Latest / Salt of the Earth / Ep 131: Amee and the Alpacas

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Ep 131: Amee and the Alpacas · Salt of the Earth

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Salt of the Earth.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Twelve months after our first visit, we're heading back to Quentin Park Alpacas and Studio Gallery in Peterborough, South Australia.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Amy and daughter Emma have been busy.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: But what really stands out about Amy is her values.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: They align closely with what Salt of the Earth is all about.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Connecting to rural communities, helping people understand where things come from, and showing us just how much we can learn from the people who live and work the land.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: As Amy says, those regional communities are really like the foundation of the whole country.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have the city without the country, you don't have the country without the city, everything is connected.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: She's putting those words into action, bringing people to the country, sharing her knowledge, and even taking her message overseas to women's groups in Indonesia.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And there's plenty happening around Quentin Park, with around 70 alpacas, a growing range of products, a cafe, a gallery, and three types of accommodation.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: We chat about alpacas, agritourism, growing a business and the dreams of driving it all.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Amy's got plenty of energy, plenty of ideas, and a real passion for connecting people to country.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is Amy at Quentin Park Alpacas and Studio Gallery.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Amy, good to see you again.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: I know.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Twelve months on, here we are.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: It is, it's good to see you again.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And Amy, for those who didn't listen to our first conversation about 12 months ago, episode 72, please briefly explain Quentin Park, Alpacas and Studio Gallery.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: In how many words?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: So we are a diversified farm and agritourism business.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: We have a whole bunch of alpacas and you know, gardens and things.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: So what we're kind of all about is we raise fiber to make products and have those available in our farm shop, but it's also about bringing people back to the country, back to the farm, you know, understanding where stuff comes from and meeting some really cool animals at the same time.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: We'll delve into that a little bit heavier shortly.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Amy, I'm looking around here today, so 12 months on, and I think you've done most of the things you said you would do, and a little bit more.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's things like I want to explore lavender, I wanted to do the veggie garden, I want to extend the gallery.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: But then there's tiny homes.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Well done.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Amy, one of the things this podcast is really about is connecting people to rural communities.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you talk about that too in your first episode, and you're big on it.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: What does connecting people to country mean to you?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many kind of parts to that, but we need regional communities, we need farmers, we need all of those dots to connect, you know, everything that you that you have, that you touch, that you eat, that you wear, you know, at its origin point, there was a farmer involved.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I think sometimes we lose that a little bit.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really about connecting people back to that roots and where things come from and some of the simplicity, but I don't want to make simplicity sound like it's not complex.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there are so many layers that need to be understood and so many things happening.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I think sometimes we lose a little bit of sight about how things can actually kind of work, how they how they come together, and those you know, regional communities are really like the foundation of the whole country.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have the city without the country, you don't have the country without the city, everything is connected, and um, and I think there is a lot of not necessarily work that needs to get done, but just I don't know, awareness and understanding and conversation about you know how those worlds need each other and connect and what can be learnt from each.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because I've been big on to you know, giving those people in the cities the opportunity to respect our rural communities.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't blame them for not understanding because and what you and I are doing, we're giving them the chance to understand and and the chance to have that appreciation.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think this is important.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: It is, and look, I think and I think it's something that technology, like yours in particular, has made easier, but we haven't been good at telling the stories.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we haven't been good at talking about what we do and and doing that in a really positive way.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: And quite often what people in cities potentially hear about is when we're at the other end of something, when we are at the, you know, the bad end of drought, when we are at flooding, when we are at disasters, when we are at price crashes, when we are at, you know, like all of these kinds of things, you know, like the media attention that regional communities get is when things are really bad, really bad, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of stuff in the in the middle there, or or talking about how it is good and you know, like what does come out of those regional areas.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I think one of the other things that we're not so great about talking about is where some of the the skills and ideas and you know come from as well.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: You don't you don't have to have a central metro address to be able to have a good idea or do some really cool stuff, you know, like there are some really amazing businesses and products and experiences and all of those things that happen in regional areas, but we're not as good at talking about the really cool stuff.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well said.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, what do you think it's important that everyone knows where our food and fibre comes from?
