Thomas Kane (born 16/4/1920) AUDIO TRANSCRIPT AND AUDIO LINKS

In 1965 there was barely a tree on Ballie's farm.  The whole place was overtaken with rabbits from the 1950's especially, and this brought huge erosion problems.  Rushes and thistles were common.   A whole section of the land filled with water and slipped below the house paddock in the late 1950's.  From then on it was called the 'land slip' and covered an area about half the size of the footy oval.

When grandpa took over management of the farm in the early 1900's, he said there were only four trees on the whole property of 350 acres.  Erosion had become a huge issue especially in the 1950's with the surge in the rabbit population.  Paddocks were stripped bare and the winter rains washed the top soil to the ocean.  Massive creeks which could easily eat up a building appeared in every gully and it was obvious something had to be done. 

One day a fresh faced man visited the farm around 1964.  He introduced himself as “John Knudsen” from the Soil Conservation Authority.  He had a slightly flushed face and an English accent and as he pushed back the long blond hair from his eyes he began to outline a rescue plan to overcome erosion on the farm.  Ballie, my uncle was immediately in tune with him and eagerly listened to his proposal to fence off all the creeks, place cement blocks in the base of them and to plant thousands of native trees.  This was a pilot scheme and if it worked would then be implemented throughout the rest of Victoria.

Agreement was easily reached and it wasn't long before teams of men descended on the farm constructing fences and planting trees. Of course the hardest job was placing cement walls in the base of the creek.  The theory was that the silt would be trapped behind the wall and the creeks would fill up in time.  This was a very interesting time for me to see all the activity.  Work began in the summer when the creek was at its lowest level.  Corrugated iron chutes were constructed along the sides of the creeks to funnel the water run off from the paddocks and the next job was to block the creek and secure a firm base for the concrete wall.

After the Soil Conservation Authority completed their work in fencing off the creek and planting native vegetation, Ballie continued this work.  So much so that I was with him in the summer of 1965 when he dug out with some effort a path down the creek junction of  Kane's and Eveston's wide enough for the tractor to go down and over a few months constructed a block in the bottom of the creek.  This banked a great body of water behind it and immediately drew wildlife.  After that some of the banks of the creek fell in and instead of being washed away to the Wannon River, the soil remained behind the wall the raised the level of the creek.  So much so that within a number of years the creek filled up and was only half as deep as it had once been.

Ballie raised sheep very successfully until the mid 1960's when he switched to cattle and this provided a steady income.  During all of Ballie's lifetime money was tight.  From the mid 1960's he devoted the rest of his life to farming and conservation turning his property into 'land for wildlife'.   He put in dams around the property, fenced them in and lined them with trees.  The water was gravity fed to water troughs for the cattle.  He made corridors of trees and vegetation in many areas of the farm which brought wildlife such as birds to the native flowering trees, ducks on the dams and the effect was to warm the paddocks and aid with the wind the rain erosion.

The photos attached comparing 1965 to 2006 at this death are a testimony of his achievements.

JOHN AND JENNY SUMMARY REPORT HOW THEYCARRIED ON BALLIE'S WORK OF TRANSFORMING THE FARM

Sale of the farm- 25th Nov 2019

"G'day Siblings Do you want to hear some stunning news?? I've just sold the farm for a world record high price of $4,600 per acre!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The farm has been on the market unofficially for the past 3 years on the basis that only 2 agents had it, it wasn't to be advertised and not to send anyone to inspect the farm unless they were willing to accept a very high price tag. The original figure I wanted 3 years ago was $3k, then I increased it to $3.5 and because a lot of NSW buyers are keen to get some Western Victorian country...the price just kept going up over the past 6 months. In the end I put a figure of $4.6k per acre because there was a local family who were looking for a cattle farm in the district and I didn't really expect them to accept that high price. I also wanted to continue farming for another 2 years. Anyhow they loved the farm and the house and just this morning they organised their finance. I gotta go...still baling hay.....I will keep you informed. Rich Bitch Kane"