This small family farm is on Kaiabara Land, Wakka Wakka Country.

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 keep returning to the farm. When my children were young we lived there for a few years while renovating two 100+ year old single room schools (Neumgna and Meandu schools) to be our home on the farm. It is also during this time that I began the Bimblebox Art Project. I am currently living between both the farm and Brisbane and plan to live there permanently when the timing is right. 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 by Jill Sampson

June, 2022
While home on the farm for a week in June my daughter and I were able to help my Father with some preliminary cool fire burns. There is 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 will help with more cool fire burning that we hope to do during September/October. Unfortunately over the five full days we were there, only two of those days were suitable weather for burning. I was able to take some time during the less intense phases of the burning, to get my camera out.

While I am in Brisbane I need to try to avoid covid, influenza and other viruses so I am pretty much holed up at home, only emerging for short walks and medical appointments. I am immunocompromised because of the kind of cancer I have, the long immune recovery from my stem cell transplant and the daily immune suppressant drug I take to try to suppress the development of Myeloma cancer cells. The side affects from this drug also create some issues. However being at the farm is like opening the door to a freedom I can’t have in the city.

Here I am helping Dad to lay out fence posts for fence repair. My job was to pace out the distance and push the end of the post into the ground. Dad’s job was to come along and hammer the posts into the ground. Because of his age and my low muscle tone & low fitness from this past two years of illness, we managed half of this fence line. Maybe in the future we can turn this around and he can lay out the posts, while I hammer them in! Unfortunately the next day I had to return to the city as I am still tied to regular medical appointments and the need to present to a particular pharmacy each month to get another pack of the daily chemo drug I have to take.
Photos by Jill Sampson and E Sullivan.

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.