Once Upon a Time
Red Rabbit Farm was once a fully operational fruit and berry farm called Applegum Grove. We purchased this beautiful 25-acre property eight months after the devastating bushfires swept through Cobargo over New Year 2020. It is a wonder the old mud-brick house was still standing. Most of the fruit trees were gone, along with the buildings that had once been used to store fruit and farm equipment.
Along the long eastern boundary of our property, we share a fence line with a wonderful woman who has dedicated her 100 acres as a nature preserve in perpetuity. A beautiful creek winds its way through the trees along the southern and eastern edges, with friendly farms sitting up on the embankment and more open land to the north.
We are nestled among soft, rolling hills in what I believe to be the most picturesque part of Australia, the Sapphire Coast of NSW. Not that I’m biased.
Maxie Roo always enjoys being up on our hill, watching anything and everything going on.
Moving here so soon after the bushfires, there was very little wildlife around, and almost nothing for them to eat. We put out bird seed and water bowls, and I still remember how exciting it was when the first two birds visited.
In 2026, this wildlife oasis is flourishing. We have recorded 36 species of birds, many nesting in the boxes we hung in the trees after so many natural hollows were lost in the fires.
Two mobs of kangaroos now call our property home, along with red-necked and swamp wallabies that we see every morning and evening. After dark, we often spot wombats emerging from their burrows along the creek’s edge, and of course there are always a few rabbits and foxes about as well.
Shortly after settling here, I joined a wildlife rescue organisation and started looking after orphaned Eastern Grey Kangaroo joeys. Getting to know them inspired me to write and illustrate a series of picture books in the hopes that I could help educate, instil empathy and create curiosity for these iconic animals and other local wildlife. But this website is so much more than a platform to sell books, it is a place where I am organising the stories, photos and videos of my memories of raising kangaroos and watching the wildlife that calls this property home.
Witnessing Mother Nature heal herself after the fires has been magical, but I’ll share that story in more detail another time.
