The farm

Bringing Tower Hill back to life, one paddock at a time

A working regenerative farm at Tower Hill, in Tasmania's Fingal Valley.

Sunrise over a frosty paddock with two round hay bales, fog lying in the valley and a farm shed on the right — Morning on the farm at Tower Hill, frost on the ground and fog in the valley.

Where we are

Our farm is on Tower Hill in Tasmania's Fingal Valley. When we arrived, it was a tired old dairy farm, worn down by years of plantation. Now it's a working regenerative farm across about 900 acres. We own our Pig Creek farm, and hold a 30-year lease on the adjoining Fonthill Farm. About half the farm is in the carbon silvopasture project run by Permagen.

Dry open paddock in front of a line of tall plantation trees under a blue sky. — Above the homestead site on Pig Creek Farm, looking east. 2 Aug 2019.

Open golden pasture above the homestead site looking east, with a fence line, young trees, the farm buildings in the middle distance and blue mountains under a cloudy sky — After: about the same view, August 2026.

A rainbow arching over a line of trees under grey cloud

Regenerative silvopasture

Silvopasture means trees, pasture and animals working together. About half the farm is in our carbon project with Permagen, and once the trees are established, our livestock will graze the grass under them. More about the carbon project.

Cattle grazing tussock hills on the farm

The animals move through the paddocks, and the land gets a little healthier every season.

Permaculture design and swales Carbon project Silvopasture Regenerative farming Sustainable firewood

Cattle and pigs grazing together among gum trees, with open paddock and forest beyond — This is what silvopasture looks like: cattle and pigs grazing under the gums.

Wide paddock of tussock grass with a tree line and blue mountains behind. — Swales on Fonthill Farm, looking east. August 2026.

Our heritage pigs

Pigs foraging behind electric fencing with cattle grazing in the paddock beyond, under a big cloudy sky — The pigs doing the hard yards, turning over the ground behind the electric fence.

Our pigs are free-range Wessex Saddleback heritage pigs, raised outdoors on pasture. They root, wallow, and generally cause mischief.

Pixie once jumped straight into the feed mix because she couldn't wait for lunch!

More about our heritage pork

The rest of the crew

A small flock of geese crossing a green paddock on the farm, with gum trees behind

Cattle: we started out with Angus. These days we mainly breed Dexters and Belfairs. Belfairs are our own Jersey x Dexter cross. We also keep a couple of Jerseys for our own milk, cream, butter and cheese.
Sheep and mini goats
Bees: William was a commercial beekeeper on the mainland before we moved here in 2019. We plan to run our own hives once our mixed species tree and silvopasture planting is flowering. Until then, we stock honey from other local beekeepers.
Our 'grass puppies', the newest calves on the farm

Cattle grazing with the mountains behind

A newborn red Dexter calf nuzzling its mum in long grass, with more cattle around them — Our newest grass puppy with mum, October 2026.

A shaggy young Dexter heifer standing in long dry grass, looking at the camera — A young Dexter heifer in the long grass.

Chainsaw, our naturally polled Dexter bull

Two Jersey cows standing in long grass at the edge of the trees — Our house Jerseys are milked in the old dairy for the family only. We don't sell milk or dairy.

A mobile chicken caravan on green pasture with brown hens foraging around it — The mobile chicken caravan on pasture.

Pigs grazing beside a pond, with tall plantation trees behind — Water, trees and animals working side by side.

Close-up of a black calf with a white face

Cattle feeding beside a wire fence on a sunny day

A black and white goat kid standing in straw

A brown goat kid in straw with other kids behind

Four black and white goat kids playing on green grass

Cattle grazing a tussock paddock in front of a pine plantation

A farm pond with pigs grazing beyond and a pine plantation behind

Black cattle resting in a tussock paddock

Our farm's story

Want the long version? Read the history of Tower Hill and surrounds.

Our farm sits on what was once part of the old Tower Hill settlement. Today almost nothing of the township remains.

The Speers family worked this land for generations, from at least the early 1900s (family history says the late 1800s). For much of the 1900s it was a dairy farm, until milking stopped in the mid-1980s, and it also grew vegetables to supply the miners working nearby. The original hut still stands, and the house, said to have been brought over from Mathinna by horse and dray in the early 1900s, and as far as we know it's the last house from the old Tower Hill settlement still lived in. Generations of Speers farmed here, including Victor Speers, pictured on the farm with his horse and dog in the 1940s.

Black and white photo of a cleared settlement at Tower Hill: timber sheds and cottages, post and rail fences, felled logs and stumps, a family and a rider on horseback, with ringbarked forest behind — "Historic photo of our farm, back when the Speers family worked the land... The original late 1800's hut is still here" Photo: Speers family

Black and white photo of Victor Speers in a hat and suit with his horse and dog, in front of a white timber shed and post and rail fence — "Victor Speers on our farm at Tower Hill, taken in the 1940s. A man, horse and his dog." Photo: Speers family

From the 1990s to the 2010s the farm was converted to a nitens (eucalyptus) plantation, which damaged the pastures and left stumps and stone everywhere. Today we are slowly clearing, restoring and regenerating the pastures, and we still use the old dairy to milk our Jerseys for our own butter, cream and cheese.

