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Field Tours

1. EMS in Agriculture: Highlights of Bridgetown

(a) Tour Leader: Kathe Purvis

8:30am - Depart Sanctuary Golf Resort

10:00am - Tortoiseshell Farm, Eco-Tourism and Wildlife Conservation

Sheila Howat and Sean Grant have spent 30 years building their 40ha Bridgetown property from undeveloped land into a thriving environment, including bed and breakfast accommodation, bush retreat and a hobby farm. Tortoiseshell Farm is also a refuge for a wide variety of orphaned or injured native birds and animals in need of care and rehabilitation. It is one of many BestFarms EMS properties in the area.

11:00am - Drover’s Rest Enterprises, Organic Commercial Berry Farm

This enterprise supplies Western Australia with organic frozen berries and sells certified organic, award winning, fruit snacks (KidSnaK), Australia wide. All products are manufactured in their dedicated certified organic factory on the farm using produce from local organic growers plus their own. Drover's rest runs a BestFarms EMS.

1:00pm - Dalgarup Brook Aquaculture, Marron Farm and Hand Built Fish Ladder

This 40ha property includes 3.5ha of ponds and dams for aquaculture. The owner (Albert Klaasson) plans to improve the water quality of the Dalgarup Brook by converting some of the nutrients into food for his marron and extracting the rest through a series of wetlands and
bio-filters before the water leaves his property. He is creating a fish ladder to help the aquatic fauna and has a waterwheel that will generate up to 30kW of power to pump the water around the aquaculture ponds.

2:00pm - Jenkins Agroforestry. Commercial Tree and Sheep Farm

David and Dianne began planting eucalypts 20 years ago in a farm forestry layout designed to maintain their sheep grazing enterprise. Learn how their successful and profitable tree farming venture has helped reduce the saline water table.

3:30pm - Arrive Sanctuary Golf Resort

2. EMS in Industry: Discover Greenbushes

(b) Tour Leader: Mick Quartermaine

8.30am - Depart Sanctuary Golf Resort

9:30am - Yarri Springs, Organic Permaculture and Bamboo Production

A small holding developed using Permaculture principles, producing organic fruit, nuts and bamboo for sale.

10:45am - Greenbushes Discovery Centre

Interactive displays and games for visitors to explore the town’s mining and milling history from 1888 to the present day. Learn about forest ecology, bush tucker and the sustainable forest and plantation industries. Descend into the replica underground mine, get a birdseye view of the mine from the lookouts and take a short walk on the Mining Heritage Walk Trail.

12:30pm - Talison’s Mine Greenbushes (ISO14001)

Explore the world class Greenbushes Mine, which produces tantalum, lithium and tin and contains the oldest mineral leases issued in Western Australia (1888). The tour includes an opportunity to see industry recycling and waste management strategies, revegetation areas and current mining and processing operations. The mine received WA’s highest environmental award for industry in 2007 for its mine site rehabilitation programs and community partnerships to develop a series of walk trails through former mining areas and forest.

3:15pm - Bonking Frog Wines

With petulant skins prone to splitting, unreliable fruit set, a tendency to sunburn yet a dislike of too much shade, merlot probably does deserve its reputation for being difficult to grow. But in 1996 Julie & Phil Hutton of Bonking Frog Wines planted 3,500 Schwartzman rootstock vines and grafted merlot a year later. BFW is in the heart of the Geographe Wine Region, ideally placed along the Preston River and within range of sweeping coastal breezes.

Bonking Frogs Wines use BestFarms Environmental Management Systems to monitor the soil, water, biodiversity and climate.

4:30pm - Arrive Sanctuary Golf Resort

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