144 hectares (~355 acres) of lantana, scrub and pasture – its our little spot of paradise! The closest we could get to that anyway…. Located in QLD about 1 hour north of the major regional city Toowoomba, and 25 minutes north of the small town of Crows Nest.

We purchased from John, who we met during pre-purchase inspections. He is gradually retiring and remains our neighbour having sold off a little under half his land to us. Its been running beef cattle for many years, and has been heavily worked/grazed.

The block is a real mixture – from the plateau up on top, it runs down both sides of the hill to ledges either side, then down to the valley near the entrance. Very varied in its terrain, its soil type, and in the type of trees and shrubs. The selling agent called it scrub and vine country. Likely many eucalypts originally, along with lots of hoop pines and probably Bunya pines too. Parts are fully cleared, parts have been cleared but with lots of regrowth, and a few areas are mostly untouched – a remnant stand of old hoop pines, along with some areas of almost rainforest butted up against cliffs.

Soil variations are frequent across the block, ranging from nice dark loam on basalt, to deep red basalt clay, to lighter loams, and poorer shallow sandier soils over sandstone rock base. This is overhead image of the place from QLD Globe, taken around the end of 2019. Yep, pretty brown, though it was also a drought!

The plan was to let the whole property rest for some months (ie. not put cattle in), to try and let the pasture recover, go to seed and spread and thicken up. Some areas are bare soil due to ploughing (sorghum went into those red basalt soils soon after), or due to recent stick raking to clear lantana and brush.

Whilst it is impossible to give an accurate complete impression in a few photos, because the place varies so much, here are some photos of it around the time of purchase in mid 2020, and then some from earlier in 2020 when it was green! (and before the sorghum was grazed).

As you can see, infrastructure on the place is limited – there is a very old shed, a very old house, multiple dams, a couple of wells, and a derelict set of cattle yards.