When Ian Armstrong was the NSW minister for agriculture and rural affairs in the late-1980s, there was little to no appetite at state parliament on Macquarie Street for decentralising government departments.
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Talk was OK, as long as you kept on kicking the can down the road.
Action, however, was not acceptable.
After all, how would those city folk who worked at the DPI in Sydney possibly cope if, for example, they were flung into the Central West of NSW?
Did they have TV out there?
Running water?
Supermarkets?
Mr Armstrong, in concert with the DPI's director-general at the time, Kevin Sheridan, dug in and set about making their dream of relocating the DPI from Sydney to Orange a reality.
Ultimately, bus loads of DPI workers were taken on a trip to Orange, just to assure them that the locals had teeth and were able to hold a conversation.
Thirty years later, and several of those workers who upped stakes and headed west were honoured at a celebration for the DPI on Tuesday to mark its 130th birthday.
Under a blazing hot sun, a crowd of hundreds gathered outside the DPI's new office building - named after Mr Armstrong - on Prince Street.
Among them were current and former workers, four former DPI director-generals, politicians and heavy hitters in the local agricultural community.
More than two dozen members of the Orange High School Band, wisely housed in the shade, provided the tunes.
COVID meant no massive birthday cake, however individual cupcakes in boxes were on offer.
Plenty of COVID marshalls were in attendance, ensuring people signed in and sat a reasonable distance apart.
Before and after the ceremony, however, social distancing was at a minimum.
NSW agriculture minister Adam Marshall said the DPI pumps some $200 million annually into the local economy.
It's money, he said, "Sydney doesn't need and Sydney doesn't miss".
The executive director of property, fleet and procurement for the Department of Planning, Industry and the Environment, Carole Myers, said the DPI's lease at the old building on the corner of Kite and Edward streets ended on Tuesday.
"I feel immense pride for our team that delivered the project, and who have been working hard to transition everyone into our agile new workplace."
She said that after undergoing an induction, staff were currently free to work out of the new Ian Armstrong Building or from home.
"We've got capacity for over 700 and at the moment we're averaging about 180 staff here."
Mayor Reg Kidd, who had dropped his notes while posing for a photo near a 104-year-old tractor, appeared nervous as he began to speak, but soon found his usual rhythm.
He'd known many of the attendees for decades, pointing them out in the crowd and reminiscing about old times.
By the end of his speech, as he mentioned a departed friend, he had begun to well up.
It was that kind of day.
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