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DECADE ago, twin brothers Brett and Mark McDonald had an idea for a flower farm.
They had inherited their father’s land, which was sandy scrub country in Miga Lake.
It was unfertile and difficult to farm.
What started as an idea has now turned into a 200-acre enterprise that exports flowers to Japan and Holland.
Brett McDonald said it all started a generation ago.
‘‘My grandfather, as a result of the First World War, got a soldier settlement block at Balmoral,’’ he said.
‘‘Because of the damage he received from war, he wasn’t able to maintain that block and the family had to move back to Edenhope, where his wife came from.
‘‘He had five boys and all the boys had a desire to get their own farm, because they had lost theirs through no fault of their father.
‘‘My dad started with nothing.
‘‘He completed schooling at Edenhope, went to Longerenong College, and then worked as a shearer until he could afford his own farm.
‘‘He bought a scrub block in Miga Lake for $2 an acre.’’
Mr McDonald said the land was sandy scrub that was not fertile.
‘‘Myself and my brother wanted to go into farming,’’ he said.
‘‘I went to Longerenong College and that’s where I had the idea of growing flowers as a more intensive way of farming sandy land.’’
The brothers started growing pine trees.
‘‘It took too long and it just was not worth it,’’ he said.
‘‘That’s when we had a serious look at flower farmers.’’
Mr McDonald said he saw an article in the Weekly Times about flower farming and started making some calls.
The brothers realised they needed to grow a different crop that no one else was growing.
‘‘To find alternatives, we contacted exporters and got in touch with the largest exporter of flowers, Wafex,’’ Mr McDonald said.
‘‘A man from the company came out and gave us some direction on what crops to grow.’’
That was 10 years ago.
The 200-acre farm is now at a stage where the brothers are working there full-time and have employed four other workers.
Gone are the days when they had to get shearing work to keep the farm going.
The farm primarily grows eucalyptus pleurocarpa, which is more commonly known as eucalyptus tetragona.
‘‘It’s a Mallee tree and grows mainly in the sand hills at the bottom of Western Australia, which is similar to the sand here,’’ Mr McDonald said.
‘‘No one has grown a decent amount of it, and the exporters were after some.’’
Mr McDonald said it was difficult to get established.
‘‘We didn’t know much at the start – it’s been a sharp learning curve,’’ he said.
‘‘We tried everything in a trial plot first.
‘‘Frost was our biggest probsand hills, the frost doesn’t cause as much of a problem.
‘‘When we first had the tetragona on the flat ground, frost burnt the tips off.
‘‘We also had problems trying to establish the seed – we had to grow the seedling ourselves, which we sourced from Western Australia.
‘‘It was frustrating sometimes – I used to get up at 6am to water the seedlings, shear all day, come home at night and water them again, just to watch them die.
‘‘But we stuck at it and now have confidence than what we’re doing is working.’’
The plant flowers in the summer and can be harvested year-round.
‘‘After it flowers, the petals fall off and there is a nut on the end of the branch, which has a white powder on it,’’ Mr McDonald said.
‘‘It’s popular in florists and is often used in weddings – I’ve used it in my daughters’ weddings.
‘‘The nut sits on the tree all year round so we can harvest whenever we want.
‘‘We usually harvest depending on orders.’’
Mr McDonald said now the crop was bigger and getting more volume, exporters were now sending it to Japan and Amsterdam.
The brothers also grow banksias.
‘‘When you have an idea like this, you don’t know what it is going to be like but it is satisfying work now,’’ Mr McDonald said.
‘‘We can’t look up any information, or get an consultant in – we have to work it all out ourselves.
‘‘The farm is proof that hard works pays off.’’
Victorian Governor Alex Chernov visited the farm in March as part of a tour of West Wimmera Shire.
Mr McDonald said it was an amazing experience.
‘‘We had a phone call a few months ago saying the shire considered us a place to have a look at,’’ he said.
‘‘It surprised me that we got chosen – we are only a 10-year project, but we are so different and they wanted to show diversity in the shire.
‘‘We were really pleased.’’
The tour took a while to coordinate because the visit was only for 30 minutes.
‘‘When I take people for tours – I often have women come here to pick flowers for their wedding – it takes two hours to get around the entire farm,’’ Mr McDonald said.
‘‘So we put flowers in buckets in the hanging shed and went through with the governor and talked about each flower.
‘‘He really enjoyed it and we sent him home with a big bunch.’’