I'm 45 yrs old and originally come from Melbourne Australia and spent my early working life starting in shearing sheds and as a station hand on sheep,cattle and cropping properties.
I was always attracted to growing my own food and from the age of about the age of 13 I started growing vegies in the back yard and by the age of 15 I had progressed to chickens. By the time I was 26 I found myself on the North coast of NSW, unemployed and living in an apartment with no prospect of work and could hardly afford to feed myself. The kitchen overlooked a big backyard where the owner had a great big vegetable garden and I would watch them picking there own free food. From that moment I knew I had to get myself a place where I could grow my own food and never let myself get in this situation again. A few month later and I was lucky enough to be renting a small farm house growing vegies and catching fish in the river and then I saw a series about Bill Mollison on the TV and it was like all the lights went on, validating everything I had been thinking. That was in 1993. In 1995 I had the opertunity to buy my own place at South Grafton and planted a food forest in the backyard. 3 years later