Rachel Ward's farming revolution - and how you can hear about it in Canberra

But what? Every answer seemed too big, too impossible.

The family farm she and her husband, actor Bryan Brown, had owned since the late 1980s in the lush Nambucca Valley on the Mid North Coast of NSW, was spared from the fires, save for some damaged fences, but the neighbours and surrounding bushland were not. It was too close for comfort.

And then there was Zan, her snowy-haired grandson, who gurgled as she put him in a backpack and walked him under the trees. What was his future to be?

"I think I probably had a bit of an emotional breakdown, it's hard to know. You know, couldn't get out of bed. The usual sort of things. It just felt hopeless, helpless, impotent," she said, of that time.

"And, you know, the wonderment with which he [Zan] was viewing the world, it was like having this horrible secret that, 'It's going to be just an endless disappointment to you as you grow older and become more aware of what's going on'.

"Things seemed to happen very fast as far as climate consequences and change and I thought, 'My god, what's it going to be like in 100 years?'. And there was the paradox, the more I fell in love with him, the more I worried about the world we were leaving him. And others, of course."

The quintessential English rose was embraced by Australia when she was cast as Meggie in the 1983 TV series of Colleen McCollough's The Thorn Birds. Her co-star was Australian actor Bryan Brown. The pair married the same year.

While the pair made a home and raised their family in a stunning waterfront cottage in Sydney's Birchgrove, the couple had also bought a farm in northern NSW, decades before the Chris Hemsworth-led celebrity invasion of Byron Bay.

Their farm was further south, too, in the Nambucca Valley, an area the couple had fallen in love with while they were filming their 1987 film The Umbrella Woman in the town of Bowraville.

It was a working cattle farm and continued to have a farm manager after they bought it. As the family grew, the Browns made it their special retreat from the bustle of Sydney and film-making.

Then came the fires and nothing seemed certain anymore.

Ward says the "crack of light" which stirred her from that inertia was reading Charles Massey's book Call of the Reed Warbler, which introduced her to the idea of regenerative agriculture.

"It made be go, 'Oh my god, this is so hopeful. This is what we need to do. And this is what I can do, because I own a little bit of land. And I'm a film-maker, so I can film it."

The result is the new documentary, Rachel's Farm, which follows Ward's efforts to stop using conventional agriculture on the property and embrace a more sustainable way of farming.

Ward next week embarks on a tour ahead of the film's release on August 3. The tour, which includes a screening and Q and A session in Canberra on August 5, is well-timed as extreme high temperatures are recorded across the northern hemisphere and the Bureau of Meteorology warns of El Nino's likely return this summer.

It was made over two years, Ward also keeping a film diary and capturing more dramatic images on her phone, including the devastating floods of 2022. The film was produced by Wildbear Entertainment, the post-production done by its Canberra office in its Hobart Place studio.

Ward, now 65, is herself a force of nature as she teams up with her farmer-neighbour Mick Green, combining their land to try regenerative agriculture on their respective cattle farms. One of the most arresting parts of the film is that, despite the green surrounds, the soil is effectively dead, farmed to death by overgrazing, chemicals and ineffective watering systems.

MORE GREAT READS:

Cows, long-maligned as "farting, burping" methane-producing machines, become part of the solution, not the problem, as Ward and Green switch their 30 paddocks to 90 by using movable fencing, constantly rotating the cattle, letting them fertilise the land and then move on to the next. Instead of one paddock being farmed, all of them are, in a much gentler way. The grass is allowed to grow high. Chemicals are banned. The goal is for the soil to become enriched, for all the nutrients and organisms to be allowed to flourish, and, ultimately, for the farm to start capturing carbon.

"For me, it's about restoring natural cycles," Ward said. "It's about the fact we have put our neck on the foot of nature with all our herbicides and biocides and chemical fertilisers. And seasonal. We're pushing things we wouldn't normally grow in the seasons. It's all unnatural.

"It's like going back to the cycles of nature and nature will work with you. And we don't have to be spending this enormous amount on inputs. If we get it right, nature will do it for us."

Ward says her film is speaking to consumers, urging them to be more aware of the provenance of their food, driving changes from the grassroots.

"I didn't want to make a film that polarises. I didn't want to stick it up conventional farmers. A lot of people are doing the best they can," she said.

"Some are doing some of it, if not all of it . As long as you can go, 'Do I really have to spray this? Do I really have to drench my cattle?' You know, there are alternatives. They may be slower, they may be gentler, they may be more subtle, but in the end they are in sync with our life-sustaining cycles."

The film also has plenty of humour and joyful moments, as Ward tries desperately to prove herself on the farm to her experienced neighbour.

"I didn't know Mick was going to be as good as he was. What a piece of luck. He's such a dinky-di Aussie. He so represents the country fella, down to earth, no pretensions. One of those people who really thinks and cares and, obviously, with four children, really wants the best for them," she said.

"He is really listening to what is going on out there and understanding where the fault lines are and how he can be part of the solution, not part of the problem, as a farmer. And, rather like me, once he knew, he couldn't really live with himself without doing it, without making those changes."

Rachel's Farm also features input from her family, including the ever-laconic Brown, who'd rather be surfing than farming and seems very happy to leave his wife to her agricultural endeavours. Their daughter Matilda, with husband and chef Scott Gooding, is also in the film, the couple running The Good Farm Shop, a ready-made meals company that sources its food from local, regenerative farmers.

Ward, in pieces to camera from her farmhouse kitchen, covetable green dresser decked out with colourful china in the background, is not afraid to be real in the film.

Her efforts to farm seem as much about fitting in, finding her place, again that girl from Cotswolds transported to the wilds of Australia.

She says she is "a better film-maker than a farmer" and her respect for farmers has "quadrupled since I had a go myself".

"They have to be skilled in so many different things and they've been very under-estimated," she said.

"There are farmers who are dealing with a lot of chemicals and not helping the environment. I think some of those need a conscious nudge, in a way. Once the market starts to drive some of these things, they will have to address some of these issues.

"For me, the fundamental thing is to get people thinking about this, building an awareness and building an interest in looking at the provenance of food."

Ward seems to find contentment on the farm. "I haven't acted in years," say says happily, save for a couple of episodes of the drama RFDS [Royal Flying Doctor Service], "which I loved".

She now has two grandchildren and another on the way. Does she feel better about the future? Ward is typically direct.

"No, not yet," she said.

"I feel better about the impotence I had. I feel like I have been able to act ... But, no, I don't think we're there yet. But I do think there are lot of hopeful things."

We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on The Canberra Times website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. See our moderation policy here.