Why so many kids in this country town want to keep farming
by JOE HINCHLIFFE
Griffin Windley spent his summer school holiday helping out on the family and neighbouring farms.
When it was too wet for the harvester, he picked corn by hand. It was his job to pick the finger limes growing behind the family farm, to work the Farm Shop Cafe and to chip weeds.
The 11-year-old Kalbar boy has been helping on the farm for as long he can remember. And he loves it.
“It’s cool watching plants grow from seed,” he said.
Griffin knows exactly what he wants to do when he graduates from Ipswich Boys Grammar.
No it’s not farming.
“Adventure,” he said.
Agriculture comes next.
“After a few adventures, then I’ll come back to the farm.”
For his efforts and commitment to the way of life, Griffin is among the 20 nominees for the Young Farmer Award at this Wednesday’s Kalbar Australia Day Awards.
He’s not the only Kalbar kid on the list.
At 12, Jackson Rieck is no farming novice. For years he followed his dad Mick around the family farm, pitching in where he could.
“He’s always been Mick’s right hand, his shadow,” his Mum, Tracey, said.
“For a few years now, he’s been working independently.”
This week the Rieck’s got back from a holiday at the coast to the news that school would be postponed for a fortnight.
Some kids would be disappointed at not getting back to see their schoolmates. Not Jackson.
“It’s good,” he said, with a big grin, of the extra time off.
Why? Because it means he can get stuck into more farm work.
“Dad’s got me slashing, mowing all the grass,” he said.
When he finishes school, Jackson plans to take over the family farm.
Not all the nominees have a family farm to take over.
Nine-year-old Oliver Stephan lives down the road from his cousin Jackson in Aratula.
But his Mum, Andrea, reckons her boy has been riding tractors since he was a baby.
His dad Brett is a diesel fitter by trade and runs the harvest for the Riecks.
Young Oliver checks the paddocks for work every weekend and holiday.
And he knows exactly what he wants to do when he grows up.
“Run a hay farm, harvest for Mick and do a diesel fitting trade like Daddy,” he said.
Not every region can boast a new crop of young farmers like the Warrill Valley.
It might be something in the water: the security offered to Moogerah irrigators gives long-term confidence to the land.
But the boys’ mums reckon there is “something special about the area”.
“It’s the sense of community,” Mrs Rieck said.
Mrs Windley agreed.
“Just last night Griffin was saying the same thing,” she said.
“Everyone here is so nice to one another, when someone needs help, everyone chips in.”