LIKE many farmers, Trevor Mills was so absorbed in the business of farming that he didn’t pay much attention to the natural world on his family’s dairy farm at Drouin, Victoria. Then he picked up a camera.
Watching through the lens, he became absorbed in the birds, animals and plants the farm hosted. He also became aware of the need to protect and support them.
That was in the 1980s, but the 122-hectare farm didn’t come fully under his management until the late 1990s. In the past 15-odd years, Mr Mills and his wife, Anne-Marie, have wrought a remarkable transformation on what was once an unremarkable farm.
He started with about three hectares of remnant bushland that he fenced off, using old posts and wire recovered from other fences.
The response to removal of stock was so fast, and so gratifying, that he kept finding more remnants to set aside. He started planting trees propagated from his own seed.
Financial support from Melbourne Water allowed him to fence off about two kilometres of creek frontage.
Looking back - and helped by his own pictures - he says that the work has made “a massive change” to the property. “It’s gone from an open, windswept place with trees being blown over all the time to having shelter all over it.”
Owl photographed by dairy farmer Trevor Mills on his property.
He no longer spends winters cleaning up fallen timber with a chainsaw because the extra vegetation has tempered the wind.
On timbered slopes that used to have problems with weeds, dense vegetation has shaded out most weed growth. And when a cow is having trouble calving, it’s no longer on a cold windswept expanse but in shelter, increasing her chances of survival.
Others have appreciated the Mills’ work. At last count, 90 species of bird had been seen on the farm.
Mr Mills has also taken the opportunity to make the place easier to manage, tearing up old barbed-wire fences in inappropriate places and replacing them with single-wire electric fence in patterns that support livestock and pasture management while protecting remnant vegetation.
By creating 50 paddocks managed on a rotational basis, he has improved stock carrying capacity by 50 per cent without any additional inputs.
“We’ve taken a lot of pride in the place over the years,” Mr Mills said.
