Hannah Stewart's parents farmed the Otways knowing when the rain would come. Decades later, she can’t be as sure.
In the Otway Ranges, Stewart is the fifth generation at the helm of her family farm, Yan Yan Gurt West. Her parents laid the bedrock for a robust, regenerative property, but Stewart says the biggest issue for her farming cohort is financial and weather unpredictability.
What happened? Yan Yan Gurt West, in Deans Marsh, primarily farms sheep, producing meat and wool. Hannah Stewart grew up on the property. Four years ago, she took over the farm from her parents alongside her partner.
Stewart described her childhood as “very lucky”, retelling stories of mustering livestock on horseback in her teen years.
“It was pretty amazing cruising around like that,” she told the Brolga.
Then versus now: Stewart said the biggest issue to contend with while running the farm nowadays is that “there’s a lot less predictability in the weather now”. She said in regions like the Otways, seasons were previously relatively stable.
“It used to be consistent, we knew when the rainfall would come and when it wouldn’t,” she said. “But the forecast is all over the place.”
She said costs have become unpredictable as well.
“Driven by what’s happening in the world, driven by climate change, and the reduction of access to resources and how much is left”.
Stewart explained that her partner and herself have “brought a lot of different things to the table” since taking over the farm. This includes things like landscape change by rebuilding understorey and closer analysis of pastures, soil and animal health. They’ve also introduced multi-species cropping and rotational grazing to rest paddocks sufficiently.
The bigger picture: Victoria’s Climate Science Report shows that, as of 2024, heatwaves have become more intense, average annual rainfall has decreased and dry periods have become longer.
For Stewart, this has manifested in a variety of ways. A week before she and her partner sold their first set of lambs, the market crashed by 80 percent and the region headed straight into a drought that lasted two years.
Now, future drought is potentially on the horizon, with an El Niño event declared in June, which locks Australia into a six-month weather pattern that reduces cloud cover and creates extreme heat.
The foundations: Stewart’s property has close to 20 percent tree cover, thanks largely to her grandfather’s love of birds and intrepid replanting of native trees to boost the farm’s biodiversity when he was in charge. The planting targeted waterway areas with erosion issues, and native species were also introduced for timber, harvested to make saw logs on a 30-year rotation - also known as agroforestry.
“It’s very much an intergenerational project,” Stewart said, adding her father studied agricultural science while her mother – a vet nurse – was a “big conservationist” at heart.
Long-term planning: In the early 1990s, Stewart’s parents created a “whole farm plan” that included strategic guidance for revegetation to improve the health of the soil, aid nutrient cycling and implement wildlife corridors. Stewart said the effort her parents put into the property was a key factor in encouraging the next generation to “want to be there”.
“It’s such a nice environment that they created for us. It’s created in a way that makes you want to be here. Our farm is beautiful, and I’ve worked on a lot of others”.
Taking the reins: After years spent studying and working on farms across the globe, Stewart focused on regenerative farming.
“I just thought this is such a great opportunity to meld together conversations and landscapes and farming systems,” she told the Brolga. “If you can create a system, earn a living and then also create biodiversity on your farm, it’s pretty cool”.
Quick tip: Stewart said the words of advice she’d give to other young farmers is to “go in with an open mind” and be sure of the lifelong commitment the choice brings.
“Our generation has to be a lot more savvy because of the variability in the financial and ecological climate,” she said. “We have to be more open to change, less resistant to doing things a bit differently”.