Travelling around regional Western Australia is one of the great 'perks' of being a Brighthouse consultant. I never stop being in awe of the magnificent scenic variation, the innovation of regional businesses and the inventiveness of ordinary people "having a go".
On a recent trip to Southern Cross, in WA's Goldfields region, I met with Ron Goodhill and Laura Black who have established a small Farmstay B&B called Nulla Nulla Farm Retreat. They started just 8 months ago as farming has been very difficult with four years of drought in the area and they knew they just had to diversify or die!
Ron is a full time farmer and Laura is a full time Nurse Practitioner who operate a 9000 acre property in Moorine Rock which is about 20 minutes west of Southern Cross.
They have developed a tourist farm stay business which consists of a three bedroom, fully contained home and at the moment are also developing "glamping" (luxury tented accommodation) on the property.
The property is blessed with a wonderful 600 acre area of granite rock and pristine bush where Ron and Laura are planning to develop exclusive eco tent accommodation, which is something the Brighthouse team has been promoting to our tourism business clients a new wave opportunity.
Interestingly Rona and Laura have just built their first deck and positioned the first tent on it this week.
A great reward for the risk and effort the couple has put into developing their tourism business was their "Best Home Business" award in the annual Central Wheatbelt Small business awards.
Accoriding to Ron, "Someone (anonymously) nominated us. We won the category award and were finalists in the "Business Achiever" category. A huge honour considering we have only been going for such a short time".
"We have a million ideas including writing children's books to develop our business and as a way to connect city with country and to educate kids about where food comes from, camping and caravan sites, theme'd kids birthday parties and we already offer a farming experience with tractor rides and all the farm animals."
Just talking to Ron and Laura, you can see that they are really enthusiastic about developing their new business and very excited that the Yilgarn Shire takes the whole idea of tourism seriously.
Next time you are in the area, make sure you stay at Nulla Nulla Retreat, you won't be disappointed, but you had better book ahead.
Check out their Facebook page "Nulla Nulla Farm Retreat" and have a look at the website at nullanullafarmretreat.weebly.com.
You'll be inspired.