Bambra Agroforestry Farm See trees for shelter, conservation & profit Grown by Rowan Reid

Bambra Agroforestry Farm 25 Years On

Bambra is 30 minutes west of Geelong. Our farm has been set up as an 'outdoor classroom' for agroforestry. It has certainly been a great learning experience for me:

Bambra Agroforestry Farm in 1987 (above) and in 2001 (below). As Aldo Leopold once wrote: growing trees is like "writing a history on the landscape".

My family have been farming in Australia since the mid 1800’s. When I got my opportunity I wanted to see if I could make forestry attractive to the farming community. Bambra Agroforestry Farm is set up as an outdoor classroom for practical field days and workshops. More than 5000 people have visited the farm since we began planting trees in 1987. Our aim is not to 'demonstrate' how farmers should grow trees but to provide a place where they can explore the opportunities that agroforestry might provide them on their farm and practical knowledge on how they might achieve their own goals.

Furniture made from 16-yr-old Shining Gum harvested from the creekside planting Bambra

Tours and Workshops at Bambra Agroforestry Farm

The farm displays more than 45 commercial tree species, various planting arrangements and practical management options. Over the years we've run hundreds of tours, field days and workshops on the farm for farmer groups, government agencies, international tours, schools and more. We've even built a classroom in the old shearing shed with a kitchen other facilties. Most tours include a visit to the outstanding nearby property of Andrew and Jill Stewart (Yan Yan Gurt West) and other local examples. For information about upcoming field-days and workshops or to organise a custom tour for your group contact Rowan or keep an eye on our home page.

Photos from some of the many tours:

Where's Bambra?

Less than 2 hours drive south-west of Melbourne, Australia.   Look it up on Google Maps

	Download the Bambra Agroforestry Farm Tour Guide The 12-page full-colour guide takes you on a guided tour of the farm and provides technical information on a range of species and management options. Large File Warning: 2.45M
	Timber Harvests at Bambra Agroforestry Farm Our first trial harvest of pruned eucalypts involved 10-year-old trees (30-40cm diameter). That only proved that backsawing of Shining Gum created drying problems. Our 16-year-old harvest (50cm) was more promising. It proved that growth stresses were not an issue in well managed straight trees and that quatersawing produced stable boards with lower risk of internal checking and highlighted fiddleback grain if present. But, the logs could have been bigger. Our most recent harvest was of 60-70cm diameter Veneer logs that were sent to China for processing