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: I think everybody needs to have um that kind of foundation and and understanding.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: And like I just I think there's so much of that that has been lost, you know, the appreciation in the work that went in to put the meal on the table, or the, you know, like the thing that was behind what you're wearing, or the the jumper that grandma knitted you, and that was wool she grew herself and then spun and then knitted.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: I think we've lost, there's so much of that connection that is lost, and so much that is taken for granted.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: I think that there, you know, there's there's so much talk, particularly in cities, around sustainability and their check boxes.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but there's so much that can be learnt from farmers and regional communities where they've been working sustainably for generations, or they wouldn't still be there.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: And that is not necessarily being communicated well, or they don't kind of tend to cross over.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it is really important that there is that kind of respect and understanding and appreciation of what actually went into that.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: We had a school group come out here one time and they their whole focus was around where things come from.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like that was their module in grade three that they were doing.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: And we feltered fiber pouches, like little alpaca wool pouches, treasure pouches.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: And at the end of it, I went, okay, so how long did it take us to make our pouch?
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: And the kids are looking at their clocks and going, oh, you know, about 30 minutes, and it was really hard work.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, okay, that's how long it took you to do this part of it.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: But how long has it taken us to get the treasure pouch?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: So let's, you know, we talked about the fact that to have an alpaca, you need to have land, you need to have feed, you need to have water, you need to have infrastructure.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: They're pregnant for a year.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: So you can't have a baby until they're three years old, then they're pregnant for a year, and then it's another year before you get the first fleece from them that you can then card and turn into your treasure pouch.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: And we worked out it was something like probably seven years.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's taken us to get from having a piece of land that's growing feed that you've got infrastructure on, to producing the fiber to then make the pouch.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I had some of the teachers go, oh my God, I've never actually thought about it like that.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's not even about picking the lettuce out of the garden for lunch, but it's about what's the process that happened before that.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: And there's so much disconnect between what it is, that instant gratification, and then how that's actually made and produced and got to that point and the the hands that have touched that, and you know, the labour and the love and everything else that's been involved in to get that thing on that plate for you today.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's well said.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: I see you out there with your how many alpacas?
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: 70 or something?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, 70 ish now.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then the process that goes through to get the fibre, yeah, and then it's got to be cleaned and woven.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'll use the wrong words here, but um filtered and then put into these amazing products that you've got here in the gallery.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I just want to talk a little bit now about agritourism.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: What is agritourism?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: Agritourism really is about bringing people to agriculture.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Essentially, it's about education and and showing.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like for for us, it it's about that hands-on, it's about being involved, it's about all of the senses being engaged.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: So for us, it's about the opportunity for people to come into agritourism, learn something about it, be part of, be part of that, and really get it.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it can be just about business, other times it's about education, but it's kind of really about finding the balance in the in the middle somewhere.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you want the tourism to support the agriculture and you want the agriculture to support the tourism.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah, for us, it's about opening our home and inviting people in and showing them what happens every day, and it's not polished and it's not perfect, and stuff happens.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, when you come in, we could be having a good day.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: When you come in, we could not be having a good day.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, you could be helping roll out hay, you could be watching a baby be born, you could be, you know, like there's all of those things that kind of happen in the middle.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: So for us, it's actually really important for it to not be polished, but it is actually, we are real farmers, and this is real life, and we are you know are in a real situation, in a real scenario, and there's real things happening today, and it's about showing people that and getting them to be part of that, and then going away champions about you know, knowing where things potentially come from, or having a bit more of an idea about it, or just kind of having this moment of like, oh my god, I never thought about it that way.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: And even if they only do it once, that's great.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: But if they continue to do that, then that's even even better, you know, for us that they continue to kind of think about it.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: And that's all we want.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it can have that flow-in effect then.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like those kids might take that little message, what they learn at Amy's, to school or to their parents or Auntie and Uncle.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And like I learned, I've learned stacks here so far already.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: So that's fantastic.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: What are some of the rewards of opening your property to visitors?
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: For so much of it is the connection, you know, and I think we're in quite a unique situation where you know we had this business in another state, and then we closed it up and bought it here.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: And when we had moments about whether we did want to do it again, do we want to deal with people again?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: Do we want them on the farm again?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: Do we want, you know, is that really where we want to go?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: They seem to be the moments where we got the message or the phone call or the and it was uh we came to your farm in New South Wales, we're still on your mailing list.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: We love getting your newsletter every, like whenever you remember to do it.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we're passing through essay.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: Is there any chance we can just come and say hi?
