nd the journey weFinding our farm was a combination of many air miles, road miles, hours of research, dam hard work, risk, luck and fate!

From the moment we agreed we were going to give this move to Australia a go we started researching farming options and farms for sale on the Internet. We traweled websites and contacted agents, often in the middle of the night due to time differences. Many factors and considerations had to go into the process of finding Gundaroo such as:

• Where are we going to farm?
• What are we going to farm?
• Is it going to work as a business & support us?
• Do we fit the visa requirements?
• Can we afford it?
• Will the boys like it & be able to settle?
• What are the schools and local towns like?
• How on earth are we going to be able to untangle our lives here in the UK and all the ramifications of that to even be able to move?
• Can we leave all that we know & the people we love?
• Are we crazy? Is this a crisis/ midlife moment/whim/ grass is greener situation?

Oh oh this list could go on and on but these were just some of the factors we had to consider!

We knew straight away we wanted to be in Queensland, I have two younger brothers here with their families and from visiting them in the past we fell in love with this part of Australia. In addition we knew the boys would benefit greatly having such close family near by. Tom also has family in Melbourne and good friends in New South Wales but for us Queensland just felt right.

Both of us had visited Australia before this all started, so we had already fallen in love with the country and knew the characteristics of the different states. We had an idea of what we were looking for but even so I don’t think we ever imagined how hard it would be at times.

Whilst we were doing the visa applications and starting to pack up and sell up our life in the UK we relentlessly researched properties. We started by drawing a four hour radius around Brisbane and choosing a large selection of properties to view. On our first trip out we brought the boys with us as we felt strongly this should be a family decision. We looked at numerous farm enterprises from cereal, cotton, cattle and sugar cane. But it was the combination of sugar cane and cattle that really captured us in the end. Tom liked the crop and I had worked with a similar crop in the UK. The problem was we just could not find a property we liked. We had almost given up when my brother suggested the Gympie region. We had initially planned to view other properties. However on meeting with our wonderful agent, he mentioned he knew someone in the UK who farmed Herefordshire Cattle. To our surprise he contacted them and they had heard of us and obviously said some good things about us, as the next thing we knew he was showing us this property.  As soon as we saw Gundaroo we fell in love and knew we had found some where special.

However we still had a massive mountain to climb and we were nowhere near being able to put in an offer to secure Gundaroo. We just had to hope it didn’t sell before we could buy it. So we flew home again and carried on the process of packing our UK lives up. I submitted our final visa application, which was the size of a small book and far harder to write than any dissertation I had completed previously and we crossed our fingers and toes! In order to move we literally had to throw all the parts that made up our lives into the air and just hope with the assistance of lots of hard work they all came down again in the right place, at the right time, for everything to work. It is like stepping off a cliff into the unknown and gambling everything you own, know and love in the process.

In May 2014 we were getting closer to this position, still no visa confirmed but we had to get on. So yet again we flew out to see the property and look at some others that had also come on the market just to be sure. Again, Gundaroo captured our hearts and again we left just hoping everything would fall into place for us.

We returned to the UK to our visa application being approved. From then on the earnest work of selling, packing and saying our goodbyes began. The latter being the hardest and most traumatic thing I have ever done. Some days it all felt just too over whelming but Tom’s mantra “don’t look at the mountain, just take the step in front of you and climb” kept me sane and we did it, we got to the top of the mountain. The only thing is we had and have a few more mountains to go yet!

We have now been here for just over 2 years. Gundaroo has proved to be just as we hoped but maybe with a lot more work to bring her back to her former glory than we imagined. We knew when we took the property on it was in need of work. It was a dairy in its hey day and for the past 10 years had been cattle ranched, and a lot of the country had been let go. But it was this that also made her attractive to us. We could see how we could really build something of our own here and not just take on someone else’s project. The latter would have been so much easier in every way and there are days I wonder if we should have taken this easier route. However you can also run the risk of taking on someone else’s mistakes too. We knew Gundaroo soil was good, virgin to cane and unpolluted by previous mismanagement. Healthy soil has a smell and this soil smelt good! We could see how amazing this farm had been and could be again.

Tom and I are slowly getting there, some days we go forward, some days we go backward but we are progressing in the right direction. Two thirds of the sugar cane is planted, pivot irrigation installed, dams repaired and we had our first cane harvest this year and it was a success. We have a herd of cattle we are refining into something we can be proud of and a brand of our own. We are just about to complete the build of our new family home and start up the farm stay angle of our business, should all go to plan. We have fenced for miles and I have become a proficient tractor driver and farm hand. Whilst my domain is mainly the farm office, Tom’s is mainly outside and we cross over when required and work well together. Don’t get me wrong working together and living together has its days but all in all we do ok.

So here we are at present on a tempory visa and the clock is ticking to when we can apply for permanent residency and at last relax in the security of the knowledge that we can now settle in the home we have made here at Gundaroo. I just don’t even want to consider what we will do if not accepted to stay…..a freezing caravan in the UK maybe our only option!!!!!