01 December 2024, 6:03 AM
When Dave Graham, known to many as “Farmer Dave,” announced on Facebook last month that he’d packed up and moved further west to escape the urban encroachment plaguing Western Sydney and the Hawkesbury, it struck a chord with more than 2,200 people.Previously a resident of Box Hill and later Grantham Farm, this is the third time in 15 years that Dave has relocated to escape the rapid urbanisation eroding the last traces of farmland in the Sydney Basin, permanently altering the open spaces and rural lands that once defined the region. “When you live in Western Sydney, a reality is that the city keeps growing,” Dave told his Facebook followers. “As it has since 1788. More and more people are choosing Australia as home, which means I’ve got to keep moving. For the third time in 15 years, I’ve picked up stumps and moved further west to escape urban encroachment.”The decision came as Dave realised that the relentless development surrounding him was directly affecting his mental health. “It just started getting too much,” he admits. “It was about, it was about year and a half ago, when, we really did get developed out, and it was the increase in the traffic, it was the increase in the noise that was just unrelenting, and you no longer felt like you were in the Hawkesbury, like you're very much in just another part of Sydney. It was a progressional thing, but it did become unbearable towards the end,” he told The Hawkesbury Post.Dave’s journey has been nothing short of transformative. Earlier this year, he parted ways with RuffTRACK after five years of dedicated service - a decision that marked a significant turning point in his life. "Burnout is real, and it creeps up on you until you can't ignore it anymore," he reflects. Since then, Dave has made remarkable changes: becoming completely sober, shedding 25kg, and spending much more quality time with his five children. His focus has been on rebalancing his life. "I poured an overwhelming amount of energy into building a lasting community service, and I feel confident it’s now in the hands of passionate people who will ensure its continued success," he says.Recently, Dave relocated to a peaceful ridge in Glossodia, seeking refuge in an area buffered by natural bushland and protected farmland.The response to his move was immediate and overwhelming, with many followers echoing similar sentiments. “That was our life until I got sick with leukemia,” one person wrote. Another added, “I moved from Rouse Hill after 25 years… place was becoming a nightmare.”Dave’s story mirrors the struggles of many rural residents on Sydney’s western fringe. Initially drawn to Box Hill for its open landscapes and strong sense of community, he says the area changed almost beyond recognition in just a few years.“The first time I moved was from Box Hill. And you know, that was a beautiful paradise only a few years back. There were Maltese market gardens, there were cattle, poultry and sheep farms. You felt really connected and now you can jump roof to roof and get from one side of Box Hill to the other now without leaving the roofs of houses,” he said.After leaving Box Hill, Dave moved to Riverstone’s Grantham Farm, where he set up RuffTRACK, a youth re-engagement programme that connected troubled young people with animals and the land. But even in the relative peace of Grantham Farm, urban expansion quickly followed. "One minute, streetlights were blaring through my window, making it hard to sleep. Then, houses started popping up on all sides, followed by a beautiful, big shopping Center across the road. Soon, it took up to ten minutes just to get out of the driveway because of traffic on Windsor Road. As a Bushy, I felt completely hemmed in."Growing up on a 100,000-acre property in southwest Queensland, Dave had always valued wide-open spaces and was feeling “caged in” and knew his mental health was suffering.“I was feeling that same thing. You know, it's just been hemmed in and caged in. So, my mental health was really suffering, and I could see that chain effect onto the young people as all of those developments started to pop up around what was a beautiful Wandin Valley. And I really feel like we're losing Wandin Valley to the concrete jungle.”He attributes much of the youth disengagement he deals with to the same kind of suffocating yet disconnected environment."A critical part of what we did when I was at RuffTRACK was connect kids to the country and community, giving them space to express themselves without judgment. We achieved this through the power of animals, dogs, and working with the land - growing food crops. It requires space, and it worked incredibly well. Over 150 young people came through my programmes, transforming their lives by developing connection skills and finding a real sense of belonging."Finding solace in Glossodia, Dave has moved onto a five-acre property 'Cooee Ranch', that offers the open space he had been craving. Surrounded by eucalyptus trees and overlooking flood-protected farmland, it feels like a sanctuary. “This wonderful place out here came up that is surrounded on all three sides by gum trees and an iron barks. And it's got everything that you would possibly want on a ridge above all the beautiful farmland that we know will never get developed out thankfully, because we have this beautiful thing called floods.”This new home also gave Dave the opportunity to continue working in a more tailored capacity with High-Risk Youths and his high-energy dog programs in a setting more suited to his programme’s needs."It's a home for DockDogs Australia, a sport that engages people with high-energy dogs. My focus is on supporting those who don’t fit the mold - whether that’s young people or dogs with intense energy giving them space to express themselves. Here, we do activities like K9 SuperWall, dog parkour, and k9 Ninja. It's a place for people to channel their dogs’ energy positively and have fun with them, using positive reinforcement."Dave's unique youth work approaches have become a lifeline for many young people who feel disconnected from society. Dave firmly believes that the space allows them to escape the pressures of urban life, reconnect with country, community and develop meaningful skills.Reflecting on the broader trend, Dave emphasises that the loss of rural areas is about more than just land, it’s about the future, the loss of connection with our country and what it provides us.“It’s really a problem not to see where our food comes from, to drive through farmland at the very least. Once you’re in the Sydney basin, it’s easy to forget that connection. There’s something grounding about driving past vegetable farms, orchards, and livestock, it reminds us of our link to the land. When we lose that, what are we?”“Already, farmers beyond the Great Dividing Range feel disconnected from city consumers; many city people no longer visit or even have country cousins.“But if, in the Hawkesbury, at least if people are driving to the local and Blue Mountains townships. They drive through farmland. They see their food, where it's grown, understanding through osmosis the change in seasons. They're at least connected in some capacity, and that helps our mental health, because you see where your food comes from. It's right there you've driven past, the orchards, the livestock, the market gardeners,” he said.As for Dave’s own move, he’s not looking back."Look, you've got to put your own oxygen mask on first, right? We all know that I had a personal break after I left RuffTRACK to focus on my own mental health. To give my best mentorship and guidance to these vulnerable young people who are desperate for it - kids who often turn to gangs or the wrong crowd because they’re looking for someone who cares, who values them and who sees them as the journey through trials of teenage hood. I need to be in the best possible headspace for that, but being surrounded by the urban insanity was no longer working for me.""And now, you're in a much better place now mentally?""Oh, absolutely. It’s fantastic."