It is no surprise when you meet him to learn that Mick grew up in Inverell where his family had been breeding Fine Merino sheep and Poll Hereford cattle for three generations. He studied commerce and accounting at Charles Sturt University and worked for Toyota after he graduated. His wife Karen completed an MBA at Charles Sturt University and then worked in a variety of corporate roles.

They bought their first farm in 2002, near Bargo where Karen’s family were living, and Mick thought he would follow in his family’s footsteps.

“I had a plan to grow meat sheep with a self-replacing flock and then out of the blue Karen said: ‘I don’t want sheep, I want alpacas.’ I said: ‘Let me tell you a story about alpacas. I saw my first alpacas at The Sydney Royal Easter Show in about 1989. There were just two of them in a pen in the goat and pig pavilion. I knew what they were, but I said to my grandfather: ‘Pa, what are these?’ He said: ‘Son, they’re alpacas. Steer clear of them, they will be the feral goat of the 2000s.’

“I told Karen there was no fibre industry, no meat industry and no return on investment and that only iconic, well to do people could afford to have alpacas for their tax scheme. But despite everything I put forward, she said: ‘I don’t care, that’s what I want to do. They are such interesting and beautiful animals.’ And then she told me she’d done all this research and even spoken to Janie Forrest.”

Janie Forrest was an industry leader, having taken over the administration and management of Coolaroo Alpaca Stud in 1995 and then purchasing that business in 1998.

“We’d recently bought our first car and we thought we were so good because we’d saved up and paid for it in cash,” Mick recalls. “And then we bought our first couple of alpacas – and they cost more than the car.”

It was a very steep learning curve for the Williams.

“You can’t just learn to farm alpacas,” says Mick. “You’re basically working with an animal that you have no idea how to do anything with. The plan was to generate income from our two black male alpacas through breeding and siring fees, but because they were so expensive we couldn’t afford to make any mistakes. So we bought five other alpacas, wethers and barren females, so we could learn from them. I had no problem with things like drenching and injecting, but we had to learn to get the order and processes right.”

The Williams took their business more seriously each year and, importantly, they invested in genetics

“I saw this male at the Sydney Royal Easter Show when he was nine months old. My daughter, Rubey, and I were in the Grand Parade and Janie [Forrest] gave me an alpaca to lead. I knew he was fantastic and we needed to buy him. It took five years, but we eventually bought a half share with Janie.”

In its first decade, from 2003 to 2013, the StoryBook Alpaca herd grew from two to 300.

It was at this time that Coolawarra was formed, bringing together the industry leading Coolaroo and Illawarra herds of Janie Forrest and Dr Ian Davison. The Williams started to collaborate more and more with Coolawarra and in 2016 they purchased the Coolawarra herd.

The Australian alpaca industry was rocked to its core that same year when shipping of alpacas to the lucrative United Kingdom and European markets was stopped by authorities due to the potential of a Q Fever outbreak.

“Suddenly people who had made thousands and thousands of dollars by selling their top animals to the UK and Europe couldn’t do it any more,” Rubey recalls. “It wasn’t an option.”

The Australian industry had to respond in order to survive – and so the country’s alpaca fibre industry was born. The Waratah Alpaca Fibre Co-op was formed in 2018, with Mick a founding member, to help Australians sell their alpaca fleece to the world.

“There are over 1,000 registered alpaca breeders in Australia, but most are small operators,” Rubey says. “The average herd size is 28 alpacas. We hoped that, through the co-operative, if people could see that fibre could be a genuine concern and they could sell their fibre, they would want to participate in building the industry. They would buy better males and they would breed more. 

“It’s been slow, but it’s happening.” 

Alpaca fleece is valued for both its softness and its strength, and the co-operative now sells $2.5 million of it each year to buyers in countries including China, Canada and New Zealand.

Importantly, Coolawarra and StoryBook Alpacas is a very diversified business.

“It has to be,” says Mick, “because even though we are running over 1,000 alpacas, that is minute compared to the merino sheep industry. We have a breeding and siring program, we sell to other breeders, we export animals and fleece to overseas markets and we have an agistment business, where we manage alpacas for domestic and overseas owners. For example, we look after over 100 animals for a client in Qatar and more than 40 for a Chinese owner.”

