AusBiz Magazine - Dec/Jan 2018/19

AusBiz.

NEWS+VIEWS | MINING | AGRIBUSINESS | INFRASTRUCTURE

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28 P.4 Agribusiness: Dairy Industry Innovations P.10 Mining and water management P.16 New Hotels P.22 Business: Highland beef P.26 Season's Savings P.28 Property: Escape the City

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Business News+Views

Business News+Views Bringing you the latest insights and analysis. WORDS: Sarah Hinder Season’s first tray of South Australian strawberries sold for $17,500 in charity auction For the first time, South Australia has held a charity auction to launch the start of its spring and summer strawberry season. In similar fashion to the annual mango auction in Queensland, the South Australian strawberry industry decided to hold the auction in response to the struggle strawberry farmers have faced following more than 100 incidents of needles found in Australian strawberries earlier this year.

The strawberry auction was held on I Choose SA Day, October 27, which promotes South Australian produce and suppliers and encourages locals to support South Australian producers and businesses. All proceeds from the auction were donated to Variety SA, which support children who are sick, disadvantaged or living with special needs.

For more information visit variety.org.au/sa.

New technology will improve Australian producers’ defence against top biosecurity risk Technology start-up RapidAIM, founded by researchers from the CSIRO, is at the forefront of curbing one of the world’s biggest biosecurity barriers to trade: the fruit fly.

The company recently received a $1.25 million boost from the Federal government toward their effort in providing Australian producers with an improved early detection system against fruit flies — which cost Australia’s fruit and vegetable industry more than $300 million each year.

The first reliable form of pest ‘radar’ to support growers against pests such as the fruit fly, RapidAIM delivers real-

time detection and monitoring in an effort to assist against the devastating affects the pests can cause. The technology uses low-powered sensors, which can be distributed in thousands, to detect the insects by their characteristic movements and provide real-time data back to growers through an app.

RapidAIM’s technology can provide early warnings of future pest hotspots and reduce the time spent checking for the pests by 35 per cent, allowing for a more rapid response to contaminated areas.

Fast facts

304,200

As of 2016-17, there are 304,200 people employed in Australian agriculture. The agricultural supply chain, including the affiliated food and fibre industries, provide over 1.6 million jobs.

Every month Variety Australia delivers more than $1 million to children and families in need Who can’t afford specialist care and equipment.

$200 million Variety Australia has raised more than $200 million for children in need over the last 30 years.

DEC 2018/JAN 2019

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Agribusiness, Dairy

Darren Baguley Darren specialises in the fields of technology, mining, agriculture, energy and business.

When the going gets tough, the tough get innovative TIMES ARE TOUGH IN THE DAIRY INDUSTRY BUT PRODUCERS ARE RESPONDING WITH INNOVATION. 4

AusBiz.

Agribusiness, Dairy

LITTLE BIG DAIRY IS A FA M I LY F R I E N D LY FA R M

Even the most infrequent follower of current affairs knows that dairy farmers are doing it tough. It started off with Coles and Woolworths offering $1-a-litre milk at the same time as processors predicted burgeoning demand from Asia and urged suppliers to increase. Many dairy farmers responded to the urging to “make sure they didn’t miss out on the China rush” by scaling up their business – buying more land in some cases, buying in feed in others – to increase herd sizes.

Mostly, the expansions were paid for with borrowed money.

The world economy, however, didn’t follow the dairy industry’s vision. Demand from China plateaued and then came a true ‘black swan’ event, the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 by Russian-backed Ukrainian separatist rebels. Russia responded to the ensuing sanctions by imposing import bans, which resulted in Europe being awash with milk, cheese and other dairy products that were dumped on traditionally Australian markets at cost or below.

In April 2016, Australia’s largest milk processor, Murray

Goulburn, slashed the farmgate price for milk to below the cost of production for most farmers, and announced it would seek to claw back past payments made at the previous higher rate. The Australian dairy industry was a house of cards built with debt and it all came crashing down when Murray Goulburn’s largest rival, Fonterra, followed suit.

The cuts drove the price below the cost of production for most producers and the clawbacks left many dairy farmers in debt to the processor – as much as $100,000 in some cases – plunging the industry into crisis. Already debt-laden due to expansion, many farmers didn’t have cash reserves to pay the processors’ bills. Then came the drought.

Some parts of Queensland had been in drought for more than six years, of course, and for the rest of the country, one dry winter and spring was just part of life. But by the second dry winter in NSW, an already weakened dairy industry was in trouble. With little or no rain there was no grass for their cows and the price of feed skyrocketed – hay up by 59  DEC 2018/JAN 2019

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Agribusiness, Dairy

per cent and grain up by 40 per cent – as did transport costs. NSW had run out of fodder, which then had to come from Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.

Some producers responded by selling up completely or moving to different enterprises such as beef cattle, but Aussie farmers are an innovative bunch and many were determined to survive no matter what the market conditions. In Jamberoo, NSW, dairy farmer Jason Maloney launched a GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign which raised $269,283 for his farm and others in the area.

The historic sixth-generation Country Valley at Picton took to social media asking people to ‘adopt a cow’. While both these campaigns were highly successful, Queensland Dairyfarmers’ Organisation vice-president Matthew Trace pointed out that there were more than 100 pleas for crowdfunding on GoFundMe alone.

