One Gate Farm - ‘putting Darkan on the map’ with astrotourism and lavender

When ocean-loving boaties Kelly and Dean Bruins bought a farm in the southern Wheatbelt a few years back, it came as a surprise to their nearest and dearest. The Serpentine-based cabinet maker and HR consultant, who called Rottnest their second home, had a vision to change their lifestyle, swapping the corporate and construction worlds for a life on the land. And with no history of farming, in 2016, they purchased a 200ha “dust bowl” north-east of Darkan. Previously leasing the land to someone running a 600-head Merino flock, the couple slowly took over paddocks as they gained confidence in their knowledge of the land, taking full control last year and naming it One Gate Farm. “No one had touched this property for over 14 years so we pretty much had a blank canvas,” Mrs Bruins said. Their first foray proved a success, with 40ha of hay with wormcasting and compost returning three tonnes per hectare. They have also slowly built up a 150-head dorper flock, selling their 100 per cent grass-fed lamb locally since 2019 in a paddock-to-plate format. Passionate about supplying quality local produce, they have supplied their lamb to friends and family — the feedback from which Mrs Bruins said had been “amazing” — with their sights set on expanding into the marketplace and supplying local outlets. Deciding to follow the regenerative farming path, the pair have re-fenced the property in 20ha blocks, which they rotationally graze every two weeks. At this stage, they are running at 1.5-head per hectare. They have since seen the return of native grasses, with Mr Bruins calling the difference between today and two years ago “chalk and cheese”. “It was just dust blowing (and) willy-willies,” he said. “It looked like you were in the Simpson Desert.” Knowing harvesting was not an option, the couple were looking to diversify their operation when they came across lavender. “It’s drought-tolerant and the pH of the soils here are perfect — so we started doing some research,” Mrs Bruins said. “Fast-forward 18 months ... we did a trial of just over 300 plants with four different species, which has worked out amazingly.” Having received planning approval to plant up to 4ha of the purple-hued plant, they will in April plant four varieties — two for oil, one for the culinary sphere, and another ornamental variety. They have already secured a buyer for their first harvest. The plantation — which will be part and parcel with a small souvenir shop — is part of the couple’s grand plans to put Darkan on the tourism map. “The (oil and culinary) varieties start flowering mid-November and go through to harvest normally early January, but the rest of the time they’re just green bushes,” Mr Bruins said. “But everyone wants to come to see purple flowers, so the other variety that we’ll be looking to do will be an ornamental for show, which will provide purple in the ground for the other nine months of the year, so that (it) will always be purple in the ground, 12 months of the year.” They are also hoping to establish a handful of off-grid eco-tents on the property, where they can host stargazing weekends with an astronomer, using local businesses for catering. “Darkan’s a town registered for astrotourism,” Mrs Bruins, who recently put her hand up to lead a local tourism committee, said. “The shortfall is the accommodation around here.” With 70ha of conservation reserve on the property, Mrs Bruins said there was also potential to run wildflower walks. And while the One Gate name may seem serendipitous with paddock-to-plate and behind-the-gate concepts, the story behind it has the pair chuckling. “We’d not long bought the farm and had no idea, and financially everything was going out the door and I’m like, we don’t need two gates ... And a very good friend of ours said, ‘Kelly, no one has one gate.’ I said ‘we don’t need a double gate’, so in went the one gate and I got ripped quite substantially for about 18 months from our friends.” “She was actually known as Kelly one gate,” Mr Bruins laughed. “Then I decided that I needed to embrace the name ... our tagline has now become ‘one gate, one community’, which is really quite nice,” Mrs Bruins said.