Inspiration easy for Oranje Tractor Farm, Albany, name

In the case of Oranje Tractor Farm near Albany, the inspiration for Murray Gomm and Pam Lincoln's vineyard name was literally right on their doorstep.

"I remember in the autumn of 2002, it was three years after we'd planted vines, and we were brainstorming potential names for the vineyard," Mr Gomm recalled.

"We would hear the 1964 Fiat orange tractor rumble past spreading out hay for the cattle on my parent's neighbouring beef farm.

"It had been the workhorse of the property for many years, and I thought, maybe Orange Tractor could be a good name."

Canvassing opinions gave Mr Gomm varying results - some people thought it sounded like a great name, while others didn't think it was a winner at all.

"But like it or loathe it, they remembered it," he said.

Their final seal of approval came from renowned Australian farmers' market champion Jane Adams, when she was in Albany meeting Ms Lincoln, who was a dietitian and was trying to get a local farmers' market started to allow people to access the nutritional benefits of eating local produce.

"Pam and I had dinner with Jane and I floated the name, and Jane said she loved it, orange was a warm colour, and tractors were something familiar to people - so that was the final tick," Mr Gomm said.

Some tweaking was required as Orange, in New South Wales, was already a viticulture region which prevented Mr Gomm and Ms Lincoln being allowed to register their preferred trademark.

They instead settled on the Dutch spelling, replacing the 'g' with a 'j', in a nod to international travellers who had been working on the property as part of the Willing Workers on Organic Farms scheme.

And just like its name, the business is making its mark in the just over 20 years it has operated, with some remarkable achievements.

Most recently and significantly of those is Net Zero Now status, which was confirmed earlier this year after participating in a Landcare Australia Carbon Accounting process, signed off by Curtin University professor of sustainability Peter Newman.

This revealed that a range of organic and regenerative agricultural practices had led to the eight hectare Oranje Tractor Farm sequestering or storing six times more carbon dioxide and CO2 equivalents than was emitted by the three hectare vineyard.

Over a typical year the farm sequestered 8.5 tonne of CO2, while the vineyard emitted just 1.4t.

"We don't need to purchase offsets because we are better than net zero now, we're actually carbon negative," Mr Gomm said.

"This is because we implement a range of organic and regenerative practices that allows natural ecosystems to flourish.

"If you let it, nature will increase soil fertility, water retention, produce healthy plants that are more resilient against pests and diseases, weeds are sent packing and you can keep your input costs down and remain viable."

Mr Gomm said to be carbon negative, farmers had to stop or severely reduce the use of synthetic fungicides, pesticides, herbicides and water-soluble fertiliser.

"There are CO2 (and C02 equivalent) emissions from the use of these and you are telling your beneficial microbes to go away and volunteer somewhere else," he said.

Farming based on growing a monoculture, agrochemicals, spraying summer weeds, cultivation, heavy machinery and bare soil over summer devoid of herbivores meant you were on the industrial treadmill.

"You get locked into supplying plants with off-farm inputs to get them across the line," he said.

"The alternative is to get out of the way of nature and let it do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to nutrient cycling and pest and disease control.

"There can be 10 billion microbes in a teaspoon of healthy soil, we want these willing workers on the job 24/7."

Since achieving organic certification in 2006, Mr Gomm said they had introduced a range of regenerative practices in recent years, including planting cover crops between the vine rows to increase the diversity of their "underground livestock".

"We now leave canes in the vineyard to break down and release nutrients rather than removing and burning them," he said.

Sheep are strip-grazed in the vineyard to keep the grass down to a height that maximises the amount of liquid carbon they feed to the soil food web to keep the whole system humming along.

"Our soil biology tests have revealed we have soil teeming with an enormous diversity and quality of fungi and bacteria which are the engine room of the soil food web," he said.

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Ironically, despite its name, the use of tractors is almost non-existent on the property, because they don't want to compact the soil, squeezing air and water out.

"No air, no water, no life," Mr Gomm said.