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_03: Beautiful.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: And you're like, okay, okay.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: And we had, you know, last school holidays, we had a family come in and the kids came running down, gave me a great big hug, and like, Amy, and I'm going, you've obviously been here before.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: Hi.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and their first question was, Where's Benjamin Bow?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, do you still have Dolly?
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, right, when we when did we last see you guys?
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: And like, I don't know, two years ago in New South Wales.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, okay, so how big was Dolly the last time you saw her?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I was explaining it.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, right, well, yes, we still have Dolly, but she's a big girl now.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: And another couple that came in.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Dolly's the pet pig.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: Dolly's the pig.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, like another couple walked in and just had a picture.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: She had a picture of her phone of herself and like a selfie with one of the alpacas called Tamon.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: And she's like, Look, we were passing through.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: I remembered that you were here.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: We've kind of changed our route a little bit to come.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: Do you still have what's the name of this one again?
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: We went, that's Tamon.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: Come on, let's go and see him.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so you know, like if we can, I just, yeah, if we can create that level of connection for somebody that they remember the name of that animal that they connected with and one of the stories that we told.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, if we can do that for someone, then we're doing the right thing, you know.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: So it was whenever we've kind of had a moment where we've faltered a little bit, it is when one of those people walks in the door.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: Or, you know, like you today, and you just stood here and gone, holy crap, like none of this was here when we were here last time and you were talking about it.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: And and like it, it's nice for us at that point too, because we can take a moment.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: We are only ever seeing the to-do list, we're only ever seeing the things that aren't done, you know.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: And it's nice when, you know, like you walk in and go, oh my god, that we go, you know what?
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, like damn it, at some point we've done okay.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: And if we've got people that keep coming back and keep having those conversations and are that connected with our story and our animals and the property, and then hopefully they take all of those things.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's something that they take with them into the other parts of their worlds.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, in saying that, we met some really nice people up at MARI at Lake Air, two awesome couples, and we were telling them about you, and they've called in this morning.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: They did, they came in this morning.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: We're like, you know, where are you guys from?
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: What are you up to?
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then one of the questions we always ask is, How did you find out about us?
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like we need to know which of the marketing actually works.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and they said, Oh, we were talking to Darren Grigg.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: We're like, Oh, he's coming by this afternoon.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, we know.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: We've kind of like stalked each other for the last, you know, number of hundreds of kilometers.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know, and that's exactly what it's about.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: Those guys are going their separate ways today.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: They'll be sitting in two different sets of campsites in some other places this afternoon, and they'll be having that conversation with somebody who says that they're coming this way.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that's you know, that's how it really works.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: You do that education so well, Amy.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: What's the most common thing people learn here that genuinely surprises them?
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: That genuinely surprises them.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, probably the alpaca's wee and poo in one spot, that tends to be quite a surprise.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm not really sure.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody kind of ends up with a different kind of surprise.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, probably our fun facts, you know, like just our random alpaca facts, and people go like really?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Have you got a few fun facts you can spin off for me right now?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: Oh um, yes, so 16 standard colours, we and Pooh all in one spot, no top teeth, like big bunches in the back, but hard palette at the top, so they um lip that wiggles, uh pregnant for a year, can control their pregnancies, both ends.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's kind of cool.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um you gave me some really fun facts about their sexual experiences.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, you know, I was gonna say, and their penises go backwards, but you know there's a few fun facts in there.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: And Amy, you're here with your daughter Emma now, and she's here full time.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: She is.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, actually, here's Emma Nia.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna quickly pop a microphone on Emma for a couple of uh questions.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, Emma, how are you?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_03: I'm good, how are you?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: What have you been up to today?
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_03: Feeding animals, taking care of um new animals that we've just gotten, fixing water pipes, cooking food, yeah, cooking food, making sure I'm trying to make product, but every time I try to go do that, people rock up.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's that's awesome.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: And some of the food you made was for us, and it was delicious.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_03: It was it was pretty great.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: I got to eat mine cold, but it was really I had the palmy jaffel, sensational, so thank you very much.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and while we're sitting here too, there were various people and family groups walking in and having looks through the gallery, and there's lots of products they could buy or have a nice coffee or a meal, and that was pretty special.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_03: It was, it was really good.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Emma, can you list off maybe 15 or 20 names of your alpacas?
