Farm Life, home.
Family Farm
This small family farm is on Kaiabara/Buyibara Land, Wakka Wakka Country.
We are a Land for Wildlife Farm.
My family moved to this farm in the early 1970s when I was a very young child. I loved growing up here and even though I left home at the age of 15 to start work, I kept returning. I am now living here once again and caring for this place alongside my family.
When my children were young we renovated two 100+ year old single room schools (Neumgna and Meandu schools) to be our home on the farm. It is also during that time that I began the Bimblebox Art Project. This place, my home, is situated near the tiny town of Maidenwell in Queensland, Australia.
Here I will add photos and write about some of the interesting things that I see or events that happen on the farm. You can sign up for farm and art updates at the writing, news, updates page.
All photos, unless otherwise credited, are by Jill Sampson
Fire on country:
In 2025 Firesticks Alliance in collaboration with Bunya Peoples Aboriginal Corporation began Cultural Burning here as part of their Indigenous Knowledge for Climate Resilience project. This has created the most wonderful opportunity to connect with and welcome First Nations people to this place that myself and my family also call home. I want to especially acknowledge the Kaiabara/Buyibara people whose traditional lands this is, that I have met through this project.
Not for a moment when I read Victor Steffensen’s book Fire Country: How Indigenous Fire Management Could Help Save Australia did I imagine that he would one day come here and burn. It was reading Victor’s book several years ago that started us on a journey to learn what we could and work at introducing cool fire to manage weeds and pasture here for better environmental and grazing outcomes. It was an amazing moment when Victor, Firesticks Alliance and Bunya Peoples Aboriginal Corporation first came to visit and later on to burn. Astonishingly, I now appear in a short video with Victor that you can view via below. We are in awe of the work that these highly skilled and professional Indigenous fire practitioners do, and we are grateful to be part of this project.
Below are two other videos that have been created during this ‘Indigenous Knowledge for Climate Resilience’ project and predominantly filmed during the burns here. The first video below is Victor Steffensen Tagalaka man and Firesticks Co-founder talking about the soil directly after the first burn.
The second video below features Danny Manning, Cultural Fire Practitioner and Assistant Fire Chief, California who was visiting as part of an International Knowledge Exchange on Wakka Wakka Country. Please read more about this here.
These videos can be found at Firesticks Alliance
Video credits:
Seth Seden: cinematographer/editor
Bella Laifoo: photographer/second shooter/editor
Filmed on Wakka Wakka Country
Photos below are from the start of our 2022 burning:
June, 2022
These photos are of our preliminary cool fire burns. There was a lot of moisture in the ground vegetation, with many places too wet to burn. However we were able to start making small fire breaks that helped with more cool fire burning that we did during September/October.
Fence repair and maintenance.
Easter 2022:
Photos above were taken early morning during the Easter holiday, 2022. It has been a phenomenal La Nina summer. Cool summer, lots of rain and has continued with some rain into the beginnings of winter. Usually here the winters are dry and the cold weather starts by April with the growing season stopped from March. The thick swathes of grass this past summer made it difficult to walk off the tracks and even some of the tracks are over grown. After a decade of predominantly dry weather and low grass cover, it is a joy to see the grasses thick and lush.
Jill Sampson 