Tag Archives: design

Nine years of tree planting

13 Sunday Jun 2021

Posted by in ecology, events, regeneration, trees

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Yarnauwi, after the first year of planting, Winter 2013

Nine years ago, our community of friends and family stepped onto a soggy and windswept paddock and began their first year of tree-planting at Yarnauwi. Despite the disappointment of early failures, they’ve returned every winter since and in 2021 our friends returned again, taking the tally of trees and shrubs planted to almost 7800 since 2013.

After planting about 1000 trees a year for the first few years, we now have the luxury of reducing our plantings to a few hundred, filling in gaps and tweaking projects. This year, the focus was on developing a shelter and habitat belt around the front paddock and filling gaps in the emerging woodland of our “wilderness zones”. In honour of long-time friend-of-the-farm Anthony, currently constrained by lockdown interstate, we also planted several rows of Old Man Saltbush on contour through our silvopasture block.

Planting kicks off in 2021, looking in the same direction as the photo above.

Over the last nine years we’ve learnt a lot. With the right guards (corflute for humidity, mallee mesh for kangaroo protection) we’ve significantly increased the survival rate (from almost 0 to about 70-80%) without supplementary watering. Although we still have plenty to learn, we’ve learnt much more about reading soil and aspect, and matching the right plants to the right spots. After a subdued, Covidian planting last year, it was wonderful to welcome volunteers back to Yarnauwi and for the first time, there were moments when it felt like working in a woodland, rather than the open paddock of almost a decade ago.

We’re so grateful to our friends and family for their support and belief in the future. We look forward to seeing what the next nine years may bring.

Digging a spot for a new tree in the emerging woodland.
The 2021 Tree Crew

Bird prints and other new merchandise available

25 Monday May 2020

Posted by in art & craft

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We are pleased to announce that a new range of works inspired by Yarnauwi are now available from our Etsy shop.

Joel’s new lino print, “Common Birds of the Fleurieu Peninsula”, celebrates the diversity and beauty of species regularly seen around the Fleurieu and South Australia. Each bird is hand-carved and hand-printed. The 24 birds depicted are the Black-shouldered Kite, Stubble Quail, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, Australasian Pipit, Wedge-tailed Eagle, Nankeen Kestrel, Welcome Swallow, Little Raven, White-fronted Chat, Magpie-lark, Masked Lapwing, White-faced Heron, White-winged Triller, Australian Magpie, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Australian Wood Duck, Grey Teal, Common Bronzewing, Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo, Little Corella, Crimson Rosella, Pacific Black Duck, Galah, and Red-rumped Parrot.

Sophie’s new embroidery work “Welcome Swallow family” captures the joy and vibrancy of the swallow family which has taken up residence in the open bay of the Yarnauwi shed. They arrived in late winter, raised babies in mud nests, then took their babies for test flights around the shed before they fledged and left over the hotter months. By Autumn they were all back and even more full of joie de vivre. This work is hand embroidered on cotton fabric and includes a wooden hoop frame.

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Sophie’s other “Galah” embroidery celebrates the Eulophus roseicapillus which is such a fun and ever-present bird in Australian country areas. The flocks that visit Yarnauwi love to wander around our weediest paddock eating thistle seeds. Their vivid pinks and silver greys really lift the landscape at dry and dusty times of year. This piece is hand embroidered on cotton fabric and comes with a bamboo frame ready to hang.

Finally, Joel has made a range of new leather adventure pouches, for adults and children alike! There are three different designs all made from our Damara sheepskins, which were raised, grazed and tanned on the Fleurieu, and completed with recycled leather trim and buckles. They are ready to attach to a belt and are the perfect size for children to pack pocket knives, binoculars, notebook and pencil, a small drink bottle, snack, or whatever else they might need for explorations in the wild!

We had a lot of fun making these products. For more information, pricing, or purchasing, please visit https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/YarnauwiFarm

Yarnauwi Treefest 2019

10 Monday Jun 2019

Posted by in diy, ecology, regeneration, trees, waterways

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A serial tree-planter manages to synchronise his outfit with the colouring of Eucalyptus occidentalis.

A couple of days before this year’s tree planting, I rang our friend and regular tree-planter Jeremy, and told him that three out of four family members were sick with the flu and we were thinking of cancelling this year’s planting weekend. He didn’t accept that proposal, effectively telling us that tree planting would happen regardless of our involvement, that between his family and another they would take care of catering, rally the volunteers and get the trees in the ground.

