Majura Valley farmers Anne McGrath and Paul Keir have waited almost 20 years to get their leases renewed by the ACT Government and feel the security of being able to plan ahead and develop their properties.
They talk about their love for the valley and their hopes for the future.
They talk about their love for the valley and their hopes for the future.
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00:00 So me, I've been on this block here for 25 years, but my family's been in the valley
00:09 since 1956.
00:10 So I suppose to me, for me personally, it's home and it's, you know, our roots were set
00:20 here as a family of four or five generations.
00:25 And you know, it still means a lot to me.
00:28 What about you, Anne?
00:30 Yeah, so I'm Anne McGraw and my family and I have a major house and it's very important
00:38 to us.
00:39 I'm from a farming background and farming's in my blood and protecting the land is very
00:45 important.
00:46 Looking after the water systems and the soil and planting, just like you look around Paul's
00:52 beautiful property here.
00:53 We go out and plant trees at our own expense and thousands of them whenever we can.
01:02 We're also about educating the community about rural living and rural land, being able to
01:10 grow food, provide food and just having that green space also so close to a growing city
01:19 is really important for us.
01:22 And to enable us to keep doing that, we actually have to have a business right in front of
01:27 farm.
01:28 And to keep running a business, it's really important that we have secure tenure because
01:33 we, our financial lenders are getting a little bit antsy with the situation.
01:41 And they know that when everything comes true and good with the leases, then we'll be able
01:46 to grow exponentially and benefit Canberrans and interstate people as it is.
01:54 Just this week, my son Fred prepared for the sunflower maze.
01:59 Last year, we attracted thousands and thousands of people to Canberra from the region and
02:05 from Sydney and Melbourne and other places.
02:07 We had constant Instagram, social media stuff, telephone calls and at our expense.
02:15 Because we want people to have an experience like this on the land, but we need to have
02:21 been able to say, yeah, we're going to be here in 25 years time or more.
02:26 That as well.
02:27 I enjoy that, you know, people coming to the farm and, you know, getting their hands dirty.
02:33 And there's an endless amount of people that are interested in that too.
02:38 So for me, it's a sharing situation.
02:41 And we've proved that with some of the things we've done over the years.
02:44 Annie's a classic example.
02:47 Whenever she does anything on her farm, the amount of people that come and enjoy it and
02:52 experience it, have the experience, the farming experience is fantastic.
02:56 You know, it's just, it's really good to be on a farm like that, you know, and to be,
03:03 still be a farmer, I suppose.
03:06 It's still a good life.
03:07 All the Majora Valley people and community and the Landcare Group and all the other people
03:14 that help, health workers and everything.
03:16 When we put on the Heritage Festival, I still watch that video that my son and his mate
03:22 did.
03:23 And just that whole weekend was amazing.
03:26 And we'd like to do that sort of thing again in the Valley.
03:29 But we need to have, again, the security to be able to fund that and to put it on, you
03:35 know, and to say, okay, we can set aside this amount of land and that amount of land for
03:40 car parking and everything.
03:41 Because we attracted almost 10,000 people in the day.
03:46 That was my business plan.
03:47 You know, my business plan was to, you know, run a beautiful farm and share it with people.
03:53 You know, because I don't know, I grew up in a riding school as a kid and I watched,
03:57 you know, the smiles on kids' faces when they hopped on horses and it took them for a ride.
04:03 We've got the mountains here right behind us with great horse facilities.
04:07 I mean, for me, it was, I mean, it was just, we were just waiting to do our dream, I suppose.
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