Creating Friendships & Genuine Connections

By The WWOOF Office, W-Tree, Vic.

Tracey has established her own piece of paradise in Mapleton in the Sunshine Coast hinterland while working full-time in mental health services. She purchased 151/2 acres in 2006, relocated a Queenslander that required a lot of renovation, planted roses and olives and rescued some animals along the way.

Tracey planted her pad - dock-grown roses five years ago, which has allowed her to give joy to her clients by presenting them with fresh cut roses. This has now expanded to around 800 rose bushes of varied varieties. While these have mainly been grown as cut flowers for local floral artists, Tracey also cuts her roses for the dried petals to be used in bath salts which she makes and has recently held a successful floristry workshop on the farm and has further plans of working with flower essences.

Tracey has planted 55 olive trees on the farm and harvests and pickles the fruit. She is also spending time tending to her three rescue thoroughbreds, rescued chickens and dogs. More recently another old Queenslander has been relocated to the farm and meticulously restored by Tracey, this is now offered as a B & B. Her values align her to regeneration and restoring her natural world (she has planted around 100 koala trees across the property), quality vegetarian food and wholefoods and sharing kindness.

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Last year a friend told Tracey about WWOOF. Now Tracey is enjoying the opportunity to work alongside others and share skills. Skill sharing is a two-way street, with WWOOFers passing on fencing and technology skills and Tracey sharing her love of animals, her farm, lifestyle and cooking on to her WWOOFers.

Tracey loves her farm and WWOOFing has enabled her to share her piece of paradise with some lovely French WWOOFers, some of whom have returned for further stays. She enjoys keeping in touch with her WWOOFers after their stay and has even had the parents of one her WWOOFers visit too.

WWOOFers can expect to do weeding, gardening and harvesting during the morning with trips to the beaches or through the hinterland in the afternoon. WWOOFers can expect kindness and a warm welcome, comfortable accommodation and good quality organic food. Some WWOOFers have painted name plates for the roses, leaving a tangible reminder of their contribution.

In exchange Tracey provides barbeques and firepits under the stars, movie nights, conversations, laughter and trips through the hinterland and to the beaches of the Sunshine Coast.

If you would like to share your property with WWOOFers, or take the opportunity to volunteer with our Hosts all over Australia please go to our website: www.wwoof. com.au. T