Why We Opened the Farm Gate

For years, most people knew Bunya Grove through our food. They knew the eggs from the farmers markets, bought the meat, visited the Farm Shop or waited for persimmon season to come around. But they didn't necessarily know Bunya Grove. They didn't see the paddocks the animals came from, the chickens out on pasture, the persimmon trees changing with the seasons, or the early mornings, mud, dust, good days and bloody hard ones that are all part of farming.

Over the years, people started asking more questions. Where are the chickens? What do they eat? How are the pigs raised? What does regenerative farming actually mean? Can we come and have a look? Kylie and Mick began to realise that people weren't only interested in the food they produced. They were interested in where it came from and what happened before it left the farm.

Seeing Bunya Grove differently

When you live and work on a farm every day, you tend to see the jobs that need doing. The fence that needs fixing, animals that need moving, eggs that need collecting, grass that needs managing and machinery that has decided not to start. Then people started coming to Bunya Grove. They came to the Farm Shop, camped on the farm, stayed in the farmhouse and joined farm tours. Kylie and Mick watched people slow down, stand at fences, watch the animals and ask questions about things that seemed completely ordinary when you lived there. It made them realise that perhaps some of the things they had taken for granted were exactly the things worth sharing.

For years, Kylie and Mick have taken Bunya Grove out to people. Eggs are packed, persimmons are picked, meat is prepared, vehicles are loaded and early mornings are spent heading off to farmers markets. That isn't changing. But now, as well as taking Bunya Grove out to people, they're inviting people into Bunya Grove too.

Not to a polished farm attraction, but to a real working farm. There might be a tractor going past, animals making noise, someone collecting eggs and there's a pretty good chance Mick will be fixing something. Somewhere across the 400 acres, something will almost certainly not have gone according to plan. That's farming, and that's part of the story they want to share.

Bunya Grove will always be a farm first. The idea isn't to replace farming with experiences, but to let those experiences grow naturally from the farm. To give people the chance to see where their food begins, learn about the land and animals, cook with food grown here, stay on the farm, gather around a table and understand a little more about where food actually comes from.

For years, Kylie and Mick have taken a little piece of Bunya Grove out through the farm gate and shared it with people. Now they're simply opening the gate a little wider and inviting people in as well.