It has always been an aspiration of ours that the farm might offer a place for people to be able to develop connection with the landscape through collaboration on land-based projects – “where people and the landscape can restore each other”. I hope that Jeremy’s response, and the support of our friends and community over the last seven years of tree-planting is an indication of this aspiration in development. In this spirit, this year we were also delighted to host regenerative side projects such as Steven Hoepfner’s seed ball regeneration experiment, and provide a waterway for Sue and David Speck’s sedges, and a forever home for Greg Wood’s trees.

Steven’s seed ball project: local provenance bundles of seed and nutrients distributed across revegetation zones to germinate when the conditions are right.

Continue reading →

Not ‘if’, but ‘when’: planning for fire

07 Monday Jan 2019

Posted by in ecology, planning, regeneration, trees

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Melted tree guard on a eucalyptus seedling.

A few evenings ago, someone set off fireworks on the road beside our property. Embers from the fireworks landed in the grass on the property boundary and quickly took, spreading through the dry summer grass along the fence and down a drainage line. Thankfully, our neighbours quickly noticed and set to work with their own fire unit while awaiting the arrival of the police and Country Fire Service. The blaze was contained with minimal damage, but it’s stimulated us to revisit our property plans and consider how we’re designing for the inevitability of fire.

Scorched earth and singed trees.

Continue reading →

Making a floating habitat island

12 Thursday Jul 2018

Posted by in ecology, propagation, regeneration, waterways

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The planted habitat island, ready to launch

Regular readers and supporters of our farm will be familiar with the challenges we’ve faced trying to re-establish native vegetation in the face of large populations of rampaging herbivores. Inspired by an idea from @nature_at_work_ (check them out on Instagram) and folks around the world working to increase urban and rural habitat, we thought we’d construct a floating habitat island.

Once installed in the dam, we hoped the island would function as a seed bank for aquatic plants, a fox-proof roost for waterbirds, and offer filtration through the plant roots as well as aquatic shelter and habitat.

During the summer, our friend Shani, assisted by a team of kids, got to work assembling a frame from some leftover PVC stormwater pipe to act as the float, with a length of shade cloth salvaged from our gully junk to act as a base onto which we could later plant local aquatic plants. The frame was tied to a rock anchor and then launched with great ceremony.

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The official launch of the habitat island (and anchor)

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Installation requires a great deal of precision and technical know-how.

In the following months, the island became popular with waterbirds of all types, with ducks often spotted perched on the floating edge, grebes diving underneath and the enclosed centre of the island becoming coated with feathers and bird manure. Continue reading →

Uses for sheepskins: prototyping seats and bags

25 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by in art & craft, diy, livestock

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Prototype Yarnauwi sheepskin tripod campstool and belt pouch, demonstrating their commitment to the late-summer Fleurieu colour palette.

As part of running meat sheep on Yarnauwi, we’ve always been committed to using as much of each beast as possible, including tanning their hides at a local tannery when the animals go to slaughter. While our farm-raised sheepskins are available for purchase online and through our occasional stall at the Second Valley Market, we’ve also been exploring options for how we can better utilise this tough and supple material.

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The tripod stool

Our first attempt is a take on a classic tripod campstool: a luxuriant Dorper lambskin seat on an Australian Oak tripod base (Eucalyptus obliqua, fittingly this grows on the hills just a short distance inland from Yarnauwi). It took a few goes to get the hardware right, we’ve now settled on high tensile steel fittings to withstand the most vigorous campfire sing-along.

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Next in the works was a Damara hide belt pouch for threading onto one’s belt for outdoor adventuring, an extra pocket for farmy stuff (cable ties, a bit of wire and a pair of pliers, for example; or perhaps a hoof-trimmer and a lump of ram crayon) or even just to garner some cred at the local branch of the Society for Creative Anachronism.

We’re continuing to refine concepts, and learning oodles about leather craft and design in the process. We’d welcome any suggestions or feedback you might have! We hope to be able to release some for purchase via our Etsy site and through markets in the coming months.

 

Yarnauwi: the First Five Years

07 Sunday Jan 2018

Posted by in art & craft, diy, ecology, events, history, regeneration, trees, waterways

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Towards the end of 2012 we first came to Yarnauwi Farm. The property at that time was a single paddock, carved up with junk-filled erosion gullies and with two regal, remnant red gums smeared up the hillside by the wind. However, set within a grand landscape of rolling hills and a couple of kilometres from the coast, there was something about it that captured our attention and our aspirations.

