108 Australian Country HOMES
B
y most reckonings, Ashley
and Jo Wiese’s youngsters
have the best of two
worlds. Week days during
term time Ruby, Grace and Louis
attend school in Perth with all the
accompanying opportunities of the
city classroom and extra-curricular
activities. Come school holidays
and long weekends, however, they
head 230 kilometres south-east to
Yarranabee, their family farm at
Highbury, near Narrogin in the WA
Wheatbelt. There they get to roam free
and wide, ride bikes, swim in rivers
and dams and learn to drive, not to
mention gain a better understanding
than many adults of where their food
and fi bre comes from.
In doing so they are continuing a
tradition that began when Ashley’s great-
grandparents moved to the Arthur River
district in 1901. “My mother’s family,
the Warrens, were the fi rst to settle
in Highbury and my father’s were the
second,” Ashley says. “The Wieses came
from Bordertown in South Australia
having fi rst arrived in Australia in the
1870s. Like everyone else at the time they
were sheep farmers.”
Ashley and his three sisters grew
up on a farm about 20 kilometres west
of Yarranabee, which was run by his
grandparents. Along with many of his
local friends, he went to school and uni
in Perth. He studied commerce and
worked as an accountant until the lure
of bush became too strong and in 1992
he returned home to his roots to follow
his passion for farming sustainably and
innovatively. Along the way, he met andThese pages: Ashley (above, on left) has teamed up with business partners and farmers to establish the
the Three Farmers quinoa brand. The Yarranabee homestead is the family’s country base during holidays.