“While crowdfunding can provide a quick injection of cash to a farm, it is not a long-term solution,” he told the North Queensland Register. “The only way we can have a sustainable dairy industry is by getting a fair farmgate price.”

Although prices from the major processors are edging back up due to record-low production levels, some producers say the way to achieve a fair farmgate price is to cut out the middleman completely.

Companies such as The Little Big Dairy Co (Dubbo), Peel Valley Milk (Tamworth) and Gippsland Dairy (Eastern Victoria) are going to market in local areas with premium quality milk that carries their own brand.

The Little Big Dairy Co was set up because Steve and Erika Chesworth’s daughter Emma (and her husband Jim) wanted to come back to the family farm and they all felt it would be best for them to have their own enterprise to run. Most of the family-run-andowned business’s milk from its 800 Holstein cows goes to major processor Parmalat, but a proportion is sold as the Little Big Dairy Co’s prize-winning single source premium milk.

Steve manages the cows and knows every single one of the 800 by name. Erika raises the calves and, unlike on some dairy farms, male calves are raised to maturity.

The Chesworths’ Holstein stud is one of the most highly regarded in the country, so many bull calves end up in other dairy herds while those that don’t make the cut

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Agribusiness, Dairy

go to feedlots. The emphasis is on animal welfare, not only because it is the right thing to do but also because, as Erika says, “Happy cows produce the best milk.”

For the Chesworths, the Little Big Dairy Co brand has been a resounding success. “It’s been absolutely wonderful,” says Erika. “Not only has it brought our daughter and her husband back to the family farm, but we have met so many passionate people through the creation of the brand. It’s been well worth doing.”

Despite the positive experience the Chesworths have had, Erika is cautious about the future. “When we started I did a lot of research and found that about 20 per cent of Australians care enough to buy a premium-branded milk. So there is no doubt that it can work and work well but I think that in NSW the boutique market may be getting close to saturation. The last thing any small processor wants is to be competing with other small processors in the same market.”

Erika is even more concerned for the industry as a whole: “Between deregulation and $1-a-litre milk, there is no fat left in the dairy supply chain to give producers a buffer when there’s a market downturn or a drought. We need profitable farms and processors so there can be investment in R&D and infrastructure. The way consumers can help with that is by buying branded milk.”

P H O T O G R A P H S : H I S Y LV I A

F E AT U R E D D A I R Y P R O D U C T S AT D A I R Y A W A R D S N I G H T 2 017

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Goodbye Dust Hello Revegetation A huge undertaking by Adelaide-based company Spray Grass Australia sees the implementation of a new dust suppressant on the Port Augusta Ash Dam with a focus on long term vegetation.

150 ha of high risk dust area was applied with dust suppressant HydroBond

100%

safe for vegetation

Advertorial

Port Augusta Ash Dam

“We knew that research and development was going to be a vital part in making this project a success.”

Glenn Sullivan - Environmental Consultant

F

linders Power awarded Adelaide-based Spray Grass Australia to provide the decommissioned Port Augusta Ash Dam with a new dust suppressant that is specifically designed for revegetation.

The former power station site has undertaken multiple initiatives to control the risk of dust pollution and to revegetate the area since the announcement of its closure back in 2015. Tonnes of top soil has been applied to the 270-hectare site and seeded with the aim for rehabilitating the bare land. A lack of average rainfall and harsh environmental conditions has made this extremely difficult, resulting in high-level dust risk.

Spray Grass Australia is confident that HydroBond will address the short-term dust control requirements while simultaneously achieving a positive impact on existing plant life and improving the environment for germination of seedlings. HydroBond is particularly suited to projects that require revegetation due to its permeable crust forming features that allow water and air to infiltrate the surface.

Specialised HydroTruck spraying over 870 litres per minute

HydroBond was rated against the following criteria: • Health, safety & environment •

Dust control including crust thickness, durability, soil strength and functional longevity

•

Revegetation outcomes including germination, soil moisture, water-holding capacity and water penetration

The germination trials and live plant studies concluded that the application of HydroBond did not impede on existing vegetation. In fact, the suppressant proved to be beneficial for plant growth.

Spray Grass Australia will continue to partner with Flinders Power throughout 2019 to achieve success in the environment.

Independent ecology firm Succession Ecology performed a detailed analysis including ecotoxicity studies to confirm suitability for application on the ash dam.

A series of tests were conducted to cover a range of criteria including impact on seed germination, plant survival, water movement and soil-surface binding.

All tests were conducted on site specific soil and on landscape soil (sandy loam) and ranks were generated based on performance relative to control samples with no product added.

spraygrassaustralia.com.au

HydroBond produces a protective crust to lock in dust while allowing air and water to permeate the surface, vital for revegetation.

Mining

Darren Baguley Darren specialises in the fields of technology, mining, agriculture, energy and business.

Whisky’s for drinkin’ – water’s for fightin’ MINES USE A LOT OF WATER, AND ON A DRY CONTINENT THAT CAN LEAD TO CONFLICT WITH LOCAL COMMUNITIES AND OTHER STAKEHOLDERS.

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Mining

As miners chase lower-grade ores, they have a greater impact upon the water table and use more water for processing. This is increasing the possibility and intensity of conflict with local communities, agricultural producers and other stakeholders.

Indeed, this potential for conflict has become so severe that Deloitte’s Tracking the Trends 2018 report includes water management as a critical issue for the mining industry.

According to the report, “water demand is rising globally, driven by population growth, industrial development, expansion of irrigated agriculture, and increases in per capita water consumption.