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_03: Do you want boys or girls or a mixture?
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: I just want the colourful names.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, we'll do Manrico, Teddy, Whiskey, Bourbon, Marcel, Sugar, Biscuit, Waffle.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_03: We've got some of our new babies.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_03: So we've got Ninja, Fudge, Palu, Vancouver, and then I don't know if this counts as a name.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_03: I'm trying to convince Mum, Veggie might scroll.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_03: I desperately want it to be its name.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: I like it.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've met that little one.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: We think it's a boy, and I think the name is perfect.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_03: I think that yeah, I think that counts.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um, what else do we have?
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_03: We've got Grace, Granny Mae, um, cupcake, Bobby, pumpkin.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a funny story that comes to mind that's happened here with the alpacas over the last 12 months?
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_03: We've had a couple of surprise pregnancies which have been a bit of a shock coming out, and then you go, Oh, I didn't know you were pregnant.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_03: There's a new baby.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_03: Probably yesterday was a a good example.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_03: I got up to start my day, looked through the kitchen window as I made coffee, and um nearly half the my boy alpacas were up at Nova space station having a nice wander up there.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: This is the Nova's place.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, this was the this is the neighbor.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_03: I tore up there, and uh, they thought it was so funny that they were skipping down the road.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and what had happened is the pig had busted the gate and let all of them out.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: Dolly.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so Piggy had a great time.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_03: So she was asleep in the shed, so I had to deal with her later.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_03: So they're they're good like that.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a pretty good place to be living and being surrounded in this environment.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, absolutely.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_03: I'm too tired to do anything illegal at the end of the day.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that's good.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Emma, thank you so much.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Good luck keeping enjoying this beautiful place.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: And we might see you in 12 months' time, you never know.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, who knows?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_03: Part three stick around, listeners for part three.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks, Emma.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Amy, do visitors sometimes arrive with completely the wrong idea about farming?
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't even know how to describe what it is that they are thinking either.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people don't really know what to expect.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: And quite often with us in particular, they're coming out because when they've seen alpacas before or somebody said that they have alpacas, it's like four of them or six or eight of, you know.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: So they they kind of come here thinking that them if I'm if we're saying that we're an alpaca farm, we might have a dozen, and then they get here and they're 70, and we think that that's quite a low number for us, they're like, Yeah, okay, this is like there are a a a lot here.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: And you're like, Well, yeah.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: So it's quite yeah, interesting to see what it is that they're their their perception is, I guess.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: And this agrotourism can probably bridge that gap a little bit.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's essentially really what you want it to do, is to be able to take away some of that grey area of you know what it is that we do and what that looks like on any given day.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: And some days it's good and some days it's not.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it's an education, it's an experience.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: So basically, you can have groups or individuals come through, you give them a bowl, a feed bowl, and they go out and they can feed the alpacas, they learn about their names and an education, some fun facts from yourself, then they can come into your awesome gallery net that has now doubled in size since I was last year.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: And we still need a bigger boat, Darren.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: But yes, we want them to have that full circle and that all the senses.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: So we know that if you touch, you know, if they only come and see something, or if they only come, you know, like or hear hear you talk about something, then it's not something that stays with them forever.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: But when they come out here and they can see things and touch things and smell things, and you know, like all of that is kind of part of what the experience is, then that's something that they're going to remember and take away with them for a long time.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: So everything for us is about trying to touch all of those senses and you know, find a way to connect with them and have that story and get that in so that it is something that they then take away.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm noticing here you had some magnificent jackets that you've somehow not woven, not stitched.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: No, felt it.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um so those, yeah, the um artistically alpaca.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: She is an alpaca farmer from uh down near Victor Harbor in South Australia.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: And we were connected through some people.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: She's ultimately looking at retiring, and she's got some really cool machines that process alpaca fibre and turn the fibre into beautiful fabric, which is what you're seeing in the jackets.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: But she's this incredible seamstress as well.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: So we went and spent some time with her and her alpacas, of course, and hung out for a while and um learned quite a lot from her.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: But then we were like, can we please take all of this really cool stuff that's sitting in your studio back to our farm shop and sell it?
