Riley and Lachlan Hughes bucked the trend when they left the treadmill of their careers to become full-time market gardeners.
For decades their family’s land at Woombye in Queensland’s Sunshine Coast hinterland hadn’t run much more than a few cows.
But Riley, a 35-year-old former electrical engineer, and his 33-year-old brother Lachlan, who worked as an urban forester in local government, have returned to their family’s farming roots.
Honeyeater Farm in the 1960s featured a pioneer cottage and family home. (Supplied: Lachlan Hughes)
In the 1980s James “Jim” Whitall Hughes grew avocados and pineapples. (Supplied: Lachlan Hughes)
Pineapple workers in the 1950s enjoy a well-earned tea break in the field. (Supplied: Lachlan Hughes)
Kerryanne Hughes slashes Honeyeater Farm’s paddocks in the 1980s. (Supplied: Lachlan Hughes)
In the 1950s, their grandfather Jim secured a job at the then-thriving Moreton Central Sugar Mill and became one of many pineapple farmers on the hills.
Bare-footed Hughes children ran through the fields and posed beside a wooden fruit bin filled with pines grown on the rich red volcanic soil.
But Nambour’s sugar mill and Woombye’s pineapple crops disappeared as the coast’s population and real estate prices soared.
Suburbia has squeezed in on once-productive landscapes.
“I think access to land suitable for farming is probably one of the main barriers,” Riley said.
“I’m sure we’d have a lot more people in it if they did have access to suitable land.”
The brothers founded Honeyeater Farm in 2021.
They have sold chemical-free, fresh seasonal produce direct to customers at the Pomona Country Markets.
The produce has included broccoli, curly kale, potatoes, silver beet, zucchinis, beans, kohlrabi, English spinach, cos lettuce, bok choy, coriander and carrots.
Slower-growing vegetables such as fennel and leeks have been sown in the middle of the bed, with faster crops such as beetroot and spring onion planted on the sides.
“So, when those crops are harvested, that gives the crop in the middle of the bed the ability to then grow out and mature,” Lachlan said.
He said they also had crops such as marigold, borage and Queen Anne’s lace to attract beneficial insects, provide buffer zones and act as a trap crop for pest insects.
Young Farmers Connect
The Hughes brothers said they were working towards their farm becoming certified organic.
They said they supported practices that focused on improving soils and reducing environmental harm.
They prepared their beds using a broad fork and tended to their garden beds by hand, only using their tractor’s rotary hoe once a year to plant a nitrogen-rich cover crop before resting the farm over summer.
The brothers hosted a field day for the national Young Farmers Connect movement, sharing some of the tips and tricks that have helped them grow and improve efficiency.
“Attending Young Farmers Connect events in the lead up to us starting this farm was crucial in us forming ideas on how we would farm and also connecting with other growers,” Lachlan said.
“We visited a lot of farms so it’s nice to, after a few years, show everybody our farm using the knowledge that we learned.
“I think we also recognise that small businesses like ours, on their own, are probably stronger when we can form cooperatives with other farms.”
Young Farmers Connect south east Queensland chapter coordinator Grace O’Connor said the not-for-profit organisation supported an alternative to mainstream industrial-scale agriculture.
“There’s such huge challenges to doing this against the grain,” Ms O’Connor said.
“It is fresh food; it’s not being stored in a place for months.
“The purpose of the organisation as a whole is to empower and advocate for young, new, and inspiring farmers.”
The Hughes brothers encouraged anyone interested in becoming a farmer or changing careers to reach out to Young Farmers Connect.
“They hold open days and field days throughout the year and that is a really good opportunity for you to see real farms in action and get a feel for exactly what it is like to farm,” Lachlan said.
“But, if you’ve ever run a small business, I’d say it’s a fairly similar thing, there’s a lot of sacrifice for a lot of years before you can achieve sustainability.”
Riley showed off the simple but effective tool that took some of the back-breaking labour out of planting seedlings.
“We’re doing this full-time at the moment and we’ll take summer off because of the weather here on the Sunshine Coast,” he said.
Revealing that he had battled illness for a “significant portion” of the year, Lachlan Hughes praised his brother for his support.
“What we really tried to do this year is to apply lean principles to our farming enterprise and that means rally scaling it back,” Lachlan said.
“Only working the hours that we need to and implementing standards and procedures that making farming more efficient and less waste.
“I’ll be honest, most of what you see here is thanks to Riley’s hard work and I guess it’s a testament to his ability to apply those principles and be efficient with what he does.”
Riley was pragmatic about the realities of being a farmer, explaining how he and his brother had faced challenges from hungry hares, wallabies, a wild dog chewing through irrigation pipes and a hail storm.
“There’s no paid sick days when you’re a farmer in a partnership, the veggies need to be harvested and sold in a short amount of time,” Riley said.
“Sometimes you just have to knuckle down and get it done.”
