Some people think we're a bit eccentric or something.
We're dealing with native animals.
But yeah, I do get called Portland's Steve Irwin.
I'll get my phone out.
You love the phone, don't ya!
That looks pretty good, that one.
When the tourists come in we do a few farm tours.
Enstein loves to meet people.
He enjoys his cuddles and people get to sit down and get a selfie with the emu.
Basically, I started this about eight years ago, we started the raspberry farm.
So we don't use any chemicals on our raspberries.
It's a lot more hard work, but it pays off with the flavour in the berries.
When the taste buds get that real fruit flavour and they just, they're nearly in heaven.
It's amazing to see, it makes the farm rewarding.
That's when you get to really appreciate how good your fruit really is.
This is all my grandfather's variety of raspberries that we've put in.
This is the original traditional raspberry.
We also have blackcurrant, silvanberries, marionberries.
We do grow all our own food.
We have a couple of cows, so we get our meat from the cows.
Something we didn't realize with the emus is, emus eat all the grubs that eat my grass.
So we have more grass for the cows, so the cows look like they've had a cut and polish.
They just shine because there's no bugs irritating the cows' hide.
I got chickens, so there's our eggs. We've got our water from the rainwater tanks.
We have solar power.
We feed all the weeds to our pig, Boris the pig.
Here he comes!
Hey Bozza!
He turns that into compost for us. That's how we get our soil to refertilize the raspberry beds. So
we top them up with that each year.
He's a very spoilt pig.
I have some guinea pigs that do the mowing the edges of my raspberries.
So they mow and fertilize at the same time.
Of course I gotta clean their cages out, so that adds to the compost, the chickens add to the
compost.
The owls come in and the eagles come in and clean up those guinea pigs and keep the numbers very
much at bay.
So I'm keeping a lot of the local raptors and that well fed too.
With the biodiversity all the native birds come in.
So the birds do my pest control on the raspberries, the blue wrens and all little
finches.
So they eat all the grubs for us.
The snakes get rid of rats. So we do get a few snakes in there.
We have lots of frogs in the raspberries, so that attracts the snakes.
So everything has its purpose to keep the farm going and bit of biodiversity in the farms.
That's how I grew up, was watching my grandfather grow his vegetables.
He lived to 103, so I was pretty spoilt and got to learn a lot off my grandparents.
They didn't use any chemicals.
Working with the biodiversity actually works better for my farm
Coming in?
They're just a fascinating bird.
Everyone said you can't keep them as pets and I thought 'you gotta be able to keep them as pets'.
Well, we've got Wanda, she's our female emu.
And Einstein, he's number one.
He's the favourite so, he loves all the attention Einstein does.
He's the best pet.
Einstein thinks I'm his dad, because I hand-raised him.
Every morning, when I feed him, he's got to get a cuddle.
So he puts his head right over my shoulder and cuddles into me and gets a cuddle.
Goose is another male emu we have.
He's such a dag he is, everyone's got a soft spot for Goose.
The other two pick on him.
Normally they'll chase him off and he's not allowed to get pats.
So everyone has a soft spot for goose.
Einstein would pick on goose when he first came here.
So goose befriended our mob of cows.
So wherever the cows go, Goose goes.
We didn't realize at first, but yeah, once you've raise the emu chick with certain livestock,
they'll be part of that mob.
Some people have got them to look after the sheep.
Of course, because the foxes won't go near the flock of sheep once you've got emus.
Those emus are basically like a giant chicken.
So they walk across the paddock eating about their body-weight a day in grasshoppers and crickets.
So a few years ago, we had a locust plague come through, so I put three emus into one paddock.
And I think we might have saved a few other farms because the emus ate all the locusts coming
through the farm.
They just cleaned them up.
So we've got twice as much grass for our cows.
Ah, they do eat snakes.
I have seen Einstein eat snakes a couple of times now.
But, I've seen the emus actually chase a fox through the paddock and kill it before it got to
the fence.
They stomp it, they're very efficient with that foot.
Same with the snakes, they jumped in the air and they stomp the snake's head.
And then they eat it.
But the only time the emu will do that, if you corner it and it has to get away.
But other than that they're just a very curious animal.
We breed the emus each year.
Some of the stories and pictures people send me of their emu chicks is just amazing.
When Einstein's nesting, and he's sittin on his eggs, he'll just sit there for about 65 days.
He doesn't move, he doesn't drink, or eat during that time.
We will take a bucket of water over to him and some feed, but he doesn't really need it.
So, he'll sit there the whole time with his eggs.
But all the women really liked that they may all looking after the young, they think that's the way
it should be!