Sophie takes us on a tour of her new outback patch. She’s planting vegies, fruit trees, and hundreds of natives, despite the extreme weather!
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Sophie has recently bought a new, 7.5-hectare property in South Australia’s Mid Murray region, about 80km north-east of Adelaide. The property is in in a rain shadow, overlooking the eastern side of the Mount Lofty ranges and is 30km south of Goyder’s Line, which marks the boundary between arable land and non-arable land. The area is classified as arid to semi-arid, with less than 350mm of rain a year. Getting anything to grow will be a feat!
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39 Comments
Thanks for sharing.
I never heard of Goyders Line.
What a beautiful stone property you’ve committed to..
It’s nice to see people using their knowledge to work with such a harsh climate and conditions. You’re truly going to be leaving something special behind.
Kudos! Excited to see you take on a very hard but inspirational project. I look forward to seeing your developments.
It's brave. You have to have guts to make a go of it in that region.
So great to see these stories on Sophie's new place. What a lovely collection of buildings and stunning location. Looking forward to all the work pay off.
Both your home rewilding and the local Botanic gardens are absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much for showing us these wonderful works. 👍🏽🇦🇺
THE WOKE
This video was inspirational. I love the idea of rewilding. So many natives to plants, I wish Sophie all the best. Thanks, Gardening Australia.🌱🪴🌲🌳🌿🦜🦋🐛🐝🪲🐞🪱
This is so exciting Sophie! Looking forward to lots of tips about Arid Zone gardening – more and more people are moving out to the regions now ❤️
Beautiful and inspiring. Thank you for sharing💚
What a beautiful stone house and property, and very exciting project, you are so brave to take it on and I wish you all the best.
Fantastic! Look forward to its evolution
Stick to native plants only…
Aussie watching from London . Make sure you have a fox /cat /rabbit eradication plan !! good luck 😃
Pretty dry over the hill, hello from Penrice, getting rain today though ❤
❤
I genuinely can't wipe the smile off my face by how excited I am to try to do the same thing at our house. We back onto a reserve that desperately needs rehabilitation and rejuvenation. Thanks for the inspiration…
It amazes me the damage that farming marginal land has done. Great to see people like Sophie and the landcare folk helping educate people about what’s possible. And how.
A cactus and succulent garden can be a very beautiful thing. And then there are all the stunning Banksias and proteaceae of Western Australia. Many beautiful plants for an arid garden.
Oh Sophie its beautiful. I live in the mid north and bought my stone cottage 2 years ago. I really respect what you are doing its no easy feat. My abandoned land has me making gardens, planting trees and a small orchard as well as renos on the old house. Congratulations well done.
Sophie I just couldn’t do this but I’m sure you will be successful ! It’s too remote and harsh for me the varing climate extremes would be a challenge. I enjoyed the video I wish you all the best Suzy
Keen for this. Even living in the Adelaide plains the susceptibility to drought means home gardeners need to be smart with planting.
CONGRATULATIONS Sophie. 🌟 🌟🌟🌟🌟 to you and your family and landcare. AWESOME.. literally. Thank you also for sharing your exemplary endeavours. Even the smallest home garden can support a small native tree and water source for wildlife 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Best of luck, Sophie.
I wish that I were able to help you with this project
This country is hard on everyone, esp farmers. North of the SA borderr, a large swathe of central Australia, western Queensland and the Top End are currently under water as of March 2026. Sophie's 350mm of rain per annum is a lot closer to what many of those communities had to survive on than the 2500mm Darwin has copped this wet season. I wasn't here in 2010 – they had a record-breaking 3000mm that Wet season : metres of rain that normally only fall in countries like PNG. I wish her all the best with that garden and look forward to the transformation.
Perfect Permaculture property
Gardens in the desert just like this country’s owners of the land – was covered with kangaroo grass and soil so thick and rich the people that took over the land could hardly walk on it.
They brought their sheep and cattle and they ate it down to the roots that the kangaroo grass could no longer survive. 😢
Documented throughout the journals of the settlement peoples in our libraries – however you must go to the library to actually find these entries – there is no way you will find this as a rite of passage for rewilding Australia’s land back to the richness it was 250 years ago.
No way – that all needs to be hidden from us and our children.
No way are we allowed to see or know that our land was full of nourishment for its people and the animals that inhabited this country before the takeover.
Thank you Bruce Pascoe and Bill Gammage and to the Aboriginal peoples that keep this knowledge alive. I will be overjoyed the day that your books and knowing will be part our learning at our schools and in our households without judgement and only with acceptance of seeing our land, waterways, animals and us thrive.
Imagine our future generations farming to the aboriginal seasons. WOW 🫶🏼🙏🏼
that farmland you guys keep crapping on is what feeds everyone in this country and exports more than we need feeding other nations and earning us gdp which funds such landcare etc programs. dont forget australia was built on the back of sheep. dont come crying to farmers when there isnt enough resources for your city and suburban lifestyles where not the ones destroying the land were stewarding it.
Been through that area a few times over the ears.. Beautiful place to be!
I love what you are doing Sophie, you have simular conditions to us in Mount Isa QLD and we have created an oasis,in our little suburban block. I am sure some of your plants would do well here. Good luck and look forward to more of your work. Cheers Nic at FNW QLD
Sofie you have given yourself a challenging project..beginning in earnest with much infrastructure to grow your vegetable garden to the orchard that will be ready for planting..plans to rewild with natives to bring back natural habitat can make for inspiring others in the area to follow by example..so well done you.
Sophie has always been a magical gardener
Good job Sophie. Hope others follow your lead.
God Bless you !
G’day Sophie..great to see you again..I’m looking forward to seeing your new patch bloom..thankyou 🇦🇺
Good on you Sophie.
How exciting! The ANPSA Conference this year is in Alice Springs, so all about arid plants.
I’m super excited about people regenerating this kind of land.
taylah rose youtube channel
We live out there, beautiful country !! This property is on the outskirts of the town so probably doesn't have any wombats digging around, they're good at wrecking stuff.