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: And she went, Yes, no problem.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, we we are.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: We're kind of trying to find other businesses and other farmers essentially and give them an outlet for their creative work.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: But it also continues the conversation for us about where things kind of come from.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, in our cafe, we have coffee and tea, obviously.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: But a lot of people, a lot of Australians don't actually know that we grow coffee and tea in Australia.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: So they think that they're, you know, supporting Australians when they buy locally roasted beans, which is really important, but they don't actually realize that we grow the beans here.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: So for us, it's kind of, you know, we have Skyberry coffee, we have Daintree tea, we do all of that because it's about showing that all of these products are actually produced in Australia and made in Australia and made by farmers, and it's a way to kind of combine all of those stories together.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I notice here when we're sitting here, you were making a lunch and you went out to your veggie garden and picked the lettuce.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Two minutes later it was on our plate.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's how fresh it is.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Also, how are the dry balls going?
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: The dry balls are good, but the problem is they just keep selling, and then we just have to keep making them.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um so they're time consuming.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, not I don't know whether so much time consuming, but they're just like they're just more work.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: They just work differently than when you're trying to make smaller balls.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: The bigger ones are just it's more cumbersome, but they are a very good item that isn't essential for every laundry, but yes, they still go all right.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: Something else new here, the farm stays.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: These are tiny homes.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell me about that?
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so we were approached by tiny away who have got these absolutely sensational little tiny homes, and it was something that we were kind of, you know, seriously considering.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: And we did have, like we do have another little farm stay that's an old caravan that we've retrofitted and and turned into an off-grid.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: But these guys got in touch with us, going, look, we're we're looking for properties, we're looking to expand our market into South Australia, and you do cool stuff.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: And because people can come to yours, but then they can also do these other things and experience these other things, and you know, like hopefully what that kind of actually helps both of us.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: So it's been great for us because we haven't had to outlay the the infrastructure, you know.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: We can kind of test the water here and just kind of see whether it's something that really fits with us or not.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we've got to power them and water them and make them pretty and you know, do all of those things, but we haven't had to do that huge, huge outlay.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and coming from drought and trying to rebuild from nothing and do all of those things, that that's kind of been a really big bonus for us.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: They're just fabulous.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: They look awesome.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: And you can just kind of, you know, like sit on the veranda and the alpacas will kind of come and hang around.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, we've faced them so that it sounds silly, but we've faced them slightly east to watch the sunset.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I know that the sun sets in the west, but for us the colour is in the east.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: The colour on the hills on the opposite side of the sun is actually what's really beautiful.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so we have designed them so that it's kind of, and you're not looking at at anything else, you're just kind of looking over open farmland and and the hills in the distance and the animals just kind of doing their thing, and yeah, they're they're really cool.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: We really like them.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: We have discovered though that there are farmstay people, and there are people that think they are farm stay people, and they are two different sorts of people, yes.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: So one could be thinking, I will cook on a campfire, the other one's dining in a fancy restaurant.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, you know, like well, diversity has been big for you too here.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think I'm thinking now you've got three different accommodation options for people.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: You've got the tiny homes, the caravan, yeah, and the campsites, which is where we are again tonight.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, loved it last year.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: We we wanted to come back.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: You've got diversity here in the cafe from um lots of dietary options.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: So last year you also mentioned about enterprise stacking.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is what's happening.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: Is that right?
