Nice walk, if you’re a billy goat

Stunning view from the top of the Three Sisters

The latest in the Yea River Landcare Group’s Farm Walk series took us to the southern end of the King Parrot Valley between Strath Creek and Flowerdale to visit the property known as ‘The Three Sisters’. What ensued was less a farm ‘walk’ and more a farm ‘advanced 4WD course’.
Janet and Terry Hubbard purchased The Three Sisters in 1989. The property had suffered a long history of neglect. The country was marginal, steep, devoid of trees, overgrazed, badly eroded and heavily weed infested. Over the ensuing years the Hubbards’ passionate desire to protect and rejuvenate ‘The Three Sisters’, the timely aid of government grants and the enthusiastic help of the local Strath Creek Landcare group have seen much of the property’s erosion gullies, creeks, and hill country fenced off and revegetated.
Probably one of the Hubbards’ greatest achievements has been their contribution to the Strath Creek Biodiversity Project, through which they fenced off and planted out around 40 hectares (100 acres) of hill country. This – with plantings of adjoining properties – has created a wildlife corridor some three kilometres in length and, in places, 500 metres wide, linking the State forest to the environmentally important King Parrot Creek at the southern end of the property.
The ‘walk’ finished a top the Three Sisters. This was followed by a superb lunch at the homestead. A big thank you goes to Terry and Janet, for their time, the delicious lunch and an inspirational look at how an agricultural property can incorporate the principles of biodiversity and still work.

Photo and text by Ron Litjens