“Critically, this growing demand is not offset by available supply. According to the United Nations (UN), water scarcity now affects more than 40 per cent of the global population and is expected to worsen. Currently, over 1.7 billion people live in river basins where water use exceeds recharge, and by 2050 at least one in four people are likely to live in a country affected by chronic or recurring freshwater shortages.”

As BHP recently noted, “[E]thical water stewardship is expected increasingly to emerge as a competitive advantage for those operators that get it right. For those that do not, their ability to maintain their social licence to operate may come into question.”

At different stages of the production process, mines produce and use a lot of water. As excavations delve into the water table, dewatering is often required for open-cut and underground operations. Even if dewatering is not required, groundwater remains a critical water supply source for processing operations. In addition, managing seepage from waste rock landforms and tailing facilities on aquifers is a key component in meeting mining regulations.

According to the CSIRO, processing “water use is quite high – for example, around 1600 litres of water are used to obtain the 19 kilograms of copper found in a medium-sized family car.” Put another way, Monash University research found that, on average, it takes around 1690 litres of water to process a tonne of gold ore, and about 773,000 litres to produce a kilogram of gold.

Nevertheless, leading mining companies that retain a strong social licence are often those that follow the best practices when it comes to water management. Writing in the AusIMM Bulletin, Golder Associates managing director Ralph Heath says, “Often the water balance for a mining operation results in an initial excess of water (during pit dewatering), but a long-term deficit where a sustainable water resource is required for processing. [Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR)] provides a tool to help balance the water budget over the life of mine operations.

“The regulatory environment concerning water management in mining operations is also becoming an impetus for the inclusion of MAR as a possible method of  DEC 2018/JAN 2019

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Mining

Mining companies can make a significant contribution to the provision of safe water supplies to communities. excess water management. In Western Australia, there is now a requirement to have least investigated the potential for MAR as a method of excess water management where the water balance, hydrogeology and environmental constraints allow it.

“Generally, the adoption (or at least the trialling) of aquifer replenishment as a method of excess water management will gain the support and approval of regulators and provide a licence to practice in challenging groundwater environments.

“Similarly, the adoption of MAR techniques in mining will gain the support of the community and traditional owners who are focused on the long-term sustainability of the catchment and groundwater environment.”

One of the largest MAR projects in the world is Fortescue Metals’ award-winning Cloudbreak scheme. Situated in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, the deployment of MAR both “conserves valuable groundwater for future redraw and mitigates the environmental impact of mine dewatering.”

Other measures mining companies are taking to improve water management include building dams for water storage and operating dedicated water treatment plants to process water into usable quality.

Leaching from waste rock can contaminate surface and groundwater so miners have been using techniques such as building upstream dams to reduce risk of water contamination from waste rock and exposed ore, and covering and lining waste rock and ore piles.

Similarly, ore processing also contaminates water, so mining companies are looking at various ways to recycle the water used to process ore and reduce the amount used overall. These measures include building evaporation ponds, capturing drainage water through liners and pipes and directing it into tailings dams, and treating the water.

Desalination plants have become extremely popular, with more than 50 small plants operating in South Australia alone.

Research institutions and companies are also working on ways to purify contaminated water. The CSIRO, for example, has developed a technology called Virtual Curtain, which uses hydrotalcites to trap metal contaminants in waste water.

Adelaide-based company Micromet is taking a different approach, using electrolysis to remove pollutant materials.

In some instances, mining companies can take water management a step further and use it to build social capital in the mines’ operations. According to International Council

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Mining

on Mining and Metals (ICMM) Report, Water management in mining: a selection of case studies, “…mining companies can actually make a significant positive contribution to the provision of safe, clean and adequate supplies of water to neighbouring communities. For example, eMalahleni Water Reclamation Plant in South Africa (operated by Anglo American in partnership with BHP Billiton) treats the contaminated water from its own and other mining operations and delivers treated water directly into the local municipality’s water system.”

Water use conflicts have the most impact on miners’ social licence to operate, but there are also economic impacts from poor water management. According to SRK Australia’s Perthbased principal consultant (hydrogeology), Brian Luinstra, “The impacts of failing to adequately understand the groundwater system can result in reduced mill throughputs, increasing drilling and blasting costs and regulatory issues related to water disposal from excess dewatering.

“All these factors can have profound impacts on project economics, and in rare cases have resulted in some operations coming perilously close to failure.”

DEC 2018/JAN 2019

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AusBiz. Promotion

Does your mine need a technology health check?

There is a misconception about data that the more you have, the more productive your mine operations will be. More information theoretically leads to more informed decisions, however if there is such an abundance of information that you don’t know how to pick out the meaningful parts, it can lead to frustration and inefficiency as you try to wade through data that is invisibly piling up around you.

A report is only useful if it contains information that is wanted, delivered in a timely manner to the individuals and teams that can make informed decisions after reading it. So many software programs and Fleet Management Systems (FMS) promise all manner of reports, but how many do your mine site supervisors, mine surveyors, mine operations managers and operations team actually need, let alone read?

Essential to a meaningful report, of course, is also a factually accurate one. How do you know that the data your mining software is churning out faster than you can file it away is giving you correct information?

Position Partners has recently introduced a Technology Health Check service for Fleet Management Systems and machine guidance on mine sites. “We’ve seen an increase in the demand for our health checks to assist mines with change management and customising technology to suit customer needs,” explained Andrew Granger, Business Development Manager for Mining.