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's exactly right.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, it was a term that I heard on a podcast, actually, a farming podcast, this woman talking about enterprise stacking in the States, and and that's essentially what it is.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, for us, everything needs to essentially have more than one purpose.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: It needs to fit into multiple kinds of layers, otherwise we actually rethink it.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like the gardens, they look pretty, they bring in people, they bring in pollinators, they produce food, they tell the story, you know, they're they're useful in the cafe, and we can make secondary products from that.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: And like, you know, that's just from a couple of rows of lavenders and some flowers and some lettuce and some other bits and pieces, you know, the alpacas are about producing fiber to make products, but also that education and the tourism side, and you know, those.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, for us, it like everything needs to be able to kind of connect in with something else.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: And we think that that's where that like that that full story and that kind of comes from, and how you get that whole involvement.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: And going back to the Alpacas, I believe there's some new arrivals, yes, some unplanned ones.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: They're all unplanned ones.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Dolly, everything the world uh yeah, revolves around Dolly, the naughty pig.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, Dolly, Dolly decided she didn't like where she was at some point last year, this time last year, because our packers are pregnant for 12 months, um, and opened a whole bunch of gates one night.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: So we came out in the morning and our boys are with our girls.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um and lo and behold, 12 months later, um, we've got some really gorgeous little babies, so I wouldn't change it for the world.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you were here 12 months ago, Darren, when like what the farm that you're looking at today was literally a dust bowl and completely different now, completely different.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, we we were struggling to secure hay.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: We were, you know, like there was just there were so many challenges at that particular point in time when we first met.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so you know, like there was no plans about, you know, mating animals because at that point we were trying to figure out how we were going to feed the mouths that we already had without introducing any new ones to it.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I think maybe they knew something that we didn't.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, possibly.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the fact that they were quite happily to get mated in what I thought was, you know, like the worst part of that entire season.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, it happily carried those pregnancies through to the end, you know, knowing that we're in a much better place at the moment.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's actually been really lovely, really lovely to have the babies and to watch that social interaction and to just kind of take a moment at, you know, this late afternoon and watch them all just kind of do their thing and kind of go, right, well, we we got through that, and we just actually get to really enjoy, you know, happy animals doing what they do without, you know, like they're not, you know, they're not fighting for food or doing any of those things either.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: They're just kind of chilling and playing and having a great time.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: So that's been really nice.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Emma, you know, like is just so excited about babies, and she's funny, she's not, she's never been a a a clocky kind of kid whatsoever.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, even with a new human arrival in our family, she's still not.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: But put a baby alpaca.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's just you know, like it's just it's on them.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, do you think the boys might have paid Dolly the pig off to open the gate for them?
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: I absolutely think that there was some kind of transaction there.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: Clever boys, and we we talked about how clever they are last time and how intuitive they are.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I learned too that they're particularly connected or understand people with disabilities.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Have you had a few more of those groups come through?
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yes, and they they do.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, Benjamin Bowe um still with pregnant bellies.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I had a I had a lady come out last weekend and she is with one of the the care facilities, but connected to the hospital.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: So it's you know, it's not just the retirement home where at the you know, it's not necessarily palliative care, it's the bit, you know, just before that.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: And she'd heard about us, so she came for an hour and a half drive with her son last weekend so that she could have a look.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: And she's going, Look, Amy, I'd really love to bring my my oldies out here.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: I think that they would just think that this was amazing.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, but I'm not sure that we're going to get them that far.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like the the hundred meters from you know, where we're sitting in the um in the courtyard and the cafe to the feeding yard.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I went, that's fine, we'll just let them out.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, did you?
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: And she went, What do you mean?
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, can we like we can drive the bus all the way down, we can get them on the bus, we can, you know, just push the bus back a little bit.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: So we can have them all seated, all comfortable, we can give them a cup of tea and some morning tea, get everybody settled, tell them our stories, they can laugh at all of our jokes, you know, the oldies love it.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then I just let the alpacas out.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: And she went, and what?
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: I said, I'll give them all the feedball and the alpacas will come to them.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: And then she's going, and they'll come in underneath the courtyard.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, they will come to them.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: So you don't, you know, like this isn't about trying to get the wheelchairs and the walkers and people out of their comfort zones and really stressed about all of that.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: We just work the other way around.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: Alpacas understood their capabilities.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's beautiful, isn't it?
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and they just we just let them out.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: And they hang around, and you know, like all of those ones that yeah, won't let us sit there and pat them.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, the oldies sit in the, you know, one of the chairs here and can pat one of the alpacas and tell them their deep dark secrets, and the alpacas just stand there and go, okay, and move on.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: Love it.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: Amy, we've talked a lot about what you're doing here.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: A quick question and an update.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: How are you going?
