australiancountry.net.au 105GARDEN PROFILE
Above: Restoring
the stone building
was a major
undertaking for a
local stonemason.
To p : The former
meat house
showcases their
many show ribbons
and trophies.Elsewhere, clivea thrive under the dappled light of
a New Zealand Christmas tree.
The roots of Alan’s family tree run deep
in this part of the world as his Anderson
ancestors arrived in the fl edgling colony in
1838 just two years after the fi rst European
settlement in Adelaide. Farmers from Scotland,
they took up land in what is now the leafy
suburb of Burnside and moved across to the
Yorkes, as the peninsula is known, in the 1890s.
Alan’s great-grandfather ran the local store in
Brentwood on the west coast of the peninsula
and was the fi rst agent to export wheat to the
UK from Port Minlacowie. His grandfather,
Rupert Alan Wilson, continued the farming
tradition, becoming one of the fi rst to run cattle
at Inneston, now located in the Innes National
Park in the toe of the peninsula.
Due to mineral defi ciencies in the soil, Rupert
decided to trial a new cattle breed and in 1947
introduced Red Polls. A cross between a Norfolk
beef bull and a Suff olk dairy cow, the East
Anglian breed is known for its fi ne-grained
meat, milk-producing longevity, mothering
ability and award-winning carcase results.
Alan’s father, Ron, bought Oakwood in 1937
and a decade later, established a Red Poll stud.
Oakwood Red Poll have a proud tradition of
55 years showing at the Adelaide Show and
since Alan and Marilyn took over when they
married in 1969, Oakwood cattle have continued
to enjoy success at Adelaide, Melbourne and,
occasionally, Sydney Royals as well as the
local Minlaton show. They have also hosted
the triennial Red Poll Breeders Society world
tour, which takes in farms in North and South
America as well as England. These days,