Sam Vincent: Where the Reed Warbler Called

The RegenNarration Podcast

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Sam Vincent grew up on the farm where Charles Massy famously heard the call of the reed warbler for the first time in 150 years or so. But, like most millennials in his position, he wasn’t going to stay there. Until his old man now famously put his hand in a woodchipper. That’s when Sam left his inner-city life as a writer to help out, and unexpectedly found himself thinking differently about the farm, and his old man. Sam now runs Gollion Farm, with a suite of thriving enterprises, profound new connections with First Nations, and ongoing regeneration of country. And when he wrote a book about it all, called ‘My Father and Other Animals: How I took on the family farm’, it won the 2023 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Non-Fiction.
The book is billed as a ‘memoir about belonging, humility and regeneration – of land, family and culture’. Charles Massy calls it a delightful ‘must-read’, Anna Krien calls it ‘one of the most hopeful stories today’, and Billy Griffiths calls it a ‘rollicking comic memoir’.
A few weeks ago, we visited Sam at the family farm, just outside Canberra in the Yass Valley of NSW to chat about it.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers and a transcript, also available on Apple and some other apps. (Note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read.)
Recorded on 4 March 2024.
Title slide: Sam Vincent, under the crab apple tree (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:
Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with thanks to podcast member Josie Symons).
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Chapters

1. Music, Preview, Introduction & Supporter Thanks (00:00:00)

2. How mainstream is regenerative agriculture now? (00:03:10)

3. Where Charles Massy heard the reed warbler call (& a 40 year family legacy) (00:09:10)

4. Conveying stories that reach people (beyond villians & heroes) (00:15:07)

5. The incredible story of Martin Royd’s place during Black Summer (& adventures in ecological verification) (00:20:25)

6. Criticisms of the book & worrying about how Dad would react (00:24:00)

7. A dedication for this time of gifts (& strange football connections) (00:29:10)

8. How the farming enterprises are taking off (& the gaping systemic issues) (00:34:25)

9. Meat & methane - from a holistic perspective (00:41:55)

10. Sensing the absence of First Nations & redressing it now – officially (00:46:55)

11. There’s food everywhere! (00:49:00)

12. On ownership then? (00:51:40)

13. Great Aboriginal food enterprises coming on (00:54:10)

14. Culling roos en masse where more enterprise could be supported (comparing notes on the Kachana Station’s donkeys too!) (00:55:10)

15. An unexpected home found for a sceptical professional partner (00:59:10)

16. Flying in the face of anxiety in these times - welcoming a young daughter to farming (01:00:25)

17. Music & Closing Words (01:02:50)