NSW

Since 1988, Peter and Edwina Ponder have lived at Emaroo Station, where they operate a successful grazing enterprise for Merino sheep and Hereford cattle. Situated some 200km west of Bourke, New South Wales, Emaroo is characterised by flat red sandy soils interspersed with sandy hills. For many years, native forests at Emaroo had been suppressed by the high grazing intensity of the livestock and limited feral animal control. But in 2019, the Ponders decided to make a change improving their land management practices as part of a Human Induced Regeneration (HIR) project.

In a competition between mulga and goats, the goats usually win, decimating young mulga saplings before they stand a chance. But this project has reset the balance, putting in place measures to control the feral goat population and allow young mulga to regenerate in this pocket of Western NSW.

North west of Bourke in New South Wales, Lincoln and Dimity Old have successfully combined carbon farming with livestock farming and seen the benefits flow through to their whole property.

Roughly 150km west of Bourke, NSW Goonery and Tringadee sit side by side across the undulating red sandy loam soils of the Mulga lands bioregion. Angelo Di Petta has run Goonery since 2004, and along with his business partner Richard Nielsen, has also run Tringadee since 2011.

West of Louth in New South Wales, Yathonga sits across three bioregions touching the Murray Darling Depression, Darling Riverine Plains and the Cobar Peneplain. Stuart Le Lievre and his family have been running a grazing enterprise across the land since 1862, so he’s very aware of the changing climate and the balance that needs to be struck between what you do and how the land copes or thrives.

The harsh dry country north west of Bourke isn’t for everyone, but Mark and Suzy Pritchard love the land and the organic animals they graze on it.

The current landholders took over Buckambool Station in 2017 with a Human-Induced Regeneration project in place. Located south of Cobar in NSW, the property is run as a successful grazing enterprise beneath the rocky ridges that dominate the area, with around 1,500 head of sheep and 200 head of cattle – depending on the season.

Harry Jarratt is a member of the new farming generation. In 2019, at just 23 years of age, he purchased Long Swamp with the help of his Mum and Stepfather, and now successfully runs it as a sheep grazing enterprise.

Taking it’s name from the uniquely Australian tree that seems to ooze blood instead of sap, Bloodwood is host to a lake system that has the richest array of fairy shrimps, clam shrimps and shield shrimps in the world. As lifetime environmental advocates, it obviously held great appeal for Sue Hanson and her family, who took it over in 2008.