Benji Leggate tells Anna Tobin how he and his wife Helen came to live in Western Australia, the one part of the world he said he’d never move to. Words Anna Tobin
“Helen and I got married in February 2006 and it was whilst we were on our honeymoon in Madeira that we hatched a plan to try living somewhere different.
At the time we were living on my parent’s farm on the Scottish Borders – I was running a sheep flock on the farm and Helen was working as a local vet. Before we got married, both Helen and I had worked and travelled around New Zealand and Australia.
I was always a big fan of New Zealand, but Helen loved the red dust and dirt and the warmth of Western Australia. We’d both actually spent time in Margaret River. In fact, I’d actually worked on a farm in the area and I swore at the time that it was one place in the world that I could never live, because it was so hot and dusty during the time I was there!
I liked the area, though, and Helen had enjoyed her time here, plus we have family in Perth and we knew that it would be useful to know people nearby. So we spent the next few months doing everything we needed to apply for a visa, with a view to living here.
We applied for a sponsored skilled migrant visa under Helen’s job as a vet, and we had sponsorship from a relative, to attain the necessary points needed for our application.
We submitted all the paperwork in May and we had to deposit about $5,000 AUD into an Australian government organisation called Centrelink. This money was then held for two years as a guarantee that we wouldn’t claim any benefits or medical expenses whilst we were living in Australia. Any claims are taken out of this money.
We then went about arranging all the other aspects of our lives for the move. I sold my flock of sheep and all my farming equipment and we packed everything up. Then we came out here in November for a six-week holiday to investigate.
The plan was to buy a farm out here and for Helen to work as a vet in the local area. We actually found Olive Hill Farm within the first week. It’s 145 acres, which is a relatively small holding, but large enough to have our own livestock, whilst allowing time to earn an “off-farm” income as well. It also has olive trees and further accommodation, which was used for holiday lets.
It’s in a gorgeous setting on a gravel road just ten minutes from town, and the Margaret River is at the foot of the property. Even when parts of the river dry up, as they can do in this part of the world, there is always water here, with expansive pools for a refreshing swim on the hot summer days. Plus, access to water is particularly important in Australia from a farming perspective.
Helen was offered a full time job in a veterinary practice in Margaret River and we put in an offer for the property, which was accepted. Getting a mortgage on the property was interesting, though, as we still had no visa and they wanted a guarantee that we could get it. Nevertheless, I was confident our visa would come through and I’d already booked our one-way flights back to Australia in January 2007.
Then we found out that with the size of property we were buying there was a different sort of visa that the government can grant for overseas investors buying a farm, and the sellers felt confident enough that if we didn’t get our visa we had a plan B. So we got the mortgage secured, with Helen having confirmation of a job over here.
We then went back to Scotland for Christmas, shocking everyone with the news that we’d bought a farm and a car, but we didn’t have a visa yet! We then came back to Australia in the New Year via New Zealand as we had to be off-shore when the visa would hopefully be granted, which it was, on 17 January 2007.
Although we weren’t due to complete the purchase of the farm until April, we took a lease on the holiday home on the farm and lived there whilst the outgoing owner was still in the main house. This worked really well, as he helped us to get to know the workings of the farm and introduced us to the local community. When the sale was completed we moved into the main house and started letting out the cottage to holidaymakers again.
We had come from mid-winter in Scotland to high summer over here, and the farming took some getting used to. I’d pick up a spanner, for example, and find it was red hot from lying in the sun. You learn to adjust, though.
We also started building ties within the local community, Rosa Brook. It has a volunteer fire brigade, which is a focal point for the village, and we joined it. It has taken me four years to get qualified as a volunteer fire fighter for the bush fires that break out around here. There’s also a polocrosse club called Jesters Flat, which we both joined and have had a great deal of fun with. We met a good bunch of locals through both of these and by having the holiday accommodation business on the side we had to meet with local businesses to help with marketing and so on.
We’ve also learnt how to make extra virgin olive oil from our olives, and we’ve been to the local farmer’s markets to sell the oil and the olives. We’ve made friends through that and Helen has met a lot of people through her work as the town vet, so along with our family in Perth we have a good support network here, which is important when you move somewhere so far away.
The first year is tough, but if you work at making new friends you can quickly settle in and start to enjoy the new way of life. You have to make the effort to go out and get involved in the local community – you can’t expect people to come to you.
We’ve had great fun making the farm our own. We’ve added a chicken run, a veggie patch, fruit trees and we now have our own sheep. We’ve also started a family here too. Helen is now a full-time mum to Emma, who will be eighteen months old in December, and we have another baby on the way.
Our family come out and visit from the UK, and every year we’re here it gets easier and easier. We’ve acclimatised now; we’re used to the temperature and we love the diversity of this big amazing country. I will always be Scottish, but Margaret River feels like home now. Would I ever move back to Scotland? I’ve learned from experience, never say never!”
Benji and Helen have launched a new tourism guide to help tourists experience the best of the Margaret River region see www.margaretriverguide.com.au
For more information on the farm and its holiday accommodation visit olivehillfarm.com.au
