Meet Anne and Phil Westwood, Freeranger Eggs Grantville
Anne spent years as an office systems manager before moving into
farming. She was brought up in Cranbourne where her dad established
Faceys Nursery, so she has an extensive knowledge of the area with
its native vegetation and wildlife. She took part in a bushland
management course with the National Trust, learning with experts,
Randal Robinson and Darcy Duggan For several years she was the
voluntary Co-ordinator of the Friends of Bass Valley Bush Landcare
Group, primarily responsible for office administration as well as
organising native vegetation and wildlife surveys.
She was appointed West Gippsland Regional Manager of the Trust for
Nature – a Victorian Government Statutory Authority. Once she
started work with the Trust she quickly identified the need to
protect stands of native vegetation providing linkages through the
Strzelecki ranges down to Westernport and started the process of
evaluating them for covenants on private land.Her role was to
protect, in perpetuity, native vegetation providing linkages from
Mullundung through the Strzelecki ranges down to Westernport and
started the process of evaluating them for covenants on private land.
She worked with Friends of Gippsland Bush and Friends of the Earth to
protect key areas from logging, culminating in an agreement with the
Victorian Government known as the Bruatalong Park linking Tarra Bulga
National Park in the east with the Gunyah Gunyah Rainforest Reserve
in the West.The Banksia Environmental Foundation awarded her a
Banksia Medal in 2006 for her work in protecting native orchids. She
also operated a native wildlife shelter on the farm, The Margo Kyoyer
Pedersen Wildlife Shelter, and was instrumental in revegetation works
at Corinella’s Settlement point and in establishing a community
garden at the Corinella Community Centre. Anne is also an
Environmental Auditor, having a completed a course designed by
Professor David Bellamy. She set up Grantville Action Group with Phil in a bid to ensure adequate controls on sand extraction
companies when plans were revealed in the area. We later established
Friends of Bass Valley Bush Inc. Landcare Group to generate awareness
of the natural landscape and wildlife in the region. Our farm was the Australian winner of the 2012 Energy Globe
international Award for sustainability.
Anne and Phil moved from
their 20acre property on the Powlett River in Wonthaggi to the 200
acre farm on the Bass River at Grantville where they established
Freeranger Eggs.
At various times, Phil has been a Board member of Westernport Water,
the Port Phillip and Westernport Catchment Management Authority and
the Central Coastal Board. He was the community member on the Working
Group established to prepare the Regional Sand Extraction Strategy,
Lang Lang to Grantville.
Phil was a journalist with experience in the UK and Rhodesia before
being recruited in London by legendary Age editor, Graham Perkin in
the 1970’s to work as a finance journalist on The Age and then he
moved into public relations with Jennings Industries, followed by
the Housing Industry Association, the Real Estate Institute of
Victoria and Australian Jewish Welfare, then editing a variety of
magazines, including Power Farming and Prime Time. He also provided public relations services to a number of
companies, including South Gippsland’s Coldon Homes. He is an
Environmental Auditor and was a co author of the Report funded by the
Natural Heritage Trust, ‘Baseline Studies of Bass River’
published in the 1990’s.
Anne
and Phil lhave
encouraged other people to establish genuine free range farms using
the principles set out in an eBook and various on-farm workshops. The
farm has a website, freeranger.com.au
and this blog. Phil also publishes a
political blog ‘politics is a dirty word’ As a result of
experience in activating community groups and a hassle with a builder
he wrote a handbook on direct action ‘Fighting to Win’ which was
used as a text in some community development programs.He has been national President of Free Range Egg and Poultry Association of Australia Inc. and an auditor for the National Egg Quality Assurance Program (Egg Corp Assured).
Smoke from the Hazelwood coal mine fire in 2014 hung around many
parts of South Gippsland and created breathing difficulties for Phil
which led to his first- ever asthma attack and triggered heart
failure with atrial fibrilation and a stroke. He survived, but hasn’t
been much use around the farm since then, leaving Anne to shoulder
all the work. They are now facing problems maintaining the sustainability of the farm because actions of Bass Coast Shire threaten vegetation management and water flows.
