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Creekholme is based on three
and a half acres of alluvial soil on the western edge of Thozet
Creek in North Rockhampton. The land is mainly creek flats
with a small area of older creek terrace.
It was part of the original 70 acre holding of Anthelme Thozet,
the famous French botanist who made his home in North Rockhampton
from 1861 to 1878. See the website www.thozet.com for detailed
information on the Thozet family.
Later, Thozet's land was subdivided and the blocks that today
make up Creekholme were at one stage known as Valencia, a
market garden which operated for about thirty years. Land
use of the past has left the ecology of the property in a
degraded state.
Today Creekholme is home to Susan, mother and daughter horses
Luisa and Astrid, three cats, a flock of Silver Spangled Hamburgs
and a flock of geese.
There's also Stephen who holidays at Creekholme when he wants
a break from his beach shack at Emu Park on the Capricorn
Coast. There's only so much beach front living a man can take!!
Creekholme has been subject to ongoing revegetation works
over the past 12 years as part of its rehabilitation. This
has included new fencing, weed removal, planting native trees
along the creek boundary, creating an artificial rainforest
plot, protecting volunteer seedlings and establishing shade
clusters.
Works have now commenced to consolidate these earlier efforts
and take the property in a new direction.
The intention is that Creekholme will house a private garden,
with demonstration plots of domestic scale, food-producing
systems. We will also continue to trial innovative techniques
in rehabilitating and revegetating the land.
By using trees to shade, colonise
and revitalise the soil, and thus enhance its water holding
capacity, we aim to give Creekholme an ecology that is resilient
to whatever shocks global climate change and diminishing fossil
fuel reserves might bring.
Creekholme is now much more than just a block of degraded
ex-market garden land. Creekholme is now an entity - land,
animals, plants and people rolling along together.
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