A Brief History

Kelvin Falls has been part of the O’Dea family for over 140 years, originally settled by Andrew’s Great Great Grandparents who immigrated from Ireland somewhere around the 1860’s. The property was originally part of what was known as Canning Downs South. The old section of the homestead, with ironbark slab walls, was built by James Hurley and is thought to be one of the oldest, continually resided-in buildings of its type in Queensland. These original buildings have been maintained and gradually renovated/modernised by each generation over the years.

 

The Cottage was built in 1955 to house an immigrant Dutch couple (The Braats) who were employed to manage the 4-bail/20-head dairy. The dairy shed and bails still stands and can be found to the west of the homestead – adjoining the cattle yards.

 

The old woolshed and stables and outbuildings have all been built using timber from the property (mainly ironbark).

 

Over the years, the family business has diversified into different farming enterprises.  The traditional sheep (wool) and cattle (beef) have always been the main focus, however, pigs, goats, small crops (tomatoes/zucchini/potatoes) lucerne hay and other crops including forage oats, barley, wheat, have also been experimented with, some successfully!  In more recent times,  we have milled hardwood timber, which has been used in many projects around the property, and our most recent investment has been the solar farm, which can be seen on our two large sheds.

 

Today the main source of income is beef cattle. As mentioned above, recent investment in renewable energy has helped supplement our income and provide a stable, reliable cash flow during droughts and market downturns.  The addition of pastured eggs to our enterprise has further enhanced our ability to do this as well.

 

We are also looking to diversify further into products which we can offer direct to the public such as grassfed beef, free range pork and honey.