Farming and nature connection on the Central Highlands with Russ Fowler

Working with the seasons, we have a calendar of what we do throughout the year, but then that can also be determined by when we get rains and that sort of thing. During the winter we're getting ground ready for our crops. During the August to September period we have really big frosts, and you wake up in the mornings and the grass is white, and the sky is clear. 

And you can look out, we're very lucky to have Mount Field National Park out in the distance and Wylds Craig, and on those days when it's really quite a crisp air you can really see that they're right here. And that's a really amazing thing to have that on your doorstep.

In the springtime our ewes are getting ready for lambing, we're getting our cattle nice and fat ready for calving, and then there's lambs and calves and everything comes to life.

And then you go through the stage of summer where our crops are starting to finish and we get into harvest and those sorts of things. It's great to see that through the whole stage throughout the year as you go through, and then you do it again. 

Every year we're doing the same thing, but it's always different. Like when the wattles are flowering, it happens at different times every year. I think if you don't have your feet in the soil, so to speak, you don't realise that to a point. If you're just driving down the road, you don’t notice those sorts of things.

I can’t claim that I've been here as long as the Aboriginals, but the Central Highlands holds a deep meaning to me. It's a part of me living here because of all that history and the development of that history throughout the generations. 

I think that the connection has a lot to do with, not only being a part of it, but the real community aspect of it too. We're very lucky. Bothwell is only a small town, but it's got a great community feel to it. And I think that's really crucial to the culture of the area. The Central Highlands has that real camaraderie and that history that everyone has. And the ties to such a diverse landscape with the fishing and the hunting, it all ties into what makes the Central Highlands what it is.