“The service includes an in-depth look into the current systems used by different stakeholders in the mine site, what’s working for them, what’s causing frustration or lacking in the technology, where there are gaps in the workflow and so on,” he added.

Position Partners technicians can validate data to ensure that the reports being generated are accurate, as well as consolidate the number of reports into something more meaningful.

“Thousands of reports are useless if none of them are getting read,” Andrew adds.

“We worked with a mine site recently where different supervisors were reading different reports, so we

consolidated them into a single, central report with a traffic-light colour code that gave them an immediate visual representation of where they needed to focus attention.

“It’s a simple way of making a cumbersome and difficult to understand report something that all mine supervisors could easily read, and more importantly act on,” he said.

In another example, a customer had already invested in an FMS solution, however the machine guidance technology was proving ineffective and difficult for operators to use.

“Operator confidence in the system was extremely important, so we initially set up one dozer and one excavator with a new machine guidance option,” Andrew said.

“Within a month, the customer had ordered another seven machine guidance systems because the operators were really embracing the technology. It solved that particular pain point for the mine without them having to reinvest in an entirely new FMS.” Mr Granger explains that change management is key when onboarding any new technology, or even to make use of technology that has been on site for some time but that isn’t quite working to your site’s needs.

“Every site operates in a slightly different way, requiring different information delivered at certain points in the team’s workflow,” he says, adding “our Technology Health Checks are a way for mine site supervisors and operations managers to step back and ask for everything that would add true value to their day-to-day tasks.

“Ultimately, data is supposed to make your life easier, not harder, so it’s important to get it working just the way it needs to, so that it enables productivity not hinders it,” he said.

To book a Technology Health Check for your mine, speak to your local Position Partners mining technology expert today by calling 1300 867 266 or visit positionpartners.com.au DEC 2018/JAN 2019

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Infrastructure

HOTEL 2.0 STYLISH, OFFBEAT AND SUSTAINABLE HOTELS REPLACE THE COOKIE-CUTTER ACCOMODATIONS OF THE PAST.

IAN LLOYD NEUBAUER

With nearly 20 years’ journalism experience, Ian is abreast of global news as it happens.

C L O U D R U N N E R R O O M AT THE COLLECTIONIST

Right now, the Australian accommodation sector is undergoing its largest growth phase in history, with 200 new or upgraded hotels and resorts scheduled to launch across the country over the next seven years.

New-generation properties are pushing the envelope in every conceivable direction – with innovative new features and services such as keyless room entry, properties where no two rooms look alike, and hotel restaurants so bloody good they’ve become dining destinations in their own right.

“The new wave of hotel development is covering all price

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points – from economy to luxury,” says Carol Giuseppi, CEO of Tourism Accommodation Australia (TAA), which last month released the country’s first Hotel Innovation Report. “The changes are being driven by changes in travellers’ demands, particularly the Millennial generation, and influencing new hotel design with an emphasis on localism, individualism, art and sustainability.”

Here, Ausbiz visits properties leading the charge to see how innovation is driving growth in Australia’s multibilliondollar tourism industry.

Infrastructure

SHOCK OF THE NEW During previous phases of growth in the Australian accommodation sector in the late 1980s and just prior to the Sydney Olympics, the focus was on “brand fidelity” – ensuring internationally branded hotels looked and felt like their counterparts in Europe and the US. The first kink in the armour appeared a decade ago with the launch of Art Series Hotels in Melbourne, with properties inspired by and festooned with the works of notable Australian artists such as Adam Cullen and John Olson.

But the hotel group credited with breaking the mould is QT, which designed and manages a magazine of luxury hotels across Australia that are not only individually styled but reflect the heart and soul of their particular destination.

The group’s first property, QT Gold Coast, which opened in 2011, is a five-star take on a 1950s beach-style art deco hotel that embraces

the city’s highly sexualised past. A year later they launched QT Sydney, a 200-room property set in two neo-Gothic sandstone buildings in the CBD, and which offers a thespian service model that replaces traditional concierges with 'directors of chaos', who dress like characters from A Clockwork Orange and satisfy, analyse and predict guests’ needs. As for QT's food, the West Australian recently rated Santini, an Italianstyle restaurant in the new QT Perth, as a “rock star ... larger-than-life … [and] one of the finest, most welcoming temples to dining” in the city.

“We have a pillar in our strategy called ‘Loved

by Locals’ that’s about creating awesome F&B experiences,” says director of brand strategy Victoria Doidge. “If you look at QT Melbourne, it has one of the city’s most popular rooftop bars, while Yamagen in QT Gold Coast is regarded as the strip’s best Japanese restaurant.” 

C L O C K W I S E F R O M L E F T: QT PERTH'S SANTINI BAR & GRILL; T H E P E N T H O U S E AT T H E C U L L E N ; QT MELBOURNE'S ROOFTOP; THE OLSEN'S EXTERIOR

Fast Facts

1975

Australia’s first major internationally branded hotel, the Hilton Sydney, opened in 1975.

10%

Tourism in Australia is projected to grow 10 per cent per annum over the next decade.

