Nulla Vale

37°12'11.75"S, 144°44'10.66"E | 490m ASL | 600mm Avg. Rainfall

By 2001 we had a very well developed and systems-oriented outfit where we oversaw a whole package of farm survey, planning, development and project management services, and Michael Wright’s 56ha (140ac) property on the Great Dividing Range in central Victoria was the epitome of that kind of engagement.

At the time Michael was living and working in Melbourne as a leading consultant to the Victorian government. He sought out our services to develop this gently sloping granitic pastoral landscape as his future homestead and agroforestry farm.

As was our process, we led the program with a precision feature survey by our in-house survey team led by Konrad Ensor. He then generated a 0.5m contour plan which Darren J Doherty then developed a concept layout—which was further refined with Konrad’s assistance. Following Michael’s approval, Konrad then set to work to develop a detail CAD plan and Darren ‘prettied that up’ for the client and developed a detailed report and bill of quantities (BOQ).

With Darren being the founding Chairman of the Box Ironbark Farm Forestry Network (BIFFN), the selection of timber tree species and provenances was relatively acute for the time. Given the hydrology of the site, these tree blocks were situated in the primary valley landforms—taking advantage of the season saturation and providing a mosaic landscape of diverse block plantings and open pastured ridges.

Given the gently undulating landscape, the planning process was relatively simple and were the same brief provided today then there would be minor changes to the layout.

While 2001 was the epoch of our farm design and development work, it was also the year when famed Permaculture co-originator Bill Mollison (1928-2016) gave Darren a call and said, “…its about time you started to teach…”, heralding a change in focus from that year forward. Accordingly it wasn’t until February of 2024 that we received an email from (now retired) Michael Wright titled, “Nulla Vale Project 24 years on” and we look forward to revisiting this landscape and updating what we have captured over part of the last 25 years.