Why did we choose where we did?

The Southern Highlands is renowned for its Anglo-Saxon heritage and outstanding lush rolling green countryside. It has been the outdoor playground of both the rich, and the poor, for well over 100 years. The Highlands are located an hours drive south from Sydney along the Hume Highway and has some excellent wineries, restaurants, crafters and artists that live in the area.

But the outward facade of the Highlands hides some problems.

For instance, property prices range from the sublime to the ridiculous. An acre or two with a house, in a reasonable area such as Bowral or Mittagong, will set you back well over $700,000. If you are keen on having a few acres and running a couple of sheep, try $1.1M for starters. And that's in a not-so-good area. There is no WAY anyone can make an income return on farming land with these sorts of prices being the "norm". Our family moved to the Highlands in December 2006 from Mudgee, where we had 830 acres and ran a mixed cattle/horse enterprise (about 100 breeders, up to 30 horses). Sadly, our arrival in the Highlands was not accompanied by a triumphal Handel trumpet concerto, but more resembled the sound of a whoopee cushion being slowly and painfully deflated.

The second problem associated with the Highlands relates to the last 100 years of that same Anglo-Saxon management. Or should I say mismanagement. Many places with prime red basalt soils and high rainfall, such as Robertson and Moss Vale, have a unenviable history of long and sustained pesticide and herbicide usage, particularly for heavily cropping vegetables such as potatoes. These chemicals, most notably hepachlor, have a long half life and bind well to soil. Understandably, anyone wanting to grow and farm produce organically in the Highlands faces an uphill battle against such odds.

It took well over 6 months of looking for us to find something suitable, within our price range, and most importantly, with water and irrigation rights and "pristine" pasture. Luckily we stumbled across 25 acres near Mittagong which met all our requirements and was just affordable. So we took a deep breath....and took the plunge.

Thirdly, although the Highlands seems to pride itself on its quality of service, I can confidently say that the average consumer receives half the quality of service, for 30% more of the price, for pretty much anything, ranging from your groceries at Woolies, to purchasing agricultural supplies, and everything in between. The sad thing is, that most of the residents are "Pitt Street Farmers" and have little or no concept of value for money in an agricultural setting. So they quite happily get out their chequebooks and pay a fortune for crappy agronomy advice, or badly cut fencing poles, or a bunch of sheep with OJD, and never think much about how this impacts on perhaps their less-well-off neighbours. This has a flow-on effect and reduces the quality of competition and improvement of services in the Highlands.

The positive aspects of living here are the amazingly English-like countryside and climate, its convenience to Sydney, and its very active social setting. If you like quietness and solitude, the Highlands is not the place for you.