Note:
88 day 2nd year Visa flood recovery volunteer work offered.
Minimum 3 week stay, with first week a trial to make sure you are enjoying the work and fit in.
Summerleigh is a family farm in the Macedon Ranges.
Jack and I are city escapees and regenerative farmers, inspired by the likes of Alan Savory, Joel Salatin and Charles Massey.
Our goal is to improve the ecosystem and soils by integration of livestock, mainly cattle and chickens, to produce healthy, chemical free and nutrient dense food and we hope to soon add a small market garden to supplement our direct to market egg and beef business.
We are also in the process of revegetating a sizable wildlife corridor and wetland habitat along the permanent creek in the valley below the homestead and hope to return the gardens around the homestead to their former glory, with an orchard and ornamental flower beds.
Please note: work to be done along the creek qualifies as flood recovery and counts towards your 88-day visa renewal.
In other words, whatever your passion is…horticulture, agriculture, tree planting, ecological restoration, rewilding, biodynamics, permaculture, holistic management, carpentry, fencing, welding, growing, producing and cooking food, rotational grazing, chicken caravans, we almost certainly have something for you to put your hands, enthusiasm and head to.
The homestead is circa 1876 and she is quite a grand old lady, originally built by the Sir Rupert Clarke family for the first owner, John Hurst, esq., in exchange for land in what is now Clarkefield.
You will be part of the family with your own room in the homestead and, between us, we speak/understand Italian, Spanish, French, German and Danish/Swedish/Norwegian.
We have five dogs, two cats and two budgies, three Icelandic horses, a pony and a pig. Not all in the house!
We love to play tennis after dinner and also have pool that is, sadly, being renovated, so have swims in the waterhole on hot afternoons, a good way to cool off.
If any of that sounds at all appealing please do get in touch
Regards
Lucy & Jack
