When the Ellingers bought their place in 1979 it was quite barren with a lot of environment weeds. The dams were bare and it had an 800m erosion gully. Initially they thought it was a bit of a liability but when relatives recalled growing up, seeing it as a beautiful place and having picnics by the creek, it became their vision to get it back to how it might have been.

See their story in the youtube clip "Land Restoration and Landscape Change in Swan Bay Catchment"

"We are still a functioning farm, harvesting 1200 Olive trees each year, we have sheep on agistment we have found that the revegetation has actually assisted these farming functions. With a wider range of birds we find that the birds are keeping the insects under control in the olives so we don’t have to resort to using poisons.

We think the farm is a much better place to live on, it looks a lot better, we don’t have the extremes of the winds, we have lots of wildlife and birdlife, better shelter for the animals and better habitat for the wildlife"

Ros Ellinger, Local Landholder