A Rokewood agriculture community has been recognised for its work towards bringing together communities that help grow regional agriculture while also improving the local environment.
Land management company Cassinia Environmental was named a finalist in the Premier's Sustainability Awards for its Rokewood Natural Agriculture Community project at their Moonlight Creek property.
The project began after the company bought a property initially broken up into 48 different titles.
Cassinia director Paul Dettmann said the new model was yet to be fully operational but was keen to pursue it after exploring the land's agricultural potential.
"Imagine if we had a thought about the landscape from an agricultural, nature and a community perspective... we'd have a much more holistic thinking around landscapes and I would say that the development that we've done over the last 50 years would have been a lot better," he said.
The project has already restored over 200 hectares of the property, focusing on cleaning waterways, undertaken mainly in 2021.
There are 14 people who own lots on the farm, who all agree to aggregate the agricultural land where one farmer is responsible for the whole property.
That farmer - or a "share farmer" as Mr Dettmen calls them - lives on the property and is the ultimate agricultural decision maker, running the farm on regenerative principles.
The owners of the parcels of land contribute to the upkeep of the natural environment for five hours a month, whether it be restoring waterways, managing weeds and pests or potentially reintroducing threatened species.
Mr Dettmann said the project aimed to reduce the potential of a fragmented landscape.
"We're saying that you obviously need to aggregate more than the planning scheme envisages for the farming zone in order to have a viable farm," he said,
Mr Dettman said there was "a paradox of land management" in which agriculture keeps pushing for bigger properties, yet more people must be involved in land management to tackle environmental challenges.
"If we end up with one farmer owning 10,000 hectares and we need to restore the waterways... one farmer is not going to be able to do the conservation work that's required to reconnect that landscape," he said.
"So we thought about how we balance these natural and agricultural joint objectives we have in these landscapes, and we think this is an interesting way to think about it."
Mr Dettmann said it was essential to "bring people more together" to pursue better agricultural practices that look after the land.
"The 48 titles will be consolidated [and] we're working through that with council at the moment, but the concept is that this can be applied in lots of landscapes," he said.
"I'll probably give you the definitive answer on how it all went in five or 10 years time, but I think it'll allow people who perhaps haven't had much experience with agriculture, to be part of that world and learn".
Farmers and the community working together to enhance the local environment is not a new concept, with similar Landcare projects underway throughout the Glenelg shire.
Mr Dettmann said there was also potential in nurturing new careers through the project, especially for young farmers aiming to establish a career.
"A project like this could be their segue into the industry because they don't have to actually buy the farm," he said.
"They can be the share farmer in these communities, and then they can learn from all the different experiences of the different people that are on the journey with them."
