Rheban taking a rest as John Kelly looks to the future

Standing on the eastern coastline of Maria Island as a convict in the 1840s, John Kelly’s great-great-grandfather would have been able to see Rheban Farm.

The Irish prisoner could never have imagined that one of his offspring five generations later would own the sprawling 3250-hectare property with 10km of private beaches.

“It’s quite an incredible historic link,” John said.

The Hobart City councillor and former State Cinema owner bought Rheban for around $15 million from the Gray family earlier this year.

“Jack Gray and his brother had the farm for 87 years.

“It expanded quite a lot in that initial period when the two brothers bought it and they did a lot of acquisitions around the consolidation of a lot of other titles.

“They did a lot of clearing and turned it into a substantial sheep station.”

John’s connection with Rheban, which has been farmed on since the 1820s, extends beyond his ancestral roots.

“I started coming here in the early 70s as a Boy Scout, as the farmer allowed scout troops to come onto the property.

“And for the last 35 years, I’ve also had a shack on the property of Earlham next door.

“I know the area pretty well – I’ve walked it and ridden motorbikes over hills around here.”

Having been a businessman for most of his professional life, John has no prior agricultural experience and says he has “no pretence to being a farmer”.

“There is a drought going on in a lot of places in Tasmania, but the East Coast is always susceptible to dry conditions.

“However, the region has always had good grazing land for cattle and sheep.

“But a lot of farmers are feeding their livestock grain – which is very expensive – wool prices are down and it’s very hard to get shearers in this day and age.”

This factor was behind John not purchasing the 5500 sheep that were on Rheban before he bought it.

Apart from a handful of turkeys, there are only a dozen Dorper sheep on the entire property.

“There’s been sheep here continuously for well over 100 years and there’s no harm in letting it regenerate,” John said.

“I’m keen to get some livestock on the property once everything lines up with the water.

“The success of this farm in the future is about water storage.”

The Sandspit River reaches the boundary of Rheban, and John has been investigating ways to best manage and store water.

“Tim Chesterman from Earlham put in some big storage dams around 20 years ago,” he said.

“They’ve done pretty well there and there’s a big opportunity here to do water properly.”

John believed that farming with Dorper sheep would be more profitable than with Merinos.

“Some of the big merino stations on the mainland have flipped right over to 100 per cent dorper, or shedding sheep as they are called,” he said.
“Because the meat on them is quite nice, they’re a different animal to look after.

“You haven’t got all that hassle of sheep shearing, hiring shearers and using shearing sheds.

“The wool market is not going well, so modern-day farms need to look at other ways of sustainability and producing other revenue.”

John said the bones of the farm are excellent despite the work that needs to be done.

“It’s maintained its original, unique form as a farm.

“You’ve got the old shearing sheds, the incredible stone barns and there are a number of other dwellings on the property.

“About a third of the acreage is clear and really good grazing country, and the other two-thirds varies from lightly to densely wooded areas.”

Rheban has several protected areas and titles with covenants that prohibit development – including Earlham Lagoon, which borders the property and serves as a wildlife sanctuary – as well as areas where both wedge-tailed and sea eagles nest.

“Carbon credit schemes are starting to evolve into bigger schemes that encompass all these other things, like particular species of flora and fauna,” John said.

“It’s a really emerging market and there are some big moves behind the scenes happening now for organisations that are forming to get farms like this.

“This whole notion of those being bad areas for farms could be one of the saving graces for farms.”

John said he also wanted to tap into agritourism, given the long stretch of beaches along the coastline of the property and surrounding bushland.

He planned to renovate the dwellings on the property for accommodation, including potentially turning an old stone barn on the farm into a cellar door.

“It’s one hour from Hobart and 50 minutes from the airport, plus Orford is only 10 minutes up the road for those who want to go and get supplies or get their latte,” John said.

“There’s a big potential there to earn revenue for farms.

“Next year, I’m planting a couple of hectares of vines around the homestead to give it a nice feel.

“That can be all part of the branding of Rheban and a good trial for wines.”

Several companies had already contacted John about the possibility of creating walking and mountain bike trails on the property.

“The Rheban property goes right up into the hills to Three Thumbs Lookout and there are some old tracks that go down to Buckland,” he said.

“Some studies have been done by organisations to make a network of these mountain bike trails.

“Places like Rheban and other farms along that route can tap into accommodation.”

John said Rheban provided him with plenty of opportunities, but he wanted to do them in a way that would have a low environmental impact.

“The last thing I want to do is turn this farm into a theme park, as I respect the traditions and history of this place too much.

“I’d rather have a higher-quality destination than a place that’s got a big car park full of fluffy toy stands and souvenirs.

“We’re just doing small trials at the moment, just to see how things go, and not rush in and do rampant overdevelopment from day one.”