Growing up wild and healthy
About the same time I learned about organic gardening, my parents had just bought a farm on the flanks of Mount Donna Buang near Melbourne. I had the opportunity to set up a garden there. So a whole lot of things happened together.
Mainly it was organic gardening, working on this farm in a really amazing physical environment. And then, gradually hearing about environmental causes of different kinds.
I was doing a lot of bushwalking, rock climbing. I was just out in nature. I wanted to be out in nature and just fit it in to a whole philosophical way of living.
For me, growing my own food is really important. I want my food to be healthy. I want it to be uncontaminated. I want it to be absolutely fresh and that has just been a life pattern for me.
It's part of being healthy. I have now grown my own food almost continuously since I was about 30, but on and off between 18 and 30.
So going back to the story, my parents bought this place. They wanted to set up a small farm - which they did - but it was a very unsuitable country. It was covered in bracken. But it was this big valley and it looked across onto the flanks of Mount Donna Buang. It was eucalyptus regnans forest. I used to do a lot of bird watching, lots of interesting birds in the forest. There were little wombats around the place.
It wasn't a good place to farm. My parents moved later after they bought much better land. But it was just a really nice place to develop really.
I used to walk all over the hills. It was just a magical place to be.
I do have this amazing memory of working on the farm there one day, and looking down into the valley and a flock of white ibis came into the valley. There must have been about 20 or 25 of them and they caught a thermal and they rose up through the valley. That was a really special memory that stayed with me. Quite an ordinary bird I suppose in many ways, but just an extraordinary thing to see.
There were lots of raptors and things like that. It was quite a wild sort of area.
Simon Allston
Chair, Friends of North Bruny
About the same time I learned about organic gardening, my parents had just bought a farm on the flanks of Mount Donna Buang near Melbourne. I had the opportunity to set up a garden there. So a whole lot of things happened together.
Mainly it was organic gardening, working on this farm in a really amazing physical environment. And then, gradually hearing about environmental causes of different kinds.
I was doing a lot of bushwalking, rock climbing. I was just out in nature. I wanted to be out in nature and just fit it in to a whole philosophical way of living.
For me, growing my own food is really important. I want my food to be healthy. I want it to be uncontaminated. I want it to be absolutely fresh and that has just been a life pattern for me.
It's part of being healthy. I have now grown my own food almost continuously since I was about 30, but on and off between 18 and 30.
So going back to the story, my parents bought this place. They wanted to set up a small farm - which they did - but it was a very unsuitable country. It was covered in bracken. But it was this big valley and it looked across onto the flanks of Mount Donna Buang. It was eucalyptus regnans forest. I used to do a lot of bird watching, lots of interesting birds in the forest. There were little wombats around the place.
It wasn't a good place to farm. My parents moved later after they bought much better land. But it was just a really nice place to develop really.
I used to walk all over the hills. It was just a magical place to be.
I do have this amazing memory of working on the farm there one day, and looking down into the valley and a flock of white ibis came into the valley. There must have been about 20 or 25 of them and they caught a thermal and they rose up through the valley. That was a really special memory that stayed with me. Quite an ordinary bird I suppose in many ways, but just an extraordinary thing to see.
There were lots of raptors and things like that. It was quite a wild sort of area.
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