High Valley Dawn Permaculture Farm achieves Advanced Ecotourism accreditation
Posted on February 8th, 2023
With a powerful ethos of ‘earth care, people care, fair share’, together with an ever-evolving, self-sustaining community model, High Valley Dawn Permaculture Farm has this week been successful in obtaining Advanced Ecotourism certification through Eco Tourism Australia.
Joining the growing list of eco-certified operators across the Capricorn Coast destination who are providing leadership on environmental sustainability and adaption, Ross O’Reilly and his team at High Valley Dawn are honoured to have their ongoing sustainable practices recognised via this certification.
The world first and highly regarded Ecotourism program was developed to identify Australia’s leading and most innovative ecotourism products, who operate with minimal environmental impact and are committed to achieving best practice, using resources wisely, contributing to conserving the environment and helping local communities.
It assures conscious travellers that certified products are backed by a strong, well managed commitment to the earth’s future and provides high-quality, nature-based tourism experiences.
With a long-term understanding of his immense role in the preservation and protection of the land, Ross, his family, and the High Valley Dawn Community are consistently looking for ways to improve their footprint in order to deliver a tourism product that nurtures love and joy in harmony with mother nature for the greater good of all beings.
“The High Valley Dawn journey began a while back when our passion for wellness and sustainable development collided with a desire to serve fresh, local, organically grown produce in our nearby restaurant, Beaches,” Ross said.
“Fast forward almost a decade, and we now have established a 2-acre market garden, a 2-acre food forest and a 2-acre bushtucker forest.”
“From day one we chose to be totally off-grid with a solar powered farmhouse and learning centre, pumps, bores, and gravity fed irrigation systems. We also have a natural biofiltered desalination plant in operation,” Ross said.
As well as hosting a small but growing community of volunteers who share Ross’s family’s passion, the farm is also home to many free range animals including horses, ducks, chickens, cattle, sheep, working dogs, turkeys, geese and pigs.
“Our vision for the future includes a community education centre, more homes and cabins dotted around the property, a community garden, a temple and infrastructure necessary to host weddings, festivals, retreats, conferences, workshops and events,” Ross said.
Capricorn Enterprise CEO Mary Carroll extends congratulations to Ross and the team at High Valley Dawn for this prestigious recognition, which will support the Capricorn Coast’s commitment to becoming an Eco Destination within the coming years.
“The process of obtaining certification through EcoTourism Australia is rigorous and I congratulate Ross and the team for successfully navigating their way through the vigilant criteria required to obtain the sought-after status.”
“We now have seven local operators on the Capricorn Coast who are eco-accredited at various levels including Pumpkin Island (Advanced Ecotourism), Capricorn Caves (Advanced Ecotourism), Capricorn Star Charters (Ecotourism), Coral Inn Boutique (Ecotourism), Keppel Dive (Ecotourism), Freedom Fast Cats (Ecotourism) and High Valley Dawn Permaculture Farm (Advanced Ecotourism),” Mary said.
Ecotourism Australia is a not-for-profit organization representing more than 500 environmentally responsible operators, 1600 products and an ever-increasing number of ecotourism destinations.
