About Us
The Australian Holistic Management Co-operative
Members of the AHMC are part of a global
network committed to farming practices that measurably regenerate the land. We
provide members with training, support, mentoring and ecological verification of
their produce.
We work closely with the
Savory Institute, whose mission is the large-scale
regeneration of the world's degraded grasslands through Holistic Management.
Here is our Hub listing at the Savory Institute.
We offer Ecological Outcome Verification, an assessment scheme to measure the
health of soil, biodiversity and ecosystems, and promote member produce and services.
The concept of the co-operative arose from the 2016 Dubbo Holistic Management Conference
held by Hooves
4 Humus and the Australian Holistic Management Educators Group. In 2017 Farming Together
awarded us a grant to establish the Australian Holistic Management Cooperative.
The establishment meeting took place in July 2018 and the co-operative was
registered by ASIC as NSWC32856 in September 2018. Here is some more on Holistic Management and the setting up
of the Co-op.
(The Australian Holistic Management Cooperative gratefully acknowledges the financial and other
support it received in 2017-18 from The Farm Co-operatives and Collaboration Pilot Program - the Farming
Together Program).
Governance of the AHMC
From 1 July 2023 the CEO is Helen Lewis, and the board is comprised of
Directors Tony Hill, Ian Chapman, Michael Gooden, Rebecca
Gorman and Brian Wehlburg. The Secretary and Treasurer is Dave Ellis.
CEO Helen Lewis is an Accredited Holistic Management Educator and co-owner
of Picots Farm, which holistically produces grass-fed and finished beef.
Helen's experience over 25 years includes community development, policy
advising, agripolitics, agribusiness in Central Australia, holistic
supply-chain management, company directorships, and 20 years as General Manager
for the $1.2 billion Outback Way project.
Director
Tony Hill was the founding Executive Chair of the Australian Holistic Management
Co-op. He has extensive experience with governance and project
management including roles as President of the Internet Society of Australia,
President of the Australasian Research Management Society and Chair of the
National ICT Industry Alliance. Tony runs
Capital Hill Consulting, which
focuses on strategic planning for Cooperative Research Centres, which have
attracted grants of $20-$40 million and matching funds of three to four times
this amount. He and his wife Jane Keany run Illalangi Farm at Mt Fairy, using
Holistic Management principles to build biodiversity and soil fertility.
Director
Ian Chapman leads the
Hooves to Humus (Savory
Institute) Hub in New South Wales and is an experienced farmer, primary
producer and VET educator. He and his wife Sharon run Glenroy, a 400 hectare
property at Store Creek, 40 minutes drive north of Orange. They produce
pastured products such as beef and pork in a regenerative way, and all stock
are handled using stress-free techniques.
Director Michael Gooden
owns and operates Old Man Creek with his wife Heloise. Old Man Creek is an Angus cattle stud
located at Sandigo in the Riverina, NSW. Their aim is to breed animals that
have been raised on grass in a cell grazing operation all their lives and they run a
regenerative grazing business based on Holistic Management principles.
Director Rebecca Gorman has a background in journalism, and now raises beef on
Yabtree West near Gundagai in southern NSW, using the principles of Holistic
Management to focus on regenerating soil and improving the land's general
biodiversity. She uses the tools of planned rotational grazing, extensive tree
planting and Natural Sequence farming.
Director
Brian Wehlburg delivers Holistic
Management training and consultation across Australia through
Inside Outside
Management, and is also a board member of Holistic Management International. He
has experience as a farmer and grazier both in Africa and Australia and is
passionate about the importance of regenerative farming in our way forward.