DEC 2018/JAN 2019

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DOMETIC CFX SERIES

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Infrastructure

TOP TO BOTTOM: JETSET ROCKET ROOM AT T H E C O L L E C T I O N I S T; A L I A S R O O M AT T H E C O L L E C T I O N I S T; Y O U R P H O N E A S A K E Y AT T H E CROWNE PLAZA HOTEL

NEW DISRUPTORS While it’s still considered one of the city’s most innovative hotels, QT Sydney is now facing a tough new competitor: The Collectionist, a “custom-design” hotel set in a repurposed warehouse in inner-city Camperdown.

Highlighting the move away from uniformity, The Collectionist features 39 individually themed rooms designed by seven architects, four design firms and nine artists. Guests select their rooms based on their preferred style, much the same way they choose their cars.

“I realised people are very particular about the car they drive, the colour they choose, the style they want,” says CEO Daniel Symonds. “It’s a very personal choice with cars, so why didn’t we make hotel rooms that catered to these different tastes rather than offering standardised rooms and no choice in the room type a guest prefers? By providing guests with a more tactile way of choosing their room, they are directly involved in their stay experience.”

Innovative technology is another cornerstone of The Collectionist, with a digital booking process that sees check-in access codes sent directly to guests via email and SMS. But hotel baron Dr Jerry Schwartz has taken the idea one step further at the Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley with “mobile key technology”. The system allows guests to bypass the reception desk by downloading the hotel’s branded app.

On the day of check-in, the hotel team digitally generate a keyless function and send it to guests’ smartphones along with the allocated room number, which allows them to access their room simply by waving the phone in front of the corresponding door.

“I’ve always been passionate about the use of technology that enhances guest experiences,” says Schwartz. “We’ve received excellent feedback from the innovation and are now working to extend keyless entry to our other hotels.”  DEC 2018/JAN 2019

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Infrastructure

GREEN REVOLUTION A keen environmentalist, Schwartz is also adding solar panels and electric car battery charging stations in his hotels in Sydney, the Hunter Valley and the Blue Mountains. And that’s just the beginning. In the future, the use of smart materials will see the introduction of window blinds that open and close automatically according to the position of the sun, walls that ensure optimal room temperature, and furniture that acts as a power source, according to TAA’s Hotel Innovation Report.

To see a property that’s taken environmental sustainability as far as it can go, one must travel to Picnic Island in Tasmania’s pristine Coles Bay. Last year the island’s owner Clem NewtonBrown opened Picnic Island Resort, a luxury five-cabin property that’s 100 per cent off-thegrid. On check-in, guests are allocated a certain

quantity of water and solar-generated electricity for the duration of their stay, and taught how to use the compost toilet in accordance with sustainable lifestyle principles.

“Many people will go to a place of great natural beauty, go on a hike, but then stay at a big hotel and disconnect from nature again,” Newton-Brown says. “But here Mother Nature never gets switched off because we’re right on the high-water line and you become hypersensitive to the wind and tides.

“We don’t ask guests to empty the compost toilet tanks but we prove that you can stay at a very flash place while being off-the-grid. There are not many places in Australia or the world that can charge nearly $1000 a night for rooms with funny-looking toilets, but we do here and it’s really taken off.”

C L O C K W I S E F R O M L E F T: P I C N I C I S L A N D R E S O R T; T H E B E A C H AT C O L E S B AY; PICNIC ISLAND RESORT R O O M O N T H E WAT E R

Fast Facts

96%

per cent of Australian hotels now offer some level of free WiFi to their guests.

DEC 2018/JAN 2019

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Business

Land of Plenty

DOWN IN TASMANIA’S DERWENT VALLEY, JUST 40KM OUT OF HOBART, IS A LITTLE HAMLET CALLED PLENTY. ON THE FACE OF IT, THE NAME ALONE INVITES WOULD-BE “TREECHANGERS” TO COME AND FIND THEIR FORTUNE – AND THAT’S EXACTLY HOW THE STORY OF BIG RIVER HIGHLAND BEEF BEGINS. PHOTOS: ANT ONG Bec Lynd, born and bred in Tasmania, was living in Darwin in 2010, but dreamed of returning to her home state, finding both enough room to keep her horse and a way to live off-the-grid.

“Initially I wanted at least 100 acres,” she says, “but I saw this place and just fell in love.” The property she fell for and ultimately purchased had more than enough room at 220 acres, with a north-facing slope and a pleasing ratio of 60 per cent bush, 40 per cent cleared land. “I was trying to design the lifestyle I wanted,” Lynd says. “The actual progression was pretty pragmatic.” The property had no infrastructure when she bought it, missing both fencing and driveway, so there was a significant time investment needed. The area and its slope, while stunningly beautiful,

Jac Taylor Jac Taylor is a Sydneybased lifestyle and travel storyteller who loves covering the best of Australian leisure and food businesses.

Business

“Sustainability means environmental, but it also means emotional, economic and financial sustainability."

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experiences some of the highest highs and lowest lows of Tasmanian weather patterns. It’s a bushfire-prone zone, with rocky slopes, so this made the choice of livestock quite specific.

“She investigated different options,” says her partner, Bec Tudor, “and ended up with Highland cattle. They keep the grass down, and they’re very hardy. They’re not daunted by slopes, hills or dales, and they can handle weather extremes because their coats act as insulation, so they’re very robust.”

An added and very important bonus is how little extra farming interference is required by Highland cattle; they tend to breed and feed quite independently, which was essential given that Lynd started her farming concern entirely solo.

However in 2013 she met Tudor, who was living in a small apartment in Hobart at the time. Cue treechange no.2.

