After the 2019 drought and Black Summer bushfires, a number of farmers in the Canberra region decided to do things differently. But, in their attempts to improve their own properties, they ended up forming a new community with a focus on sustainability.
Inspired by prominent regenerative farmers like Charlie Massy, many of the landowners, who regularly meet and visit each other's farms to learn new practices, are hoping to improve sustainability, and protect their properties from future natural disasters.
Regenerative farming involves using techniques not typically employed in the agriculture sector to help improve land health.
These techniques can include installing leaky dams in properties, which control water flows, growing native plants on paddocks, and taking steps to improve soil health so it holds more moisture — such as leaving cattle on smaller paddocks for smaller amounts of time.
"Everyone has their own understanding of what regenerative farming is, but my understanding is basically leaving your land in a better state than when you arrived," Cate Thomas, who lives on a property in Gundaroo, said.
Murray Prior also owns a property in Gundaroo. He moved onto the land in 2018, and said he had noticed improvements since he started using regenerative techniques.
Drought a catalyst for change
Many involved in the Gundaroo Regenerative Land Management group were inspired to change how they did things on their properties after the 2019 drought.
Farmer Cristian Gordon moved to Gundaroo at the peak of the dry.
"That dam got lower and lower and lower as the drought went on, and we decided there needed to be something more that we could do to improve things," he said.
"When the drought broke, we decided there was something we needed to do, that we could do better to help our land protect itself from the next one."
Others, like Mr Prior, also believe that improving the health of properties can ensure the land is in the best possible position to cope with future droughts.
Community learning from one another
It was finding other like-minded landowners, like Mr Gordan and Mr Prior, that inspired Ms Thomas to form the Gundaroo Regenerative Land Management group in the first place, with the goal of learning new practices from landowners in the same region.
But the group has grown into a larger community than she had initially thought possible.
"We just started by having a property visit to his [a neighbour's] place back in November last year," Ms Thomas said.
"There were probably about 24 people there, so we started a Facebook page."
Now, the group boasts 87 members.
"I read a lot of books, but there's nothing like being out on the land and seeing what can be done and the difference.
"There's a responsibility towards this land, given what we've done to it for the past 200 years."
Ms Thomas said through the groups she had learnt how to implement more sustainable techniques into her property management to ensure the land could "recover" from previous years.
Mr Gordon agreed, and said it was fantastic being surrounded by other like-minded people.
"The Canberra region is great. There's a really good community," he said.
