Breanna Simpson is embracing her two new roles — being a mum and in the native plant nursery.
A stone’s throw from the Murray River in northern Victoria, two generations of the Simpson family are settling into their new lives raising native trees and their third generation. CARLY MARRIOTT reports.
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Breanna Simpson is a woman in demand.
She’s learning how to be a mum and how to manage her parents’ native tree nursery — and both roles are throwing up unexpected obstacles and rewards.
“I couldn’t do it without Mum,” Breanna said, with four-month-old Harry on her hip.
‘Mum’ is Simone Simpson, and when Small Farms visited she was busily shuffling pot plants around the Cobrawonga nursery that she purchased with husband Scott in February this year.
“We were looking for a house up this way and we found one, it just came with a nursery,” Simone said.
The Australian Native Farm Forestry nursery to be precise.
Breanna inspects kangaroo paws at the Australian Native Farm Forestry nursery.
The Simpson family has travelled from Melbourne to Barooga (just over the river from Cobram) for many years.
As motocross and off-road racing enthusiasts, the Simpsons — along with five other families — purchased a block of land north of Barooga for the sole purpose of riding motorbikes.
Breanna has completed the Finke Desert Race not once but twice. Finke, as it is known, is a two-day off-road motorbike race that starts in Alice Springs and covers 460km of rough terrain.
Breanna and her partner Anthony Venn moved back from their adventurous stint working in the mining industry in Port Hedland, when Breanna received the very welcome news that she was pregnant.
The nursery sits on 5ha of land adjacent to the Murray Valley Hwy between Cobram and Yarrawonga. The business operates as a retail outlet for gardening enthusiasts, a wholesaler and planting service for businesses and local councils, and sells potted plants to local shops.
Breanna walked into the role of nursery manager, six months pregnant, with a tight timeline to learn as much as she could before her additional job of ‘mum’ began.
“Thankfully, the previous owner, Ron Dickenberg, has been a massive help,” she said.
“Ron showed us how the orders work, let us know about suppliers and of course taught us the technical skills”.
Breanna, who has a background in disability services, and Simone, who has worked as a cleaner, now spend their days propagating, sowing and transplanting native flora.
With the help of Sonya Tedesco, Kerry Lazzarotto and the students from the Cobram Special School, who are enrolled in traineeships, the nursery is abuzz.
Between Breanna and Simone, both baby Harry and the nursery are being looked after.
“I’ve had to find balance because between the baby and the business, both need attention,” Breanna said.
Scott is a boilermaker by trade and Anthony is an excavator operator, so the two of them work elsewhere during the week.
They are often given lists of chores to do around the nursery on their weekends, and according to Breanna, their skill sets come in very handy.
Breanna has found that her love of work has been put to good use at the nursery and she’s proud to say she’s developing a green thumb.
“I love the final product, when you can see cut flowers in a vase, whether they’re tetragona gum or bottlebrushes,” she said.
“We often start the life cycle of plants but sell them before they reach their full potential. Ron and his family created such a beautiful garden here that we get to enjoy that.”
While rain is postponing things for this budding nursery team, the women at the Australian Native Farm Forestry remain optimistic.
“Whilst the weeds are sending us mad thanks to all this rain, there is always something to do — whether that’s paperwork or potting up plants in the shed,” Breanna said.
“We just take each day as it comes really, just like parenting.”