“When I moved out to the farm in 2014 it was a huge lifestyle change,” says Tudor. “I’d lived on hobby properties in rural areas and I loved visiting farms when I was a kid, but going 100 per cent off-grid was all a bit different.”

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By this time Lynd was running a significant fold of Highland cattle – as their herds are named – including calves born in 2011. Her pragmatism governed what happened next.

“I only want animals with purpose, not just as fluffy pets,” she says. “When I did more research and found out how good the meat is, I grew it.”

So Big River Highland Beef was launched in 2015, just as those 2011 calves came of slaughter age. The fact that Lynd and Tudor let the animals mature for four years before slaughter is markedly different from bigger, supermarketgrade beef concerns that may send to the abattoir at one or two years of age – and that’s the first of many differences that identify them as an ethical, sustainable and very much boutique business.

“That was part of our ethic from the beginning: market demand wouldn’t change our philosophy about how we manage the cattle,” says Tudor. “We have a strong sense of sustainability, and we care about the best welfare for the cattle and what works for us.

“We only supply to southern Tasmania – that’s how boutique we are. The gourmet food market around this region is so strong that that’s enough for us, and the chefs seem to appreciate it. We deliver our own beef to our customers, who are not paying for marketing or branding, just for the quality of meat itself. As for the animals, they’ve had the benefit of free ranging for those years, eating a variety of foods. It’s not practical with our landscape to be sowing different grasses – the cows eat weeds and native

Business

and introduced grasses of their own accord, and are 100 per cent grass fed, all of which flows through into the flavour of the meat.”

Highland cows are famously visually striking, and come in a huge variety of colours, from red through to brindle, fawn, black and mahogany. Lynd and Tudor are passionate about minimal waste, and get the hide of each slaughtered animal tanned by a northern Tasmanian grandfather-granddaughter team. Even the horns and skull sets are sun bleached and marketed as art. “The horns can be really quite spectacular objects in their own right,” says Tudor.

Their “hands off” way of raising the cattle is born of the surprising fact that both women still work full-time jobs – Lynd in the state ambulance service and Tudor at a museum.

But they purposely keep the fold limited in number to suit the amount of feed available on the land. Although they can go up to 100 head of cattle, they are currently running just 60 head, which suits the current state of the property with the prospect of a long, dry summer ahead. Having a higher slaughter age additionally means it’s essential to look years ahead. However, the intentionally limited scope of the business also brings something vitally important to the mix.

“Sustainability means environmental,” says Tudor, “but it also means emotional, economic and financial sustainability.

We don’t want the strain of debt on our relationship, and we want to be on this land for many decades to come, so we won’t design systems that aren’t sustainable on a personal level. We want to have work-life balance, to enjoy our farm as well. People talk about farmers burning out so often, and we think holistically as it’s much more productive for yourself.”

With the business running at capacity and a new baby now, Lynd and Tudor are very comfortable, though juggling as much as any new family. So has Lynd found the fairytale of Plenty she was looking for? She barely pauses. “Yeah, absolutely yes,” she says. And pauses, and says a happy “yes” one more time.

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Season’s Savings As we all know, Christmas is a time of excess (both in terms of food and financial spending).

But it doesn’t have to be this way – at least not when it comes to your spending! Here are my top 8 tips for surviving the Christmas holiday season 'unscathed'.

1. Decide on your budget... and stick to it!

It’s extremely important that you take the time to understand what you can afford to spend. What you can afford is basically the money you have saved throughout the year to buy Christmas presents, plus what you might be able to spend out of your pay packet. Just as importantly, you must stick within the budget you’ve set.

2. Set up automatic savings transfers

If you don’t trust that you’ll be able to stick to a budget, automatic savings transfers might become your new best friend. Set up an automatic transfer to move funds into a separate “holiday spending” account each time you’re paid. The best time to do this is in January – this way, a year’s worth of holiday savings will be waiting for you in time for next Christmas!

3. Avoid spending on your credit card

Spending on your credit card during the Christmas season is a common trap, but this will come to hurt your household finances in January when the money needs to be paid. And as we all know, if you can’t pay the money back you will incur anything up to 20% interest on top of the money you already owe the bank.

Ryan Watson Tribeca Financial's CEO knows all about money management.

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4. Quality over quantity

Instead of overspending, employ the philosophy "it’s the thought that counts". Often a well-thought-out and inexpensive present (such as an experience) is even better received than a traditional present.

5. Kris Kringle

For big families, try to organise a Kris Kringle. This means you will have to buy only one Christmas present for that part of your family.

6. Buy vouchers to spend strategically

Vouchers can be a great way to “stretch” the value of a present – that is, if they are spent during a sales period, the recipient will generally get a lot more for their money. Giving your friends or family a voucher and then taking them out to spend it over the Boxing Day sales is a great way for them to get the most value out of your gift.

7. Plan in advance for additional spending on food and alcohol

We all know the festive season means people and parties. Hence, planning to buy the additional food and alcohol you’ll need when it’s on sale in the preceding months can be a great way to keep a few extra dollars in your pocket.

8. Start forming good habits this January

On the off-chance that you do financially “overindulge” during the holiday season, it’s important you begin the next year with good habits.

This all starts with getting back into conscious spending habits and ensuring that you have a savings plan in place. Set a goal for yourself and have a reward in mind as your goal – this will help maintain your motivation during times of temptation.

These steps will help you to avoid a long-lasting Christmas hangover without having to be a Grinch or cutting the fun out of the festive season!

