Robbie married his long term partner, Natasha, a few years ago and have a beautiful daughter that Robert and Therese adore. Framing it as tactfully as possible, I ask if they have any measures in place to protect the farm in case of a divorce. There is no assumption here that there will be one but I’m curious as to whether it’s something they’ve considered.

Therese explains that a couple they’re friends with had a terrible succession experience. Their son married a woman from an agricultural background and brought her back to Lightning Ridge to live. The woman expected the parents to move off the land and out of the main homestead to make way for husband to take over. This caused a terrible rift in the family and the parents had to sell farming equipment to buy their sons share of the farm out. The newly married couple moved away off the property due to being so unhappy. Plenty of people have lost land and family when faced with this reality of succession.

This is where leasing your land to your children comes in – a safety switch I had never heard of.

Robert explains that if the parents remain the principal owners, the farm and whatever equipment they own can never be lost to such a dispute. Regardless of how sour a relationship gets in divorce or between generations, no one can come looking for a sum of property because technically the children don’t own it, they’re only leasing it. I ask if this is what they have in place for Robbie and they nod in agreement.

They lament that it might sound selfish but after working your whole life for something, the last thing you’d want is to see it being spilt with someone who may have contributed nothing.

“So is Robbie your heir?”

“He will be.” Robert says.

Therese is quick to say “And his sister Hannah is just as capable, they both want to be on the land.”

“We pushed Hannah out, she was working here and she was better than any bloke we would have. It sounds rough, but we gave her the opportunity to go after other things. I released her. There are no young people around here. She followed the love of her life down to Yass but she wasn’t happy. She eventually broke it off. We said to her that she had to get her life back and needed to go somewhere where there are young people. She loves her job, loves being a midwife. And she loves being in Dubbo because it feeds all this western area, she said it’s just like being at home. But both kids want to be on the land.

But whether she comes back here, I don’t know. But Robbie has done the hard yards, he’s been here the whole time. But he loves the farming side whereas Hannah loves the stock side of it. They complement each other.”

The Turnbulls are lucky to have two children that want to be on the land and who both want to farm. But the notion of, as Therese put it, pushing Hannah out towards new opportunities lingers. A study being conducted by the University of South Australia has revealed that only 10 percent of successors are female with many of the females interviewed expressing sympathy for their male relatives due to their lack of choice in the matter.

I look over at a pair of glass doors and tapped to them are two A3 laminated maps of the different paddocks on Bando. Every paddock is labelled in red and green whiteboard maker. At the very centre, Robbie is written in green pen. It’s obvious that both parents are proud of their children and their achievements but it’s hard to reconcile the facts. Both children are capable, both are hard workers and both want to be on the land but only one will get the chance. It can only be met with a puzzled look.

08 de November de 2017

08 de November de 2017