Growing up in the Northern Beaches of Sydney is a far cry from the regional Mid North Coast town of Bobin, but for Emily Little, it's her slice of heaven.
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When she and husband, Simon bought the 111 acres (45 hectares) of vacant land in November 2016, they got started on their dream to become farmers.
They knew they were in for a steep learning curve, with neither having any prior experience, but they were determined to work it out by educating themselves and taking things slowly.
When the Rumba Dump fire ripped through Bobin in early November 2019, their land and all their possessions were destroyed. They lost everything except for their dogs and their 30 head of sheep.
Despite their loss, Emily is determined to find the positives and get to work on regenerating the land.
"We were getting ready to build our house, but thankfully we hadn't started it yet," Emily explained. "Our market gardens were due to go in at the end of January."
Their steadfast method seemed to have worked in their favour, with the pair now being able to reevaluate the layout of their land, observing how the fire burnt through it and which areas were worst affected.
Now it's all about how to regenerate; what to plant where and how to set up the paddocks for their commercial venture. Their passion is around food sovereignty and the environment, which has lead them to regenerative agriculture, growing better and not necessarily bigger.
Their plan is to divide their 70 acres of grazing land into eight or so paddocks to enable them to rotate the livestock frequently.
"It's about trying to mimic nature as much as possible. Herd animals naturally move from one gazing area to another," Emily explained.
"A small biodiversity farm means no need for chemical spraying of the animals. They aren't left to graze too long in the same area."
The other trick is to get the soil rebalanced and enhancing its ecosystem, something they had been working on pre-fire.
"When we bought the land it was unbalanced and worn out," Emily said.
Over the past few years, they'd been rejuvenating the top soil but the fire has pretty much brought them back to square one, with the damage leaching down below the surface.
But Emily is determined to keep going, with clear plans for getting their commercial venture back on track, although water management has become a little higher on the priority list.
Thanks to the help of a gofundme page, set up by Emily's mother, the first part of the $25,000 raised will go toward water storage and fencing.
Being a relatively young farmer, at 27-years-old, Emily has become part of the Young Farmers Connect (YFC) group, which unites new farmers.
YFC a national not-for-profit organisation designed to cultivate networks, resources and community for young farmers across the country. The network provides educational platforms and community connections that encourage farming for the future, by supporting the use of regenerative, holistic and sustainable agricultural practices.
Basically, it's peer support that facilitates opportunities, land sharing, collaboration, education, mentorship and industry support to new, young and aspiring farmers throughout Australia.
And it's something Emily is passionate about. She has a vision of being able to grow an animal for meat and sell it directly to the consumer, a paddock to home concept. So, people can choose to buy meat knowing where it came from and how it was raised.
"I used to be a staunch vegan and now I grow meat sheep," she smiled.
Ramping up for commercial productivity for their planned two acres market garden and rotational grazing paddocks is now the main focus for the couple. Their plans to build a strawbale cottage is underway with construction due to start in February and their new dams are in progress.