Learn about the history of the Huon Valley apple industry

Enjoy a Willie Smith’s cider paddle

Take a tour of the Charles Oates Distillery

Visit the Saturday Artisan & Produce market

Visit the home of Willie Smith’s cider where you can enjoy a great meal and a cider paddle, visit the Huon Valley apple museum, get up close and personal with a working distillery, peruse the Saturday Artisan & Produce Market.

Hobart Hobart Huonville

Contact

25mins

Huonville

www.williesmiths.com.au appleshed@williesmiths.com.au (03) 6266 4345 2064 Huon Hwy, Grove, TAS, 7109 25 minutes from Hobart

Property Biz

Escape the City THE REGIONAL CENTRES OF NEW SOUTH WALES OFFER ALL THE BENEFITS OF A RELAXED, AFFORDABLE LIFESTYLE WITHOUT THE TRAFFIC, EXPENSE AND CHAOS OF SYDNEY’S BIG SMOKE. Tell Sydneysiders that they can cut their daily commute by a quarter and slash their mortgage by a third while still having access to great coffee, and they’ll probably ask: “What’s the catch?” But an increasing number of former city slickers are discovering the only obstacle to a cheaper lifestyle is actually deciding to take the plunge.

According to Evocities, a NSW regional resident attraction campaign, more than 3600 new households have migrated to their seven partner cities and surrounds since 2010.

One of the main drivers attracting people to those destinations – Albury, Armidale, Bathurst, Dubbo, Orange, Tamworth and Wagga Wagga – is affordable real estate.

In a report being prepared for Evocities by .ID Consulting, figures show the median house price to income ratio in the last Census was 4.7 per cent, compared with a huge 8.4 per cent in Sydney.

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Making the move

Jason and Karen Triggs moved to the Bathurst region with their two young children in January 2018, after spending years tackling traffic and dealing with skyrocketing property prices.

“Everything was just becoming harder than it needed to be,” Jason explains. “We lived in Sydney’s Northern suburbs and I was working on the other side in Alexandria. The kids spent their time in car seats, and sometimes we were too busy to even have breakfast at home, so they’d be eating toast in the back of the car.

“Plus, for our new place we ended up paying about a third of the total cost of our home in Sydney, so it’s been completely transformational,” he adds.

Kirsten Craze Kirsten Craze is a freelance journalist who has been writing about property in Australia and overseas for more than 15 years.

PHOTOGRAPH: EVOCITIES

Property Biz

Today the Triggses are not only closer to work and the dream of living mortgage-free, they are connecting with the community.

“You actually get to know your neighbours,” Jason says. “In Sydney we’d been living in the last place for about five years and I couldn’t tell you the first names of the people on one side, and we’d only see the ones on the other side at Christmas. It’s completely different here.”

He admits that before heading west he, like many other Sydneysiders, had preconceived ideas about regional life.

“I thought I’d have to re-train and I was uncertain about what work I could do, but there’s actually no shortage of jobs here.”

Now working with a local start-up, Jason has seen firsthand that a regional area can provide better work opportunities than the overcrowded Sydney market.

“Being a smaller community, it’s actually easier to get stuff done. You can get involved

with key regional stakeholders in your field, or even get a meeting with the mayor,” he says.

Albury Mayor and Evocities chairman Kevin Mack is living proof of that regional reality.

“Anyone who wants to move to Albury will get a personal tour with the mayor,” he says enthusiastically.

The scheme is successfully educating people about life in regional NSW: “People in Sydney can be guilty of living in their own bubble.

They’re too busy doing what they’re doing and don’t see the forest for the trees.

“These are vibrant regional cities that have evolved to offer a lifestyle as good as, or better than, Sydney’s. I think regional living now far outstrips city living,” Mr Mack says, adding that other misconceptions about regional life are low earning potential and volatile property prices.

“If you do the numbers – add up the time and money you save in terms of transport, and the money you save on a mortgage – I’m sure that 

UR, QUISTIAE QUI AUT V I D U C I A Q U AT Q U I S S E D M O L U P TA S V O L U T U T U T A S D O L U P TA TEMPERCIANI IPSUNT ENT ET MAGNIS MAXIMI, SINULLA TENESTURIBUSDANDUNT

DEC 2018/JAN 2019

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PHOTOGRAPH: EVOCITIES

Property Biz

A BEAUTIFUL AND AFFORDABLE HOME IN DUBBO

in 10 years in a regional city you’ll have saved a lot more money, and get more return on your investment, than you would in Sydney,” he says.

Crunching the numbers

Cameron Kusher, senior analyst at CoreLogic, says that despite significant residential house price growth in regional NSW over the past five years (some Evocities locations have seen values rise by as much as 20 to 30 per cent), a cooling Sydney property market will spread elsewhere.

“A lot of what happens in regional NSW is dictated by what happens in Sydney,” he explains. “However, you haven’t had the deterioration in housing affordability in regional cities like you’ve had in Sydney – but now with tighter credit and fewer investors out there in the marketplace it will affect other parts of the state as well.

“I don’t think these markets will experience the same conditions Sydney is going through, the sort of falls that we’re seeing in Sydney.

But certainly I think there will be an impact on demand, and that’s going to, at the very least, slow down the rate of growth in those areas.”

