In the hills east of Canberra, down a dusty lane that winds up past the Lake George escarpment through Yellow Box Woodland (full of finches, thornbills, cuckoo- shrikes, kookaburras and robins), there is a rusty old gate with a stencilled sign that says ‘Millpost’.
Millpost was windswept and degraded when David first arrived in 1979. Since then, we’ve planted or direct-seeded approximately 15 kilometres of native windbreaks using eucalyptus, acacia, bursaria, callistemon and casuarinas.
Sheep are excluded from about 100 hectares, including riparian zones, to allow natural regeneration. Stock and wildlife alike benefit from shade and shelter in every paddock. Big increases in bird populations (135 species) mean improved natural pest control. But it’s not all good news: the resulting increase in kangaroo numbers threatens our viability.