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.