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When new Tamworth resident Neil McLennan thinks about how long it would have taken him to buy his first property in Sydney he laughs awkwardly. “I would have been well into my late 40s before I could have even entertained the idea,” he says.

Last year the single 28-year-old bought a onebedroom apartment in Tamworth outright for $132,000.

As a community aged care worker, Neil’s salary did not permit him to buy anywhere near family or friends in Sydney. “Where I used to live in Roseville, a unit would have cost me about $800,000. Here a really good two-bedroom unit would be about $180,000,” he says.

“I was sick of fighting with traffic in Sydney, but for me the big motivator was being able to afford a place of my own. The job and the social life I knew would just come naturally after that.”

He adds that while it is often young families or retiring couples who tend to make a treechange, singles can have just as much success starting over. “I think it’s easier to fit in here because everyone is so laidback and approachable, and there’s so much going on,” he says.

Property Biz

Looking to the future

Growing regional cities are a natural way forward as Sydney’s population hits breaking point according to Geoff Brailey, a social demographer with McCrindle.

“Wages just aren’t keeping up with property prices, particularly in Sydney, so that challenge is impacting those trying to enter the housing market. People who are younger, with young families, or maybe in those pretty secure jobs around teaching and nursing, are looking towards rural, regional options,” he says.

In its 2015 Future of Sydney Report, McCrindle asked people what their five greatest challenges living in Sydney were. First it was the high cost of living, then the cost of housing, followed by traffic and commute times, then employment prospects and, finally, the overall stress of life.

“I think the misconception of life in regional areas being limiting is now worth challenging.

These towns offer a real quality of life. The time savings, the cost savings, the enhanced social capital: they’re the advantages regional areas have over urban areas, and yet they’re not disadvantaged in terms of a lot of the lifestyle and cultural aspects,” Geoff says. “And they’ve also got some of the most beautiful terrain in their backyards, so we really need to celebrate their stories.”

He adds that as the population of NSW continues to grow, urban areas and regional areas need to come closer together.

“For NSW there’s an opportunity to really think through that connection, which would involve accessible flights, train and road connections, as well as that digital infrastructure to make sure we’re able to live and work and play well together,” he says. “We need to ask ourselves: How do we help that synergy across a state where we have five million people living in Sydney, which is just a tiny geographical footprint of this beautiful and large state?”

Change in median house prices SYDNEY • Median house price $980,000 • Three years - 18.8% • Five years - 56.8% ALBURY • Median house price $330,000 • Three years - 8.2% • Five years - 17.9% ARMIDALE • Median house price (council - Armidale Dumaresq) $350,000 • Three years - 1.6% • Five years - 7.7% BATHURST • Median house price (council - Bathurst regional) $434,500 • Three years - 20.4% • Five years - 27.4% DUBBO • Median house price $362,000 • Three years - 9.7% • Five years - 30% ORANGE • Median house price $400,000 • Three years - 17.6% • Five years - 21.2% TAMWORTH • Median house price (council - regional) $350,000 • Three years - 12.1% • Five years - 25%

PHOTOGRAPH: EVOCITIES

“If you’re thinking about moving, get out there and visit the Evocities over a weekend and see what’s on offer – then hop online and see how much properties cost compared with what you’d have to settle for in Sydney.”

WAGGA WAGGA • Median house price $359,000 • Three years - 12.2% • Five years - 18.8%

DEC 2018/JAN 2019

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Puzzles

CROSSWORD

D O M D K N E I R O Q U N

H F R O T C I R T S N O C

E N O A F H I A O N P M T

A I R J T T D S D U A A I

D A P G O E K J K W S C V

S R N R R E P T I L E S E

S E Y P W O O D L A N D S

L X G R A S S L A N D S I

SOLUTIONS:

A R J O R G V T M E R F I

O E S B N E R M J W T L T D O M D K N E I R O Q U N

H F R O T C I R T S N O C

R S D A N E O A K A O A S E N O A F H I A O N P M T

A I R J T T D S D U A A I

D A P G O E K J K W S C V

S R N R R E P T I L E S E

S E Y P W O O D L A N D S

B T D O E C V L S K Q G I

A R J O R G V T M E R F I

L X G R A S S L A N D S I

N S M S G N I K R A M E D

O E S B N E R M J W T L T

AusBiz.

REPTILES TERRITORY TREES VENOM WOODLAND

Find all the words listed hidden in the grid of letters. They can be found in straight lines up, down, forwards, backwards or even diagonally. Theme: SNAKES

R S D A N E O A K A O A S

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DISTINCTIVE GRASSLANDS LENGTH MARKINGS PREDATOR RAINFORESTS

WORD SEARCH

B T D O E C V L S K Q G I

ANTIVENOM BROAD HEAD CAMOUFLAGE COMMON CONSTRICTOR DANGEROUS

DOWN 1. Unload (suitcase) 2. Italian sparkling wine 3. Rock-pool crustacean 4. Military student 5. Communicative 6. Heaven’s ... Gates 9. Movie performer 11. Segregates 13. Large antlered animal 15. Comedian, ... Murphy 16. Shouted 18. Actor, ... Pattinson 19. Rot 21. Nauseous 22. Settles (debt)

N S M S G N I K R A M E D

ACROSS 1. Normal 7. Fracture 8. Trattoria staple 10. Polar vessel 12. Collapse (4,4) 14. Command to dog 16. Period of time 17. Sport parachutist 20. Ability to govern 23. Golfer’s two under par 24. Grace 25. Resource