ON THE HOME RUN

It was never a question that Jack Kaye would return to his family property Ballakaye in Nowhere Creek, Victoria, but would his wife-to-be follow him there?

FOR JACK KAYE, loving Ballakaye, in the rolling foothills of the Pyrenees Ranges in western Victoria, comes as his birthright. As sixth generation on the family farm at Nowhere Creek, it was his magical childhood playground, the place where he loved working with his father in the sheep yards, and helping research teams tag the elusive platypuses that lived in the shady waterholes of the creek. His roots run deep into the soil of Ballakaye. For Kirby Kaye, it was never an option that she would not grow to love it too. Jack and Kirby met in 2009, when they were both living in Wagga Wagga. At the time Kirby, originally from Shepparton in northern Victoria, was studying equine science and Jack was doing a diesel mechanics apprenticeship. Kirby recalls that Jack was immediately upfront about his strong connection to Ballakaye. “We met through friends and we had been dating for about two weeks when he said to me, ‘I need you to come home and see the farm and if you can’t live there then there’s no relationship’,” Kirby recalls. “He put it straight out there on the table and there was never going to be any compromise on that. So, we drove from Wagga to Nowhere Creek and arrived about one in the morning. It was beautiful straightaway. Luckily, I loved it!” A decade on the couple, both 32, are parents of four children, Jock, five, Paddy, four, Teddy, three, and one-yearold Lucy. Four years ago they took over the running of the 450-hectare Merino sheep and cropping farm 165 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, from Jack’s parents, who still live across the road. Jack and Kirby got married in their garden in 2013 and shortly after moved into the original house on the property that had been built by pioneer William Henry Kaye back in the 1860s. “He was a shopkeeper in Landsborough about 20 minutes away in the goldrush, servicing people working in that area,” Kirby says. “When the gold started slowing down, he packed up and moved his whole shop to this land, which from then on was used as a woolshed until about 35 or 40 years ago. They were incredibly resourceful people.” William Kaye had built the cottage from any materials he could lay his hands on, and since then successive generations had adapted and extended it to their needs. Jack’s grandmother was living there at the time of their marriage. “Jack’s grandmother passed away fairly quickly and the house was shut up,” says Kirby. “When we moved to the farm and into this house I was five months pregnant.” >

However, what was intended to be a quick renovation, to put French doors in the sitting room out to the garden and jack up a sagging floor, soon became a dramatic rebuild that is still ongoing. “We just thought we’d do a couple of things to let a little light into the house, but it turned into a disaster,” says Kirby. “The whole house started moving and it ended up falling apart. There were termites through the entire house and water damage, so we restumped the whole thing. When I came home with a brand new baby we had no living room floor and no kitchen. Luckily, my brother-in-law had just reconnected the water. Then we lived in here for years with holes in the floor, but we love it and stuck it out.” Over time they have refloored and stripped the plaster from the walls, strengthened the framing, added insulation and replastered, one room at a time. “It had just been built of anything they could get their hands on in the old days, and it’s a big job. We are still chipping away at it,” says Kirby. The kitchen, finished in 2014, is the hub of the house and the place that Kirby loves to be. “I like classic things that don’t date and are practical,” she says. “I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and it has to withstand the rigours of four kids and farm activities.” Kirby loves cooking and growing her own vegetables, something that harks back to her childhood in Shepparton. “My grandparents were dairy farmers who had moved to town. They had an orchard, a vegie garden and the most beautiful rose garden. I was always with my grandfather in the garden or in the kitchen cooking with my nana. It shaped my love of cooking and gardening.” That early grounding and their sense of place at Ballakaye, which has an indigenous meaning, ‘home of the Kayes’, has come together in a new venture called Settler and Sons. Sharing their passion for producing their own food and that of the region, they host long table lunches and dinners in idyllic spots around the property. “It’s a really good way of connecting with like-minded people,” says Kirby. “It’s been another natural progression for me as I love to cook and garden, and get people here to enjoy it with us.” For Kirby, family, farm and events is a balancing act with another of her life’s passions — horses. She thanks her parents for supporting this when she was a child. “My mother was a ballet teacher and although I did ballet, I was obsessed with horses,” she says. “My mother tried to steer me down the ballet path but by the time I was eight, they decided that I wasn’t going to give up. They became very supportive of my horseriding and even moved out of town to small acreage just so I could keep my horse there.” As a child Kirby rode in pony club and in the bush, something she loves to do today at Ballakaye. “I have a Clydie cross mare called Sao, who is bombproof and currently in foal to a black stock horse stallion. As a child Jack used to fang around the place on ponies but not in adult years, but I love riding in the bush or mountains near the farm, and want to do more camp drafting and show hunting. For the children we’ve got a little Shetland pony called Blackberry, and Lucy is already just horse mad.” As Jack knows, growing up on a farm is a great start for kids. “Jack’s very sentimental about the farm. What’s important to him is that the children have the same opportunities and space to grow that he had. His main driver is to provide the kids with an amazing childhood,” Kirby says. “It’s a magical childhood, and they are totally unrestrained and free. They are very lucky kids.” For information about upcoming Settler and Sons events, visit settlerandsons.com.au