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FARMING FOR FUN
Landmark Property Magazine – July 2005

Small residential farms are a trendy alternative to city living and nowhere is booming better than Gympie in Queensland.

Barry and Fran McDonald are losing money on the farm … and loving it.
The McDonalds, who own a gorgeous 20 acre property on the Mary River at Lagoon Pocket, near Gympie, are typical of a new breed of hobby farmers who are causing a real estate boom in the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast of Queensland and in other similar areas around Australia.
While larger farmers would shake their heads at the prospect, this band of 21st century residential farmers are happy to pay a price for land that is simply not economical from a farming viewpoint. That’s because they are in it for the lifestyle, not the profit.
As Barry McDonald explains it: “I guess the Baby Boomers are deciding they want to get out of the city.”
While the property boom in capital cities around the nation began to taper 12 months ago, it’s indeed the city Boomers who are keeping the rural real estate market flying. Nowhere in Australia is this seen to greater effect than in the Shire of Cooloola and the surrounds of its main city Gympie, about 160 kilometres north of Brisbane.
Landmark’s Rural Property Specialist for the area David Connell admits he was surprised at the prices when he transferred from the Blackall area earlier this year. Used to seeing huge farming properties in the outback selling for around $140 an acres, he now deals in many smaller properties going for an average $8000 to $10,000 an acre and in some cases up to $15,000 an acre.
With many properties 40 acres or fewer, there’s virtually no way they can house enough stock or grow enough produce to make a return on investment. At best they can hope to offset some costs. “At the current prices, they are certainly not viable as farms, but there’s the lifestyle element as well,” says David Connell.
He believes the recently released “Blueprint for Brisbane” helps explain why so many city dwellers are looking to residential farming as a lifestyle choice.
“It has forced people to look elsewhere is they want a bit of space around them,” he says. “It is almost solid right from Brisbane to the Gold Coast and that has pushed the interest north.”
Coupled with the Boomers’ available income and the trend towards an increase in home offices, the beautiful expanses of the Sunshine coast become both desirable and achievable.
“A number of people who have bought properties work for Brisbane and Sydney companies,” says David. “With modern technology, why not? They can have the best of both worlds. They can still have their highly paid jobs and they can have the sun, the chooks and the ducks and that sort of thing.”
Many small farms have doubled in price in the last three or four years, causing locals to shake their heads in amazement. “These prices seem dear to the locals but to someone coming out of the city it is not a great deal of money.”
David says there are also some who grew up in farming areas and after a successful business career in the city have decided to come back to their roots. “I think there are a variety of reasons but behind everything there is the simple fact that this (the Gympie area) is just a beautiful place to live.”
Barry McDonald agrees. Happy to accept his own Baby Boomer tag, Barry describes the decision to buy the undulating property and run a small herd of alpacas as the realisation of a dream.
“Fran has always wanted to own alpacas so we thought we had better do it now. We have got 11 of them, including two pregnant females, and we also have nine cattle agisting.”
The McDonalds and Fran’s sister Pat bought their 20 acre property with two houses on it about 14 months ago and run a small business from it, building touch screen monitors.
Barry, a computer technician, says it’s just as well they have the business because the alpacas aren’t making any money.
“They are costing us, but they are fun,” he says. “The farming side is a hobby. We definitely don’t expect to make any money out of it because it is too small.”
Barry jokes that the only difficulty he has with the property is getting back to work after his tea breaks. “We often sit out on the back verandah and have our morning tea but instead of taking ten minutes and getting back into it, we seem to take 45 minutes because you just sit here and look and there is always something to see.”
While the Sunshine Coast is experiencing high percentage growth, increases in the popularity of residential farms are being experienced in other hinterland and coastal areas. The most popular lifestyle farms are usually on the outskirts of a major country town one to two hours from a capital city.
“Some of the people who buy might still work in the city but they only need to go into the office two or three days a week,” says David Connell.
He believes the some even commute daily. “I think people are willing to put themselves out and suffer a bit of inconvenience just to enjoy it.”

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