A SAGE partnership By Georgina Carroll Photos Gary Sissons
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ages Farm is a historic hidden gem, located at the gateway of the Mornington Peninsula. It has stunning views, adorable animals, exquisite food and even better coffee. What people might not realise is the entire property is run by people living with disability. Captain Benjamin Baxter arrived at Port Melbourne in 1837 and was the first European settler in the Mornington Peninsula district. In 1838 he was granted a pastoral lease of 15,000 acres in the Langwarrin/Moorooduc area to run cattle. Baxter was mostly in Melbourne taking care of his business interests so he appointed John Sage as overseer of one of his cattle stations. In 1852 John Sage married Maria Baxter, Benjamin Baxter’s daughter and thus acquired a portion of Baxter’s land in 1856. John and Maria built their home, now known as Sages Cottage. The property remained in the Sages family until the 1970s, when it was run as a restaurant and tourist attraction, before being purchased by Menzies Inc., an organisation for disadvantaged youth. Sages Farm was then purchased in 2013 by Wallara, a support service for adults with disability. Their philosophy is to empower people with different abilities to live the life they chose. Their goal for Sages Cottage is to create Australia’s most inclusive farm.
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At Sages, Wallara offers day programs to their clients such as garden care, lawn mowing, hospitality, cooking, landscaping and construction, animal care and farm education, aquaponics, beekeeping, holistic health, horticulture, bush land and ecology and more. Through the day program offerings, support coaches work with clients to achieve goals they have individually set. “Every individual has a broad range of goals, and they can differ considerably from one person to the next, even if they're in the same group. One goal might be relationships, and friendships and how to navigate communication. So one of our clients could be in an art program doing a project, but our coach is focusing on helping the client with that,” said farm manager Zara Hallam. When a client begins at Sages, they will make goals with a support coach and pick programs they are interested in. Due to the unique farm environment of Sages, support coaches are usually based on their industry experience and skills. Sages also has programs for clients who are interested in work, particularly through their cafe. The cafe space is held in the historic barn, one of the multiple heritage listed buildings on the property. The menu includes produce grown on site and is complemented with amazing coffee.