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OUR STORY: INGLIS | 23

Jade Inglis with her daughters Adele and Eliza in front of the family
homestead.

Iremembertakingsheepto
JamestownandwhenIsaytheywere
worthnothing,therewasnobidor
offerandIbroughtthembackagain.

Lin and Maureen Inglis collecting the grand
champion carcase ribbon at the Southern Grassfed - LIN INGLIS Tough times make resilient people
Carcase Classic presentation this year. Seizing opportunities during tough times have
Picture by Catherine Miller
led to some defining moments for the Inglis family.
They bought grazing land when livestock were
worth “basically nothing”.
mothers and finish out quite well,” he said. responsibility for organising tasks like shearing. Lin said two stock agents in particular had been
“The steers average about 350 kilograms Jade, nee Darley, is also an integral part of the critical to their success and navigating seasonal
dressed. I’ve had cattle that have gone over Ingleside enterprise. challenges.
400kg milk tooth.” Raised at Crystal Brook, Jade studied civil “We’ve had two real good stock agents in my
“You’re paid by the kilogram, so more kilos engineering and works for the department of life, one of which was Harry Pavy,” he said.
means more money.” transport, going part time since having the kids “He came out and talked us into buying grazing
While the Inglis’s also do 3000ha of cropping and working for the farm the rest of the week land at Wandearah when sheep were worth
across Merriton and Wandearah - 1000ha of helping with cattle work, harvest and seeding, as nothing. We thought he was mad, but it turned
wheat, 600ha of barley, 100ha of oats for hay, and well as bookkeeping. out to be a really good decision.
1300ha of a vetch/barley mix and straight barley The family’s matriarch Maureen, nee Jacobs, “I remember taking sheep to Jamestown and
for cattle feed - Lin said cattle remained king. grew up on a farm at Wandearah before meeting when I say they were worth nothing, there was no
“The cattle enterprise is actually more profitable Lin. bid or offer and I brought them back again.
than our cropping enterprise because the inputs “I went to Adelaide for a couple of years to work “So we bought grazing land when we couldn’t
into Wirraminna are nowhere near the inputs before coming back here to get married,” she sell our sheep, but Harry Pavy had the foresight to
into cropping given the machinery, fertiliser and said. say ‘buy this land and use it as a haystack’.
chemical costs,” he said. “Growing up on a farming property, I saw my “We didn’t pay a lot for it because no one would
“When a tonne of wheat was $200, we got mother out there working all the time - she was buy it.”
$200 for our steers - a tonne of wheat was equal my Dad’s right-hand woman. The other agent was Tom Wardle.
to a decent steer. “I also had three sisters and we were required “He got us into agisting cattle on Mount
“Now we’re getting $3000 for our steers and to be out there working - whether it was sheep Willoughby and that progressed into buying
getting $400 for a tonne of wheat. work, shearing time or whatever was going on.” Wirraminna,” Lin said.
“We can grow a lot more grain than we used to When Maureen arrived at Ingleside, there “Those two really helped push us along.”
but, in terms of profitability, cattle have grown a lot wasn’t an accepted role for females at the time
more.” so she pursued off-farm interests, working as Farming legacy to live on
It would be hard not to get sentimental about
Strong women a familiar thread a counsellor, in community education, human land that has been worked, cared for and lived on
resources and mediation, but says she is
The youngest generation, Adele, year 12, and delighted to see women very much included in by one’s family for 150 years.
Eliza, year 10, are heavily involved in the farm and the farm’s present day operations. The passion for their slice of farming paradise
are carrying on a proud tradition of strong and Lin credits his grandmother Edith for keeping was evident in talking to the Inglis family.
capable Ingleside women. Ingleside afloat when Lin’s great great uncle (aged Driving across the paddocks where so many
Adele is doing a school-based apprenticeship, 90) and grandfather (aged 42) died in consecutive of his forebearers did, Sam said there was a real
a Certificate III in Agriculture, meaning she does a years. sense of history when waking up each day.
day a week of work on the farm - and often a lot It was nearly the end of the farm due to the He said he is just “teeing it up” for the next
more, especially at seeding and harvest time. death duties imposed at the time. generation to come along and do their bit.
She won the agriculture achievement award “My grandmother Edith just scraped through “Farming has its challenges, but if it was easy
at St Marks College at Port Pirie in 2022 and and ended up running the show for a fair while,” everyone would be doing it,” he said.
plans to continue working on the family farm after Lin said. “With both Lin and Sam, the love of the land
school. Edith’s eldest child Jean is also a legendary runs through them and you can’t shift it.” Maureen
The Inglis sisters both enjoy helping out at home figure at Ingleside, having worked at the farm said.
and run their own crossbred sheep flock, taking while her two older brothers went to war. “There’s a huge attachment to this land.”