A humble little farm in Laguna

Little Valley Farm is a secluded part of Wollombi Valley bounded by well-maintained native bushland and Watagan Creek.

The 50-acre farm is approximately half bush and half creekside paddocks. It is a wonderful balance of wildlife and our own farming ventures, which have changed over the years since we purchased the property in 2012.

Our motivation for moving to our land was to live more independently, build new skills, and be more sustainable in our footprint and consumption. It was a far cry from 25 years of corporate life, 15 of which were overseas, living in 5 different countries.

The ‘Valley’

Wollombi Valley is a perfect place for such a venture in its relative isolation (45 minutes to any convenience or major store), as it still operates as a small country village, where more self-sufficient mindsets still exist. At the same time it is only 1 hour to Berowra and 2 hours to the Sydney CBD.

Wollombi Valley is unique in being so close to a major city of over 5 Million people as it has never had any significant industrialisation, extensive development or even large-scale mechanised farming. Once the major road north to the Hunter, it quickly became an obscure backroad and faded into the large areas of State Forrest and National Parks surrounding it and the whole of Sydney.

In part Wollombi Valley has also been protected from significant development by Fire and particularly by Flood. Fire is just part of living within so much bushland. Flood, however, is far harder to control, and Wollombi, meaning ‘meeting of the waters’ by traditional owners, has one of the most ‘flood variable rivers in the world’*.

Our Journey

We have always wanted to monetize our property as a small working farm. As such we have tried many things to find what works well for us. Alpaca’s have always been part of the journey, but as a small farm you need to do multiple things. During this time we have tried; Purple Garlic, Heirloom Tomatoes, Corn, Pumpkins, Sunflowers and speciality Beans. Many activities we did over many years and a few we continue today. We also breed miniature Belted Galloway cattle crossed with a Lowline Angus Bull for on-farm meat processing. We even had a short experiment with Dorper Sheep.

Farming Alpaca has stuck as we like breeding for resale (rather than meat production); they are light on the land and easy on infrastructure. They are also a better complement to other activities like Tree Growing and Guest stays. We’d love to do cattle again, but the unpredictable weather - drought and flood - makes it impossible on a small farm. We’ve added Miniature Donkeys as they now play the same role the cattle did in paddock rotation and breaking the worm cycle for the Alpaca.

With guests staying, what started as an experiment has now become a significant focus. We also seek to maximise return on our paddocks through Agroforestry. Over the last few years we have planted over 1000 trees including: Stone Pine, Radiate Pine, Norfolk Pine, Spotted Gum, Red Forrest Gum, Turpentine, Tallowwood, Silky Oak & Black Walnut. This complements the managed timber in our native forest, which includes Brush Box, Grey Gum, narrow-leaf Iron Bark, Bloodwood, & Stringybark.

Building & Hosting

Our evolution of building new spaces and hosting guests started slowly. But it has evolved into one of the things we love most. With Euan’s Architectural degree and design-related profession and Daniela’s management and hosting skills, maybe it was destined. Dani was the first employee of LUXE City Guides and the editor of Singapore when we lived there.

The journey started with a Shepard's Hut, migrated to the Train Carriage T4516, then to the renovation of a shed into our own home, the building of the Machinery Shed with Studio and finally, the summerhouse, completed in Dec 2024. Each project, more ambitious and complicated than the last, has ended up being an apprenticeship in carpentry and building.

Hosting is rewarding through the people we meet and their interest in our farm. We have also been recognised through media and awards like the Airbnb Host Awards 2023 for finalists as Best Unique Stay (for T4615).

Today, we just rent the summerhouse to ensure the best exclusive experience for guests. We never want to be mass market & we want to continue to pursue our own on-farm activities freely. We have a mountain of things we still want to build and improve - for our guests and for our own use. The constant evolution is one of our main drivers, so we can’t see that stopping anytime soon.

We would like to acknowledge the Wonnarua, Awabakal and Darkinjung people as the traditional custodians of this great valley, Elders past, present and emerging, and Aboriginal people here today. The word Wollombi means “meeting place of the waters”, and it is a site of great indigenous significance as a traditional meeting ground.