Five years later, the property is beginning to change. The survivors of annual tree planting are now heading skywards, most of the junk is gone, paddocks have been fenced, some erosion gullies are stabilising, sheep graze, fruit trees peek from the tops of tree guards and rain thunders on a shed roof. The last five years have brought with them an almost vertical learning curve, challenge, plenty of failures and the indescribable satisfaction of seeing seedlings become trees become woodland.

We’ve tried documenting this process online here at yarnauwi.com, but to celebrate this milestone we’ve also produced a limited edition book curating photos, illustrations and writings from the last five years.

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Yarnauwi: The First Five Years is divided into sections on the history of the property, trees and tree planting, creek restoration and erosion management, treasures extracted from the junk heaps, property planning, “obtaining a yield” and landscape change through the Fleurieu seasons. Each section is copiously illustrated with photographs and drawings and hopefully provides inspiration to others who are seeking to regenerate their own landscape or who have a connection with the spectacular landscape of the Fleurieu Coast. A number of sections contain “before-and-after” photographs of locations around the farm showing the impact of tree planting and low-tech erosion management strategies, predictably however, with a few decent summer downpours the changes were even more dramatic just a month or two after taking the final photographs!

It’s available for purchase now from our Etsy shop and we’ll also have a few copies available, together with sheepskins and farm- and Fleurieu-inspired artworks at the Second Valley Market from 10.00am-3.00pm on Saturday 27 January 2018.

Yarnauwi: The First Five Years
Softcover, 48 pages, full colour on premium satin paper.
Approximately 21.7cm x 28cm.

New poster: Imagining Yarnauwi before colonisation

13 Thursday Jul 2017

Posted by in art & craft, ecology, history, regeneration, trees, waterways

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Click to view a printable, A3 version of the poster.

Over the last few years, we’ve spent a great deal of time learning about the landscape of Yarnauwi, and the broader southwestern Fleurieu Peninsula. This has been essential for us in helping us to understand how the landscape works, and therefore how we can best work to ensure its health and function. We’re inspired by a statement from the 2015 Greenhorns New Farmer’s Almanac, where Connor Stedman writes, “Farms, forests, and grasslands can store and regenerate natural capital again, rebuilding the ecological fabric that is the ultimate source of our prosperity and survival. But to know how to undertake that stewardship, it’s not enough to know the land as it is now. We need to dig below the recent surface and go deeper – find the older ecological and cultural stories of a place. It’s the wildlands that hold these stories, and it’s these lands that will return them to us if we know where to look and how to listen. An agrarian economy needs to tend, restore and engage in a deep relationship with the wild as well as the planted field.”

In this spirit, in this poster we’ve tried to imagine and illustrate the landscape of Yarnauwi and the surrounding area as it may’ve appeared before colonisation. It summarises our reading and research, as well as our experiences exploring more intact local landscapes. It’s a work of imagination, it’s definitely not to scale, but we hope it helps communicate some of the complexity of a functioning landscape and the interactions of the Kaurna in maintaining its function and ecological health over millennia. Then, as now, the southwestern Fleurieu was a cultural landscape, maintained through intentional management practices. This poster is also an effort to acknowledge our own place in the long history of this landscape. Continue reading →

A tour, a shed-warming and four years of change on the farm

03 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by in building, events, planning

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Guests take a tour of one of the revegetation areas, inspecting the growth of four years of planting. Photo by Jeff Catchlove.

On a balmy autumn afternoon, we celebrated the new shed with sixty of Yarnauwi Farm’s friends and supporters. Following a tour of the farm, we settled into a shared dinner and drinks by the campfire.

To mark the occasion we also produced a self-guided tour map of important developments and points of interest on the property, hard copies of which were gifted to our guests to be stuck on fridges and toilet doors.

Yarnauwi Farm Self-Guided Map. (Click for a printable A3 version).

The changes that have occurred at Yarnauwi over the last four-and-a-half-years have only been possible through the encouragement, support and labour of our community of friends, neighbours and family. We hope that this celebration went some way towards expressing how grateful we are.

Continue reading →

“You’re just so far away”: A tale of a farm shed

19 Sunday Mar 2017

Posted by in building, diy

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The Yarnauwi skyline is changing: some is grown, some is constructed.

A ‘Grand Design’ it isn’t, but the Yarnauwi farm shed has seen enough delays to make even Kevin McCloud blush. After 14 months, our simple 4-bay equipment shed is finally done. Ordered in January 2016, with the shed company suggesting an initial completion date of June 2016, this modest structure was beset with delays ranging in scale from an apocalyptic winter through to urban tradies that couldn’t quite stomach the prospect of venturing beyond suburbia.

Done!

Continue reading →