Riverlee Farm is a modest farming plot of some 90 hectares near Esperence, in Western Australia. It has been owned by Dorothy and Robert since 2005. Many years of European-style farming, plus the usual South West WA environmental challenges – wind, salt, water – have left the creek lines and catchment areas degraded and bare. Dorothy and Robert have been working hard over the past few years to stablise the soil and create a sustainable, wildlife-friendly working family farm. As any good landcarer knows, one of the best ways to improve soil structure, lower salinity, provide habitat and rehabilitate catchment areas is to plant trees.
Robert at Riverlee Farm, WA
Dorothy and Robert have planted many trees on their property already, but to really make a difference to the land, habitat needs to be created en masse. This winter 300 seedlings went in the ground. This number wouldn’t have been possible with assistance from Fifteen Trees and the sponsor who paid for the trees in the first place – in this case Angus & Celeste.
Angus & Celeste, long-term collaborators with Fifteen Trees, are passionate about creating sustainable environmental change, and raising awareness of our unique southern landscape. They do this creatively, through their popular and beautiful ceramic homewares; and practically, through support of programs like Fifteen Trees that allow them to balance inevitable business activity impact with their sustainable ethos.
The couple behind Angus & Celeste.
Riverlee Farm is now home to hundreds of new, locally sourced Western Australian Peppermint Gums, Salmon Gums, Hakeas and a several different varieties of Mallees. The seedlings will be nursed carefully through their first summer. With a good start, they will grow to provide a beautiful home for wildlife, as well as clean water and productive soil for the cattle, stockhorses and humans who call this part of the world home. And, of course, we will all reap the broader benefits of a property that genuinely walks the Land for Wildlife talk – cleaner air, happier fauna, and a landscape we can enjoy for hundreds of years to come.
Article by Sarah Hart.
Sarah is an artist whose passions include the stories and experiences of women and narrative driven creative work. Her aim is to delight, to reveal glimpses of everyday beauty, and to celebrate flights of the ordinary. Sarah works across a range of media, with an abiding interest in pen and ink, mixed media and the human form.
According to Sustainability Victoria, the average Australian lifestyle produces 15,000kg of carbon per year. If that sounds like a lot, it is! Over its lifetime, a tree can collect and store 268kg. This means, we each need to plant 58 trees per year to bring our individual carbon production down to zero. A little tricky for most of us to do in our own backyards, and this is where ‘A Subscription for the Planet’ comes in. (Feature image from Mt Worth Landcare).
Individual actions really do matter! Individually we can really only make small differences to the world around us, but collectively our numbers add up. And if enough individuals are involved then forests can be grown!
