Meliora Farm, Peats Ridge

meliorafarm.com.au

There’s something special about Peats Ridge that keeps drawing the Kemp men back. With 120 acres of verdant groves, meandering creeks and scenic views down to the Hawkesbury River, Meliora Farm is an undeniably beautiful place to grow up, yet horticulture has never been easy. 

‘Citrus has always been marginal, as far as returns go,’ said Robert, whose father Ken bought the land in 1925. Robert attended Hawkesbury Agriculture College (now University of Western Sydney), then went to the Northern Territory to work on cattle stations in the late 1950’s and early 60’s. 

‘I would have stayed there, but Dad wrote to me and said he’d had enough farming and wanted to sell the place. I decided I wouldn’t like to see it sold, so I came back and took over.’

Robert’s wife Lyndall recalled that they had to do all sorts of extra things in the early days to make ends meet. They had hairdressing salon, a laundromat and a fertilising business. ‘You had to,’ she explained. ‘It’s not broadacre like way out west. It’s very intensive here.’ 

To supplement the citrus, Robert started growing tomatoes for the Sydney market. ‘Tomatoes were much more labour intensive, but you could make money out of it,’ he said. ‘Or you could make nothing at all.’ 

Their son, Tim, shudders at the memory. ‘Dad cured me of tomatoes when I was a kid. The endless amount of work you had to do to get the crop ready to pick, then you pick the crop and sometimes get nothing for it, after all those hours you’d put in. I said to Dad, “If I’m going to come back to the farm, we’re not growing tomatoes!”’

Like Robert, Tim loved growing up on the farm, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to take over. 

‘It’s incredible how similar our stories ended up being,’ said Tim. ‘I went to Hawkesbury as well — the 3rd generation of Kemps to go there. There was never any pressure from Dad to come back to the farm. He said “Get out and experience the world and decide what you do.”