Sustainability

We at Kangarutha Farm are committed to making our business more sustainable, because we believe that this place is special.

This stunning property has been in Tom’s family since the early 1960s, when his grandparents purchased part of the property and established cattle and machinery businesses here. In the late 1970s, Tom’s parents took over the timber lease over the neighbouring property, then converted this lease to freehold land, and purchased the timber rights from the government.

By doing this, Tom’s parents saved all the forested areas on the property at Kangarutha Farm from being removed and turned into paddocks or housing. Since that time, Tom and Tom’s family has cared for and managed these native forests, which are now in pristine condition. They also established a flourishing native plant nursery on the property.

We believe that caring for the environment, growing plants, living and working within the landscape, growing our own food, and maintaining natural landscapes is an inherent part of our family’s story.

More recently, we have built our business on the back of this story. We have slowly built our business from the ground up, starting with a very small-scale camping offering, then adding native plants, and we have recently launched our event space.

Now that we have established these pillars to our business, looking ahead, we are more focused on looking at our business and our business practices in a more critical way. We are now aiming to have a greater focus on taking steps to increase our business’s sustainability.

Below we have listed a few things that we are doing. Aside from these things, a key priority for us to get solar panels for the business.

Waste

• Encourage our campers to dispose of waste responsibly, through separation of waste
• Provision of recycling and compost bins for our venue users

Promotion of nature-based low carbon activities

• Educating visitors about the bird life and other wildlife on the property
• Hosting guided bushwalks through the property at our events
• Promotion of bushwalks and bike tracks both on the property and surrounds

Resource use

• Use of water from a large dam on the property to grow plants, irrigate venue lawns, and avocado orchards
• Re-purposing of existing buildings and landscaping to create The Nursery event space
• Use of timber cut from planted eucalypts on the property for timber accents in The Nursery renovation
• Camper fridge provided, but left unplugged, only to be switched on when needed by campers
• Replacement of fluorescent lighting with LED lighting at the function space and camper amenities

Environmental stewardship

• Use of eco-friendly cleaning products
• Cool season burning of the forests on the property to reduce fuel load and regenerate forest landscapes since 1980
• Promotion of ‘leave no trace’ camping policy
• Designated firepits for campsites
• No unnecessary driving on the bush tracks within the property. Promotion of walking or riding on the bush tracks around the property
• Weed management on the property with non-chemical methods where feasible
• Maintenance of fire trails for cool season burning and wild fire mitigation, and recreation access

Community contributions

• Sponsorship of local school events
• Donations of native plants to local school plantings