TIME has passed quickly since John Mitchell and his late wife Hannah won community acknowledgement for their large scale tree planting efforts.
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The year was 1989 - long before the Landcare movement was formed - when the Mitchell family set about planting trees as effective erosion control for their northeast aggregation “Arcot” at Bethanga near Lake Hume.
The acknowledgement was the Theo Charles-Jones award and their achievement honoured at a Murray Valley League association conference which both no longer function.
But John is still around and very proud of his achievements and the legacy he will leave.
In many ways John is a pioneer: a man head of his time.
He began farming life at the age of 15 when he left school during the 1943 to 1945 drought to help his mother provide for the family – a time when rabbits had a strong foothold in the Bethanga foothills.
At the time of his award, Arcot had expanded to span 600ha, grazed 400 permanent breeding cattle and carried up to a 1000 head when conditions were good.
But his undulating to steep hill country had suffered greatly from erosion along its creek lines a newspaper report in Stock & Land revealed at the time.
Erosion on many of its broader hills areas had also been controlled with a method of contour ploughing a practice John embraced early in his farming life and still swears by today.
Attempts to control serious erosion along its creek lines were initially managed by plantings of willows, which met with varying degrees of success. But then a concept of fencing out larger creek areas and planting different species of trees was pioneered by John, as he worked to develop success for his project.
From humble beginnings, Mr Mitchell estimates he has planted about 14,000 trees over the years with the help of late wife and their six children. Eucalypts were mainly preferred– native species of Stringy Bark, Red Gum, Grey, White, Red and Yellow Box and Spotted Gums.
As these early plantings matured and his battle with gully erosion was being won, he also appreciated the aesthetic value the plantings have brought and the value they have provided his stock as shelter areas and the likes.
He says the Bethanga district, on the outsides of Albury, has great hill country. And, between himself, his brother Max and two sons they now farm about 1200 hectares of the local district.
He says the Bethanga district has been good to his family and given that one only gets a single chance at life it is his aim to leave his land and his community in better condition than when he arrived.
Mr Mitchell, with his son Alan and his wife Marg now conduct most of the farming on Arcot, running about 600 breeders.
John said most of his trees were planted as tube stock, by hand, with very few losses. Many of his trees are now more than 12 metres tall. He says the secret to his success was to dig holes 'two shovelfuls' deep and plant each tree during mid-winter months. This allowed the young seedling to establish a strong root system and get a good dampening before summer.
John said he used pick and shovel, slow cattle dogs and ferrets to rid his land of rabbits and then fencing all his boundaries with netting wire.
He says he has had to sacrifice the farming of about 30 cows and calves each year to practise his conservation farming methods - a sacrifice many people are not willing or in a position to do.
