Fourth-generation Pymble family Sisters Alice and Sophie are the latest in a succession of Pymble girls descended from Forbes grazier John Francis Hammond and his wife Jennie, whose daughter Katie began the family’s Pymble journey in 1934.
Alice Beveridge, Year 8, is a Boarder in
Pork farms are measured by the number
Marden House and will be joined by her
of sows onsite and with 2,000 sows,
sister Sophie when she begins Year 7 in
the Beveridges own a “medium to large”
2022. Both girls follow in the footsteps
operation – 25,000 pigs in all.
of their mother Edwina (Walker, 1993) and grandmother Jean (Low, 1962),
“Each sow – they’re quite phenomenal –
who were sporty country girls who
can produce two litters a year and they
loved their years at Pymble.
can average about 11 piglets that we wean,” Edwina says.
“We have a pig farm where all our pigs live in big sheds, and we also have sheep
Blantyre is dedicated to sustainable
and cattle and crops,” says Alice, who has farming. It was the first farm in Australia to have a registered project under the boarded at the College since 2020. government’s Carbon Farming Initiative The Beveridges live just outside Young
program – and Edwina believes theirs
in the south-west slopes region of New
was the first carbon farm in Australia.
South Wales, a four-hour drive from Sydney. Edwina graduated from Pymble
“All the pigs’ manure goes into a great
in 1993 and studied as a Chartered
big dam and we put a cover over the
Accountant before commencing her
top of it – it looks a bit like a jumping
career in pork production and having a
castle. This catches the gas and we make
family. She is now Director of Blantyre
electricity from the methane gas that the
Farms and Elected Producer Director of
pig manure produces. So we’re actually
the Australian Pork Limited Board.
running our farm on renewable energy produced from our pig poo,” she says.