The Speers family dairy

Black and white photo of two cattle by a post and rail fence, with a white farmhouse and tall trees behind — Cattle by the fence, with the farmhouse behind. Photo: Speers family

Black and white photo of cattle resting on the grass in front of a cottage with a picket fence — Cows resting in front of the cottage. Photo: Speers family

Black and white photo of a long timber shed behind a post and rail fence, with a pile of stones in front — The dairy shed and yard. Photo: Speers family

Black and white photo of a man milking a cow by hand in the dairy — Milking time in the dairy. Photo: Speers family

Photos: Speers family.

The Walker family at Fonthill

Fonthill Farm was the Walker family's dairy for many years. Robert and Eileen Walker of Tower Hill raised a big family here, and the family remembers two generations milking on the farm before it went to plantation in the late 1990s. If you have photos or stories of the Walkers at Fonthill, we'd love to hear from you.

Tasmania's first payable gold, right next door

Pencil sketch of a gold pan on creek stones in front of a ruined miner's hut, with a warning that open shafts can kill

In February 1852 James Grant of Tullochgorum found the first payable gold in Tasmania at Mangana, just below us, and about 200 diggers came. Gold dust was found 'along the Tower Hill Creek and on the hillsides'. In 1869 J. C. Goodall found the Tower Hill quartz reef, and a 10-head battery crushed more than 3,000 tons of stone. The gold never paid for long, and by 1883 the township at the foot of Tower Hill was 'almost deserted by its mining population'.

Who else lives here

Southern boobook owls
Tawny frogmouths
Falcons
Tasmanian native hens (we call them 'turbochooks')
Frogs, calling from the dams, swales and wet ground
Snakes
Lizards
Wombats
Tasmanian bettongs
Quolls (spotted-tailed and eastern)
Wedge-tailed eagles

A wombat and her joey walking along a gravel farm track between grassy verges

Short-beaked echidna foraging on the farm

We haven't seen Tasmanian devils since the 2019 bushfires, but we'd love to have them back, and we hope they'll find their way home in time.

White native wildflowers — Native wildflowers on the farm

Small white and pink native wildflowers — Native wildflowers on the farm

Seasons on Tower Hill

Snow on solar panels, with tall trees behind

Snow covering a paddock, with a small hut and tall trees

A light dusting of snow across a paddock

Farm upgrades: fencing for the next 100 years

Tall gum trees silhouetted against flames and an orange glow at night, taken the night we evacuated in late December 2019 — The fire front coming through the trees at Tower Hill, taken the night we evacuated, in late December 2019.

When the fires came through in December 2019, they took out three quarters of our boundary fencing. Rebuilding gave us the chance to do it properly, once, for the long haul.

Burnt tree trunks along a new fence line on a hillside

After the 2019 fire, the fireground was watched over the rest of the summer from the Tower Hill fire tower.

Primal Pastures takes in two properties, Pig Creek Farm and Fonthill Farm. Pig Creek Farm now has new deer and wallaby exclusion fencing, and Fonthill Farm has new wallaby exclusion fencing. Keeping the deer and wallabies out means the pasture and young trees are there for our own animals.

Both fences are steel and high tensile, built to last 100+ years with a bit of maintenance. They're also fire resistant. The steel posts won't burn, though some of the wire may need retensioning after a fire.

Fonthill Farm: the new wallaby fence

The Fonthill wallaby exclusion fence was finished in March 2026.

A galvanised steel gate set into the new wallaby exclusion fence beside a gravel farm track — The finished Fonthill wallaby fence and gate. Mar 2026.

A steel mesh farm gate hung between steel posts on the new wallaby fence — A new gate on the Fonthill wallaby fence. Mar 2026.

A long run of new wallaby exclusion fence on steel posts running downhill beside the bush — The Fonthill wallaby fence running along the bush edge. Mar 2026.

Pig Creek Farm: the deer and wallaby fence

A tall wire mesh fence on steel posts running across a dry grassy paddock — The Pig Creek deer and wallaby exclusion fence going in. 30 Apr 2021.

Tall mesh exclusion fence running along a line of gum trees at the edge of the bush — Pig Creek's deer and wallaby fence along the tree line. 30 Apr 2021.

Built to take a hit

Steel posts going in during the build in May 2025, and a reminder of why we went steel: when trees come down across the line, the fence gets cut free and repaired, not rebuilt.

A braced steel strainer post assembly on a newly cleared fence line — Steel posts and a braced strainer going in. 13 May 2025.

Fallen tree trunks and branches lying across a fence line in the bush — Fallen trees across the fence line. Mar 2026.

What's next for the farm

Concept plan sketch, indicative only, of staged dams stepping down the creek below Tower Hill: header ponds, an upper dam, stock dams for livestock, a gully dam and a flats dam with a solar pump for irrigation, with creek flow arrows and swales. Not to scale. — Concept only

There's always another job on the list, from shedding and solar to water and somewhere for guests to stay one day. See our future projects.

Around the property

Along with the paddocks, there's still plenty of native bush and fern gullies tucked away on the farm.

Fossils in a pale rock — Fossils in the rock on the farm

Sunlit native bush with gum trees and green ferns. — Native bush and ferns on the property. 2 Aug 2019.

Large tree fern with a spreading crown against a blue sky. — A big old tree fern on the property. 2 Aug 2019.

Small waterfall over mossy rock into a clear pool, with fallen branches. — A small waterfall tucked away in the gully on the farm.

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