White ants and wind storms have eaten and beaten the old homestead at Harrison, while Canberra's newest suburbs loom up on its boundary fences.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Rabbits and rust join the relentless attack, but the tide is turning, as more people see Well Station's rare heritage.
Smack in the middle of brick-and-tile suburbia, angus cows bellow across the dusty paddocks and the smell of sheep dung hangs in the air. A pair of shearer's moccasins worn through at the soles dangle from wire in one of the sheds.
Tenants for the past 29 years Dennis and Maree Rose love this place, clear cobwebs, and have won heritage grants and shared their visions for attracting school children to shearing demonstrations.
In 2011 Well Station was put on the market, and a conservation management plan was prepared, which identified the 1850s homestead's exceptional heritage value.
The new owner, Peter Hudson, a butcher and landscaper, and his father John Hudson arrived to discover Well Station's potential for education.
"Here's a little island in suburbia, " John Hudson said. "We thought the community has to be involved. Dennis did a great job in getting the [ACT] government on side. We won't knock anything down. "
The Hudsons run 100 cows on Well Station. Once while moving them to another property, and watched by curious neighbours and their children, a wayward cow strayed so all the onlookers stepped in to help re-form the mob.
In Mr Hudson's view, educating children on farm life became more pressing after the federal government banned live cattle exports from Australia's north to Indonesia in 2011, unaware of the consequences down the supply chain.
"I see children including my old children detached from the land," Mr Hudson said.
Because of their short-term leases, owners of rural blocks in the ACT were reluctant to invest money on improvements.
"They have been using Band-Aids for the past 100 years," Mr Hudson said. "Now we have a 99-year lease, this is classed as rural and we can put resources into it."Looking from Well Station's highest hill east you see Mount Majura and to the south Parliament House's needle-thin flagpole shining above Parliament House, Lovett Tower in the south and Brindabella Mountains. A water tank stands on the hill while remnants of an old wool press lay on the ground.
These days Mr Hudson and Mr Rose split groups of 80 school children into two and take them through an 1850s blade shed where shearers clipped wool from sheep, and later editions to the building added about 1900 and 1920, including a four-stand shed.
Year 9 and 10 students will help restore the old stables, saddlery and groom's quarters, using a Department of Education grant.
Agricultural students will learn how to show cattle. Students are working with ACT Parks and Conservation on land management and how it relates to the endangered golden sun moth.
ACT Chamber of Commerce partnership broker Beth Peters, who helped establish the school's ongoing relationship with Well Station, sees a long future nurtured by more partnerships.
Ms Peters said the Office of Surveyor General and geospatial experts worked with students on pilot program mapping out sections of the station with surveying equipment including an unmanned aerial vehicle, leading to a proposal to train teachers from more schools to teach children basic geospatial technology.
"Everyone who visits, even the guys who came out from [Gungahlin] Rotary a couple of weeks ago to do a sausage sizzle said it was so nice to actually still have a bit of country in the city. You really feel like you are out in the country," Ms Peters said.
