When you arrive at Corella Creek Country Farm Stay, next to the old railway siding known as Nelia, it may look like a work in progress.
You would be correct! it is in fact a work in progress and an example of ‘reality bites’ for anyone with limited resources who chooses to live in such a harsh outback climate where progress is often two steps forward and one step back.
In the first 10 years of Corella Creek Country Farm Stay’s history, from 2010 to 2020, our learning curve was steep, and our intimate knowledge of current bush life and skills grew exponentially. Despite these difficult, yet excitingly raw years, Eric and I pace on and remain keen to welcome folk from kinder climates and larger towns to our tiny agritourism and relaxation space.
Visiting us is an adventure of the ordinary kind, an extremely different perspective is obvious and it’s a haven where the animals and the rhythm of nature dictate human activities.
Over those first 10 years, our sole focus was on developing a respite space for animals and humans. This has included installing geothermal baths, establishing a goat and free-range egg enterprise, running a wildlife caring service, facilitating the creation and installation of public art and community facilities, developing workshops on basic survival skills and various art forms, and putting our creation of delightful and wholesome eating experiences in our licenced food premise to the paying public test.
Almost immediately after buying the property/s nature shocked us into the realisation that to reach our goals we had to ride the unique roller coaster of the local weather, the flora, and some local fauna all of which seemingly wanted to upend our plans and make life impossible. Resilient and bloody-minded, we continue to resist and courageously move forward…. Embracing the beautiful and holding out the cruel and sometimes seemingly unjust.
Cyclone Yassi in 2010
2010 kicked off with the devastating experience of Cyclone Yassi. The wind and rain that came inland from the Queensland East coast resulted in the growth of thick grasses and caused an explosion of local populations of the notorious swarming Gidgea Bug endemic to the area, thousands of Christmas Beetles, locusts marching in their millions and ‘amazingly’ (not!) bats, rats, and cats invading during three subsequent winters. When you visit, ask us about the ’Cat Tail Bounty’ of the winter of 2012!
Drought and Tornadoes
By 2013 drought struck, continuing until 2020 thankfully killing off the swarms of pestilent insects and animals however, creating conditions that only grasslands and cracked dry land can create – windstorms and tornadoes. Long hot Summers of temperatures to 48C were experienced with winds like a fan-forced oven. Small birds would drop from the sky and some trees and pets died from the heat, in 2017 a 7-minute but forceful Whirly Wind destroyed the heritage frontage (since replaced) of the 108-year-old Nelia Post Office along with a 20 metre UHF communication arial and several small trees. 2018 saw the community’s beloved old Post Office building smashed to pieces from a serious mini tornado, so wild that tin was left high on the trees resembling lolly wrappers, AND THEN THE MOST IMPACTFUL OF ALL …..natures punishment in the form of a serious flood in February 2019.
The Flood of 2019
Water reached up to three metres in some parts of the property, waist high in the guest house, filling it with mud and drowning over 100 goats and 100 laying hens. In addition, a train left directly opposite our Guesthouse was derailed, tipping 40 wagons of zinc concentrate and 40 wagons of lead concentrate to the North of the rail line. Luckily, we are situated to the South of the line and the water carried the toxic sludge away from the property but blocked the water flow exacerbating the flood level. For the 13 months following, the surrounding area was a dust-filled industrial site where massive trucks came hour after hour day after day to remove the contaminated soil as part of a necessary environmental cleanup. The water flow also carried, and then planted, an immense number of prickly acacia trees (a declared weed) and as the trees grew, they have swallowed any areas of ground we had previously cleared.
Two years of not being able to operate our businesses? Nothing to do? Not likely – we had plenty of work to do and time to reflect. They were very difficult years. By June 2020 Government Disaster Assistance for impacted small businesses enabled the Guesthouse to be renovated and livestock to be purchased. That being said, prior to re-opening our businesses in June 2020 COVID stuck – but that’s a story best left for another day.