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: There's just so much going on all of the time.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, look, I think it really has made a difference having Emma full-time.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know, that's been some change as well for her and for me.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of, you know, letting letting things go and just going, no, she's got it and she'll get me when she doesn't.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever she does.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, like and I think she runs a much better tour than I do and you know, all of that stuff.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know, she's she's a really good kid and she just she just loves it.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, she's involved in everything and um wants to see it happen.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um she's shining compared to 12 months ago.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: I shouldn't say this, but she is shining.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_01: She's kind of come into herself and just that level of confidence and you know, all of those things I think is really important.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we've had some really great relationships with some of the employment services and things.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: So we've had some, you know, like work experience and volunteer work, participants and things come in with some really amazing skills that have just been able to like just do stuff.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: We're we're kind of going like this is our little project board, like this is all the things that we'd really love to do.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like, pick one and it's your like make it yours.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_02: Love it.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that's been really cool.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then I guess the other thing was um, you know, I found uh I found a girl to do some like marketing stuff.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_02: Good.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: So instead of getting to 10 o'clock at night and going, I just want to sit on the couch with a wine for five minutes, you know, you've kind of got all this stuff going through your head and all the like the guilt thing, and you know, I should do this, or I haven't done this.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so just to kind of know that I can do the work on the farm and you know, the stuff that I need to do to support, you know, our larger kind of family um farming enterprises and those kinds of things at the moment as well, that like stuff is ticking over and and being done has just been this huge kind of weight lifted.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_02: Fantastic.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but then you know, what we were saying before, we're starting now to see the repeaters, yeah.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like those people that came through 12 months ago that are coming back through and going, oh my god, and you're like, Yes.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, good.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, for me it's kind of nice to feel like we're we're kind of getting getting somewhere.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: Talking about you being so busy, you've recently been to Indonesia.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, talking about women and rural communities, what took you there?
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: So really incredible, incredible project called the Bayasabi Project.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a particular fishing village in central Sulawesi in Indonesia that produces this incredible, handmade, hand-dyed, hand woven textile.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: And for them to just make the textile piece itself, so we're not even talking about making the silk cotton component before they sit at their weaver machine.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: It is hand-done, they're sitting on the ground, it's this big wooden frame, and it takes one woman a week to get one meter.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's how fine and how intricate this textile is.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: The Indonesian government approached Eco Fashion Week Australia, who I've been involved with now for nearly 10 years, and asked whether we could actually work together in this joint project.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_01: So, my job as a designer is to create beautiful things with this incredible textile and show it in my way, you know, take it to the market in my way in in kind of my style.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_01: And there's a lot of parallels, I guess, between the way that I work in a regional community where I start with my product, where I've looked at what I've had and gone, how can I do something different with that rather than trying to create something or you know, um come up with something like what have we already got that we can use?
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what this village does and has been doing for generations.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, we went to Indonesia early in the year to actually go and meet with these women and their children and the community and show the world how that textile can be shown in a in a different way and potentially find a market for them to be able to facing the exact same problems as what we are doing in our regional communities.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: How do we keep the kids?
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: How do we keep them employed?
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_01: How do we provide you know opportunities and education and um you know diversification and all of those things?
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_01: So they're having the exact same conversations that we have.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: So it was really great to go and kind of spend time with them and for Emma too, you know, Emma got to come with me on that trip and you know, like, and then meet the cohort of other, you know, like 21-year-old girls that are in this village and you know what their kind of plans are and what they do and what they want to do, and you know, all of those things and what the opportunities are that are available for them.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's a four-year project, and this is the first year of it, and we're really excited about how that kind of moves forwards and and what that kind of looks like.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well done.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't realise it it was Central Selowisi.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're in, they grow a lot of cocoa there too.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: I was up there in Central Salawisi about 15 years ago doing a doco on cocoa.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, really?
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, beautiful people.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely amazing.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: And it was um, you know, we were everybody else is like researching all of these things, and Emma and I are researching like what is the main industry and what is the agriculture.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: And we're kind of going, how do we how do we break away from this really cool stuff that we're there to do?
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, like going out and kind of staying the way tropical humid climate, when we come from the desert, it's just like holy crap, we were walking down the roads and there was pineapples growing, and you know, like all this stuff.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_01: We're going, this is incredible.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, some of the girls in the villages, this um, the village that we were in, yeah, their their parents are farmers.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm kind of hoping that next year when we go back again that we might be able to have a little bit more time so that we can bring some back and show them what we're doing here.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: No, no.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, kind of see how some of that stuff works.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_01: We did also eat quite a lot of Indonesian chocolate while we were there and drank a lot of coffee.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think rural Australia needs more of right now?
