Blog
While developing a new indoor backwall for Handmade Canberra in 2026, Shireen and Darren made sure the wombat and spring from their existing Widden Brook Farm market artwork remained in the design. The wombat is Wally, and he represents a real Black Summer story from 2019.
As the Gospers Mountain fire moved closer to Widden Brook Farm over about five weeks, drought had left the farm almost without water. The dams were dry, irrigation to the hazelnut orchard had been turned off, the household tank was nearly empty and the spring-fed water-supply dam was dry. Near that dam, Shireen noticed a small patch of mud where a wombat had been digging. The disturbance revealed a tiny underground spring still flowing at about 1,000 litres a day.
The water was collected in a small tank and piped roughly 500 metres downhill into the domestic supply, while the overflow remained available to wildlife. That small flow gave Shireen and Darren enough domestic water to stay and defend the farm when the fire moved through a couple of weeks later.
The spring Wally led them to is the same spring that provides the pure water used to make Elderflower Mist Sparkling today. For Widden Brook Farm it is, quite literally, a life source, which is why Wally and the spring remain part of both the outdoor gazebo backwall and the new indoor Handmade Canberra wall.
Winter slows pasture growth on Nullo Mountain, and this year feral animal pressure has left some paddocks with less feed than Widden Brook Farm would like heading into spring. At the same time, Maggie and her calf are being managed separately from the main herd so Maggie can have a full year to recover after an operation late last year. As warmer weather slowly lifts grass growth, the farm is balancing stock movement with the time pasture and animals need to recover. It is a practical example of Holistic Management in action: respond to what the land and livestock are actually telling you, rather than forcing them to fit a fixed plan.
May asks for a different kind of enjoyment: warm rooms, cool glasses, richer food and a bottle ritual that feels considered without becoming heavy.
In May, the obvious signs of life have quietened, but the farm has not gone still. Wrens, waterbirds, beetles under bark and sheltered habitat all tell us something about the health of the land.
Autumn on the farm is a season of return. In this month’s story, we look at soil, organic matter, and the quiet cycle of what the land gives back when it is cared for well.
Explaining the philosophy behind Widden Brook Farm’s low alcohol Australian sparkling. This blog article explores changing drinking culture, the role of elderflower sparkling in Australia and how lightly alcoholic bottle fermented drinks support ritual without excess.