Living the dream Many of us harbour secret dreams – places we’d like to visit, careers we’d like to pursue - but the reality of chasing those dreams can be daunting when there are bills to pay, kids to raise and a lot to lose if it all goes wrong. Kangaroo Island farmers Ben and Sarah Pontifex have taken that all in their stride to chase their dream on a cane farm in Queensland. Amid a global pandemic and the aftermath of the worst bushfires to ever hit Kangaroo Island, Ben and Sarah packed their three young kids into the car and headed almost 3000km north of South Australia, to pursue a new adventure growing cane in sunny Queensland. It was a move 13 years in the making since a holiday through north Queensland gave Ben his first taste of cane country. “It’s been a fantasy for a long time. I was literally just having a holiday, driving through the region and I remember coming out of cattle country and then suddenly, I looked up and was surrounded by massive cane. I’ve never been able to shake it,” Ben said when Australian Canegrower visited the family's
"I looked up and was surrounded by massive cane. I’ve never been able to shake it."
340-hectare cane farm at Kirknie, on the fertile banks of the Burdekin River just outside Home Hill. “I remember just parking up on the side of the road whenever there was a bit of action in a paddock to watch what was going on," Ben says. "I flagged down a farmer and what he told me about the bulk yield for the inputs, it amazed me." A fifth-generation farmer, Ben's family grow wheat, lentils, barley and oaten hay on properties on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula. About 20 years ago the family expanded to a farm on Kangaroo Island where they grow wheat, canola and broad beans.
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