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_01: It needs more awareness, it needs more positive stories.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_01: It actually needs that kind of not necessarily the promotion, I can't think of the right word, but you know, it it needs more kind of understanding and positive promotion.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like I was saying before, we tend to kind of sit with the the negative, or that's when it hits the media, and I think that we need to change that.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_01: So, how do we find those stories?
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_01: How do we find those storytellers?
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_01: And how do we how do we showcase the the light in regional Australia and the beauty of it?
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_01: Because if we can show like what it looks like today, even in our paddocks, and how beautiful that is and how incredible that is, then there'll be more understanding when we get to the other end, which we know is going to happen.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_01: Everything happens in a cycle.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I think if we can connect the dots between the good and when it's a little bit tougher, I think that will make things like you know, extended support, government decisions, you know, red tape, you know.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_01: I I think that will change some of that.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: Keep doing what you're doing.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: If we came back to Quentin Park Alpaca's in five years, what do you think we'd see?
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_01: A bigger boat.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, we're gonna need to extend the gallery.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_01: We want to extend the gardens.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_01: Emma's got a whole tenure plan of her own.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's some other plants that we want to maybe trial.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_01: She wants to particularly look at agave.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_01: We'd love to look at some liqueurs from the garden as well.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: So that kind of small batch stuff.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_01: So we're kind of, yeah, I've been it gives us a really good um, you know, we've got a line in our on our um accounts line at the moment that's you know, research and development.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_01: That particular thing.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_01: I knew it was really clear about where I wanted to be today, like 12 months ago.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_01: That hasn't changed.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_01: I think for us, you know, it's not so much about growth as such now.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's the next couple of years are really just about cementing what we do, you know, not necessarily trying to do more things or do new things or do bigger things.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's just making sure that what we're doing, we do freaking well, you know, that this is, you know, what do you want to be famous for?
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like this is the thing that we're we're doing, and then we can kind of then look at the next thing.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, for the next little bit, it's really just about making sure that we've got it right.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: Amy, quick fire, off the wall questions.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: Very short answers.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: Are you ready?
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sunrise or sunset?
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, sunset.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: Farm stay or camping?
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_01: Camping.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: City break or country?
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_01: Country.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: Favourite alpaca.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, today Benjamin Bowie keeps coming, giving me kisses.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: Biggest alpaca rat bag.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_01: Rat bag, Alex.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_00: Go, Alex.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: Most curious alpaca.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, oh at the moment it's the babies.
• 42:53
  unknown: Yeah.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they're just kind of well, they're just, yeah, they're just and they're starting to kind of figure out whether we're friend or foe, and um, you know, getting a little bit braver.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_01: So they're yeah, they're definitely just working out life at the moment.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: Who causes the most trouble?
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: Dolly.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: Dolly.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: Who's first to the feed bucket?
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Melody, surprisingly, at the moment.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_01: She's always been quite shy until the last couple of weeks.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: Who thinks they're the boss?
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_01: Dolly.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_01: Who knows she's the boss?
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_01: Dolly.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: Have the boys been forgiven yet for getting out?
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, uh, well, one, it wasn't their fault.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_01: But yes, absolutely, because those babies have been a blessing.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: One word to describe you might need two or three, to describe rural Australia.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_01: Inspirational, incredible, and unexpected.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of people would just it's unexpected.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_01: What we kind of do when yeah, how we do things.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: If an alpaca could talk, what would yours complain about?
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_01: No, um, if they could complain about I don't know, I reckon they've got pretty good lives at the moment.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, would you rather have a hundred alpacas or a hundred tourists?
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: Or both?
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, if we have a hundred alpacas, a hundred alpacas all the time, a hundred tourists in small doses.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, all right.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: Amy, another fantastic day here.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: We arrived, we had this awesome lunch, more education, this long big chat.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: We got to meet new alpacas and what you are doing.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you on behalf of rural Australia, really.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_00: And um keep going.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're we're trying.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's what we do.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think we could kind of do anything else.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_01: But no, it's been really great to have you.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_01: And it was just so, yeah, it was so lovely to get the call and see that you guys were coming back this way.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: We often get talked about and thought about, so don't forget that.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Amy.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_01: No problem.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_00: A big thanks to Amy for having us back at Quentin Park.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_00: I love what Amy and Emma are building here.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the way they're helping people connect with country and understand a little more about where things come from.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I reckon there's a whole lot more of this sort of thing we could do across rural Australia.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on Soldier V.