Best of both worlds

He grew up on a farm, went to school in a country town, boarded in high school in Sydney, “did the career thing” in the city, travelled overseas, met the love of his life...

It’s how he’s made his comeback to his home town – Wellington – that sets him apart from the dreamers and wannabes.

Vaughan is a high ?ying IT manager with a team in Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane.

Yet he manages to run a beef producing operation across three properties, and help rear three children, at the same time.

Vaughan grew up on “Tarwong”, a cattle fattening operation on the other side of Wellington where his parents Colin and Cheryl live.

He was schooled at Knox Grammar at Wahroonga, and worked as an auctioneer with city ?rms in the late 1980s, early 1990s.

“Technology was moving along and they were offering money for young people,” he said.

He is industry-taught and is now collaboration manager for Cisco Systems, a communications company that specialises in connective technology.

“Provided you’ve got all the technology, you can do that,” he said of working from home two days a week.

“I do the morning runs, check the cattle and water, then it’s in to the of?ce with the 3G link and satellite link, and Gateway product that connects to the NBN for video conferencing.

“Broadband is a great leveller in terms of tyranny of distance – and daylight saving is great.”

The catalyst for his lifestyle change was when his eldest child, Rowan, now 8, was heading into Kindergarten and he and his wife Emmah, who hails from Castle Hill in Sydney, wanted to give him a rural upbringing.

“We’d bought investment properties out here with the intention of moving home,” Vaughan said.

The couple bought their ?rst property 10 years ago, the neighbouring block ?ve years ago and one 12 months ago, and combined, the properties are called “Wylinga”.

It’s been a journey for Emmah in terms of settling into a small town.

“We were coming up here for years before settling in and getting to know the area,” Vaughan said.

“There’s no way I’d go back to the city.

“I grew up with a menagerie of geese and chickens – it was wonderful upbringing – and I’m keen to do that with the kids, Rowan, 8; April 5; Heidi, 4, and Laura, 1.

“They have their own ponies and motorcycles, alpacas and chooks, and they are expected to contribute (to the farm).”

The family has ducks, two terriers and the children earn their pocket money collecting chicken and duck eggs, and making sure their yard animals are watered.

This year the three eldest children have raised three poddy lambs.

“They enjoy it immensely and love being with the animals,” Vaughan said.

“Although they’re not particularly enamoured of alpacas and are very cautious around them.”

Vaughan paints an idyllic picture but there have been moments of alarm, like the incident when they were riding horses with the older children into a paddock with a handful of White Dorpers and alpacas.

“The horses bolted in all directions but the kids managed to stay on,” he said.

By age three, all the children have been taught to ride on the lead.

“The ponies are wonderfully quiet and the children get balance and con?dence,” Vaughan said.

Best of all, the children will “have a sense of scale and range and proportion not afforded to city kids, and animal husbandry – and a pretty good sense of freedom”.

“The eldest can jump on his motorbike and go in any direction he wants,” Vaughan said.

The return to Wellington has been a family affair.

Vaughan’s one sister, Simone Campbell, lives 10 minutes away on her own farm with her husband Dougald.

Simone was schooled in Sydney and went to university then came home and married Dougald who was her boyfriend in Year 6, and they had three children.

“As luck would have it, we all migrated home to our little town,” Vaughan said.

The Kleins produce Angus steers, which they buys as weaners of 200 kilograms and finish for two years to 550kg to 600kg.

Following Dougald’s lead, Vaughan now also runs a cell grazing operation of small paddocks of 12 to 24 hectares on high rotation, subject to weather and feed conditions, where cattle are in one paddock for seven days before being moved into the next one.

“I hope to continue to expand the operation and hope to continue to what’s a good, ?exible work model for me,” he said.

Vaughan also hopes to encourage other like-minded people to take up the lifestyle.

“It’d be nice to speak with young people trying to enter ag and get to a scale to make it feasible – from scratch,” he said.

“People can live in regional areas and comfortably maintain city-based careers while running agricultural companies, but they wouldn’t be able to do it if technology was not available,” he said.

Next week meet Derek Tink, another young professional who has returned to the bush and is enjoying the benefits of a regional and rural lifestyle at Tamworth.