It's a remarkable achievement for the couple, who left their jobs in Perth and heeded their call back to nature, which ended up being back to Mr Gomm's home town in the Great Southern.

"I needed to immerse myself in nature and go to the green gym every day, rather than sitting in my car on the freeway and then at a computer at my desk all day," he said.

They took up residence on an 8ha slice of his parent's beef cattle property on the outskirts of suburban Albany, and started by building a passive solar house, unsure of what agricultural avenue they would pursue.

Mr Gomm said they investigated many options in consultation with the Department of Agriculture, including strawberries and wildflowers among others, but having grown up in Guildford, close to Perth's Swan Valley vineyards, Ms Lincoln had always harboured a desire to grow grapes.

And it soon became apparent that the property was in fact perfectly located for a vineyard, at 64 metres above sea level and less than 10 kilometres from the coast in a maritime climate similar to wine regions including Bordeaux, Champagne, Alsace, most of Germany and Tasmania.

"The combination of latitude, climate and looking after the soil all help to produce key component flavours in our fruit - minerality, delicate fruit flavours, beautiful natural acidity, and thus enable the wines to achieve balance, elegance and subtlety," Mr Gomm said.

They dedicated 3ha to planting vines, while the remainder of the property is a diverse wonderland, including olives, cherries and sub-tropicals such as sweet potato, sugar cane, macadamias and bananas, with some consumed, some preserved, and some sold to organic markets.

"Pam and I were only marvelling the other day about the fact we can pick fresh produce on the property every day of the year," Mr Gomm said.

"And around here, seasonal produce and wine is actually a form of currency that we can use to pay for things or in exchange for things."

In terms of winery production, the vineyard produces about 10t of fruit, equivalent to 10,000 bottles or 1000 cases, which Mr Gomm said put them in a nano-vineyard category.

Without processing facilities on-property, the bulk of the wine range, which includes riesling, sauvignon blanc, merlot and rose is made under contract at Porongurup winery Castle Rock Estate.

Small amounts of pinot noir are made in Dunsborough.

The only thing they do make onsite is their vermouth, which they are looking to focus on even more.

Named Elixyr Botanica, the organic Oranje Tractor take on the fortified wine is described as having a fresh, bright and fragrant character.

None of the wine is exported, with the focus on selling it at the cellar door and is only sold at one Perth location.

And they only pick and process what they can sell - for example, last year they picked about 3t.

"We didn't pick it all, because then we'd have to sell it at a wholesale price and also fork out for a distributor or a sales rep, leaving nothing in the can for us," he said.

Keen to continue having a positive impact on the planet, the couple is now working to provide wedding options for people who want an intimate occasion in this COVID-affected world.

With attendee numbers capped at 25 people, the Oranje Tractor Farm Eco Weddings packages will be built around people who share the philosophy of "we're getting married, but it doesn't have to cost the earth - quality over quantity with carefully considered choices".

All of the local vendors involved have been chosen for their commitment to planet Earth, not only in business but in their day-to-day lives.

Mr Gomm said the plan was to give people an opportunity to have a truly local experience at their property with everything used being locally produced, vintage and preloved quality items and with local produce for the meal.

There will be a package for the busy but considered wedding planner where everything will be taken care of for them by the team with as little or as much input as needed.

"We will be offering a tread lightly package, where people can come and pick flowers on our property, do their own décor from a massive collection of vintages in the shed, and we can provide a grazing table or platters with local food," he said.

"We are on the hunt for someone who can provide a three-course meal made using a minimum of 90 per cent Great Southern local produce."

While the plans are still afoot to get that up and running, in the meantime the Sunday wine flights will continue, as will bookable experiences on other days including the Organic and Regenerative Journey, and Vermouth Voyage tours.

And on any other day, the pair can be found tending to their piece of carbon negative paradise, as the changing seasons brings with it new jobs to tend to.

"Spring means critical farming things need to be done, such as finishing pruning the vines and lime sulfur applied to the stonefruit, grafting avocados because meetings can be postponed but nature doesn't have a pause button, it turns up every day," Mr Gomm said.