OUR STORY
Community, transparency and integrity.
These are our values.
Located in beautiful Bridgetown, WA, Galloway Springs is a dynamic and diverse farm producing spray free food using regenerative and holistic farming practises.
Our 200-acre property is made up of multiple enterprises from bee hives, cows, sheep, alpacas, pigs, chicken, spray free garlic, agri-tourism and events.
We understand the key to success in any ecosystem is diversity through its plants, animals, people, skill sets, income streams and experiences.
Galloway Springs prides itself on grass-fed cattle, spray-free garlic and marron. We lease out some of our land to other produces with aligned values and we currently have 2 vegetable growers, our daughter Emily with her meat chicken enterprise and another garlic grower. We run a small but busy farm shop to support our growers with an outlet to sell and buy in other local, seasonal and spray free produce to bring variety to the shop. We host a Tiny Cabin by collaborating with Into the Wild Escapes to share our picturesque property and large dam. Our old shearing shed has now been converted into an event space for farm related workshops.
Farming at our scale has meant we can work without chemicals and focus on quality not quantity. Our animals are integrated into our pasture management system and rotationally grazed over our property. In the summer they are supplemented with sprouted barley from our fodder sprouting system. Emily's meat chickens are fed fermented grains for optimal overall gut health. Our garlic is hand picked and processed and our vegetables sold in our shop are spray free, regeneratively grown or organic, have low travel miles and picked daily.
We value community, transparency and integrity. We are proud of our product and want to inspire better food choices and food producing practices through sharing our story. We wish for anyone wanting to invest in their health that finding good food with be more easily accessible as we make pathways into connecting our consumer directly to farmer.
Real food grown by real people. That’s the food we eat and we encourage not to settle for less.
Holistic Management teaches that a system is made up of wholes and not one part but many. It teaches you are no greater than but a part of something bigger than yourself and that there is strength in community. It gives you framework around decision making which can be projected way out into the future all the while coming back to your Holistic Context or the things that we consider Quality of Life.
Our regenerative vision for the farm is to improve our landscape to be better at capturing water, improve plant and animal health through more perennial pastures and planting additional trees that help create happier, healthier humans.
We are on a journey of self-discovery because as we regenerate our landscape we start to understand we are regenerating ourselves too. The lenses we now look through and our attitudes.
People tell us we are living the dream. What we feel they are envying is our connection to the land, food and community. And if this is the case then we are living the dream because we have all of this is abundance.
OUR FARM STORY STARTED IN 2016
In 2016, Raquel and Murray Johnson and their family of 3 teenage children, left the city with its comforts and conveniences to move to an old run down 1950’s farm in Bridgetown WA.
The transition had its challenges in the early days with Murray commuting back to Perth every week and each weekend frantically trying to get the farm and fences into some shape to graze stock. The family left behind on the farm did not share Murray visions and were not always helpful. But in 2020 circumstances changed and it meant Murray could come home full time on the farm.
Attending a Holistic Management course in 2021 as a couple was a turning point for Raquel and Murray to see the farm through similar lenses and so began in earnest Galloway Springs.
THE FARMER
Murray began life on a farm in Qld until his teenage years. A move to the West in his 20’s to pursue and marry his wife and by his mid 40’s Murray found himself being a business owner of a busy electrical manufacturing company. The running of an
ever-growing business took its toll and the longing to return to the land grew stronger.
Being a tradesman with practical skills and an entrepreneurial mind has been the key to Galloway Springs being transformed from a run-down old farm to a busy thriving enterprise. Murray is most passionate about improving the soil through a more perennial pasture.
THE FARMERS WIFE
Never having farmed before, Raquels transition into farming has been one of many milestones and moments of much self-doubt as to how she could contribute any thing of worth to the farming enterprise. Over time she came to find her place and now understands that although Murray is the head and decision maker of the farm, she is the heart, and both are as important as each other.
Raquel is the storyteller, sales person and marketer. The connector in their community. She runs the farm shop and looks after the Tiny House and runs the events. She is most passionate about getting people to understand how and where their food is grown.
THE FARMERS DAUGHTER
Emily is daughter and middle child to Raquel and Murray. When Emily graduated school, she wasn’t keen on leaving home and going to the big city. She knew that if she was to stay home on the farm, it wasn’t big enough to support her and that she would have to run her own enterprise to pay her way. Being an animal lover over plants, meat chickens was decided upon because they are easy stock to handle for a single women and she would be able to be independent. A traineeship was also available nearby at a local small scale farm, South Hampton Homestead, and after completing that, began her business.
Emily can grow up to 270 birds per month. She receives them as day olds and at approximately 10 weeks takes them herself to the abattoir for processing. From one days old chicks to processing Emily is part of the whole process. Emily has 12 mobile tractors which get moved onto fresh pasture every day and she supplements them with fermented grains for gut health. She is finding her own customer base and enjoying selling direct to consumer as well as working collectively with other meat producers and veggie box businesses to provide the farmer direct experience.
Emily is also employed off farm at South Hampton Homestead and at a local passionfruit farm, Willarra Gold.
Emily enjoys the variety each day brings. It is not a regular 9-5 and no day is alike.