh persuaded his mother to let him care for 40 hens in exchange for the right to sell their eggs. "My mother, Tamsin, took pity upon me, and she said, 'Hey, if you take care of the chickens, I'll let you sell the eggs,'" Josh recalled. His mum, Tamsyn Murray, described him running across the paddock with a basket, collecting eggs by hand.

Sales began with neighbours, expanded to farmers' markets, and then to independent supermarkets. Eventually, Josh secured listings with the two biggest supermarket chains in the country. His products now sit on shelves in roughly 200 Coles stores across Victoria and 65 Woolworths locations.

Because Josh was homeschooled until the age of 14, he was able to stay closely involved with the farm during those formative years. Tamsyn later gave up her own job to become CEO once her son entered high school. "He's been a managing director since the age of nine," she said. "This is all I've ever known. This is the only job I've ever had, right? I'm about to be 25," Josh added.

40 Million Eggs a Year and a Giving Mission

The business now employs 42 staff across its operations. One farm alone houses 6,500 hens in a single shed, with a total of 50 sheds on site and an additional 100,000 hens laying at a separate facility. The figures are striking: the company will sell 40 million eggs in the current year, a number that previously represented its entire lifetime output. "Five years ago we actually celebrated selling 40 million eggs in total," Josh noted.

One standout feature of the operation is how the sheds themselves are moved. Bulldozers shift the 80-tonne structures across the property so hens always have access to fresh pasture, protecting the land from overuse. Maremma dogs are kept on site to guard the free-range flocks.

Josh's Rainbow Eggs retail at an average of $9.50 a dozen, reflecting the cost of ethical, free-range production. Since 2017, the business has donated 4% of its output to food charities, with 2.3 million eggs given away to date.