Miranda: Women on Farms Gathering 2020 coming to Inglewood in March

The 31st Women on Farms Gathering is being held in Inglewood next month. And farm succession is often a major topic discussed, writes Genevieve Barlow.

NEXT month 250-plus women will descend on the old gold mining town of Inglewood in northern Victoria for the 31st Women on Farms Gathering.

For an area with a town of 1000 people at its heart, this poses a few challenges, such as where to sleep such a number.

It would have been easier to hold such an event in Bendigo 45km away where accommodation abounds.

But, as this summer’s fires have shown us, small towns welcome every chance to earn a buck or two to boost their economies, however modestly.

Organising committee chairman Colleen Condliffe says locals are doing up their spare rooms to billet visitors. Small caravan parks and motels in nearby places such as Wedderburn and Bridgewater can expect inquiries to grow, and some opportunists are setting up bed and breakfast facilities.

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The country around these parts can be harsh. There’s remnant bushland and acres planted with gums for eucalyptus production. Further out the flat, dryland plains are farmed by croppers and graziers. The skies are big and open here.

If the country doesn’t grab you, there are plenty of other reasons to head here for the gathering weekend. Not least is a chance to dine in the grounds of the heritage listed East Loddon Wool Shed — built in 1869 — where on that Saturday evening guests are invited to scrub up, dress up and don their farm boots (polished, of course) for a Boots ’n’ Babes evening.

Events such as these — where farm women come together for no other reason than meeting other farm women — might well have folded, yet this one continues.

There’s good reason. Younger women are getting involved.

Among those on this year’s organising committee is Carly Noble, 40, who farms at Arnold, 15km from Inglewood. She and her husband, Darren, are a rare breed of young farmer out in this country where broadacre holdings span thousands of acres. They have 89ha, Lilliputian by comparison, and farm it without chemicals, with A2 dairy cows, Polwarth sheep and beef cattle.

What she doesn’t have in hectares, Carly has in determination and it is fed by her dedication and will to farm.

“I’m the first female in my family to run and manage a farm. I’m a sixth-generation farmer and there are not many of us with that kind of historical connections left. My mum’s parents and generations before owned “Parkside” at Lancefield and I always thought that one day I would farm it too.

“I had my childhood, grew up there in a house overlooking the farm and thought surely it would be handed to my mum or uncle, but my grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer and my grandfather thought if he sold the farm and poured all the money into treatment for her, he could save her, but she passed away anyway.

“Six months later he realised what he’d done but when you are going through incredible grief you don’t always make the best decisions.”

All these years later she understands that her grandfather acted with the best intentions but the lost opportunity, the lost memories and the lost connection to that place grieve her terribly.

“It had been in the one family since the 1800s. It had a heritage-listed house. It was to die for.”

There was a stage when Carly went to farm auction after farm auction. When she was 18 years old, she went to an auction of “Parkside” with an idea she might buy it.

She watched as bids flew, rising $150,000 a time, and her heart sank when the price hit $1.5 million and kept going. “There was no way I was ever going to be able to save $1.5m to buy it back. When it go to $1.5m I thought I’m done.”

“Parkside” sold that day for $2.45 million. Carly says it was the worst day of her life. Since she had no inherited land and little purchasing power, how could she buy land to farm?

But she did. Today Carly and Darren’s farm at Arnold is called “Parkside Run”, the “run” being an acknowledgment of Darren’s Irish background. (In Ireland, a run is a lane down the side of a farm.)

“I had to take a bit of my history with me. I couldn’t leave it behind,” Carly says.

In some ways she says having to buy and work on her own farm means she’s earned the respect of others in farming, something that may not have been so readily forthcoming had she inherited.

She also has a consulting job one day a week and loves it. “It means I get a day out when I’m not covered in cow poo and I put my make up on and my suit on and go out.”

Carly understands why farming women want to get away from their farms and get together “for a laugh” and to talk about things, the daily slog, the rewards.

Farm succession is a popular conversation topic. “That’s what women talk about when they are at these gatherings. Should they sell the farm? Should they lease it? How do they keep it in the family when the kids don’t want to farm it?”

It’s not all serious by any means. And the phone number for massages is available on the event website (wofg2020.org.au). There’s a market, a fashion parade and a tour of the area and local historic buildings.

I’d go just to hear Carly’s story again.

● The Women on Farms Gathering is on March 27-29. Genevieve Barlow will be a keynote speaker at the event