While Australian breeders can still not export their high quality alpacas to the UK or Europe, there is strong demand from Asian countries such as China, Korea and Indonesia.

“They are used for breeding,” Rubey says, “but we recently sold 48 alpacas to a Korean buyer who will place them on an elite resort where they will feature in wedding photos and be part of a farmyard nursery. These animals will be living in the lap of luxury!”

Coolawarra and StoryBook Alpacas are now also involved in ecotourism.

“People around the world love alpacas and recently we won a contract with Disney. A group of American tourists come to Australia for about 10 days and, from Sydney, they spend a day in The Southern Highlands. They visit Kangaroo Valley and have lunch at the café in Berrima – but a big drawcard is coming to Coolaroo to see our alpacas.”

Mick and Karen both have MBAs and have brought a disciplined corporate approach to their business.

“We run it very commercially, very much like a sheep organisation. There was no point reinventing the wheel. All our animals have electronic ear tags, so we are paperless and there is no data entry. The tags record the animal’s full history, including its weight and all the husbandry information.”

According to the Australian Alpaca Association, the Australian alpaca industry has over 200,000 registered animals and is the second largest in the world, behind only Peru. Alpacas thrive in Australia, in small and large herds, and their soft footpads cause minimal soil damage compared with other ruminants. There is currently good demand for breeding, siring, fibre and agistment services and there is potential to develop a market for alpaca meat.

“Despite their appearance, they are a very robust livestock,” says Mick, “and they are much more intelligent than sheep, so they are far easier to work with.”

So what attracts a young woman like Rubey Williams to the alpaca industry?

“I grew up around them and they’ve always been part of my life,” she says thoughtfully. “Being around them and working with them is the place I feel most comfortable. The primary attraction is the animals themselves, but the social side is great. Alpaca shows are like a family reunion, it’s such a fun atmosphere and a great environment to be part of. The lifestyle it allows you to lead is something I hold in really high regard.”

Asked if she will definitely lead the next generation for Coolawarra and StoryBook, Rubey replies enthusiastically and without hesitation: “Oh yeah! I’m knee deep in it already.”

It is no surprise when you meet him to learn that Mick grew up in Inverell where his family had been breeding Fine Merino sheep and Poll Hereford cattle for three generations. He studied commerce and accounting at Charles Sturt University and worked for Toyota after he graduated. His wife Karen completed an MBA at Charles Sturt University and then worked in a variety of corporate roles.

They bought their first farm in 2002, near Bargo where Karen’s family were living, and Mick thought he would follow in his family’s footsteps.

“I had a plan to grow meat sheep with a self-replacing flock and then out of the blue Karen said: ‘I don’t want sheep, I want alpacas.’ I said: ‘Let me tell you a story about alpacas. I saw my first alpacas at The Sydney Royal Easter Show in about 1989. There were just two of them in a pen in the goat and pig pavilion. I knew what they were, but I said to my grandfather: ‘Pa, what are these?’ He said: ‘Son, they’re alpacas. Steer clear of them, they will be the feral goat of the 2000s.’

“I told Karen there was no fibre industry, no meat industry and no return on investment and that only iconic, well to do people could afford to have alpacas for their tax scheme. But despite everything I put forward, she said: ‘I don’t care, that’s what I want to do. They are such interesting and beautiful animals.’ And then she told me she’d done all this research and even spoken to Janie Forrest.”

Janie Forrest was an industry leader, having taken over the administration and management of Coolaroo Alpaca Stud in 1995 and then purchasing that business in 1998.

“We’d recently bought our first car and we thought we were so good because we’d saved up and paid for it in cash,” Mick recalls. “And then we bought our first couple of alpacas – and they cost more than the car.”

It was a very steep learning curve for the Williams.

“You can’t just learn to farm alpacas,” says Mick. “You’re basically working with an animal that you have no idea how to do anything with. The plan was to generate income from our two black male alpacas through breeding and siring fees, but because they were so expensive we couldn’t afford to make any mistakes. So we bought five other alpacas, wethers and barren females, so we could learn from them. I had no problem with things like drenching and injecting, but we had to learn to get the order and processes right.”

The Williams took their business more seriously each year and, importantly, they invested in genetics

“I saw this male at the Sydney Royal Easter Show when he was nine months old. My daughter, Rubey, and I were in the Grand Parade and Janie [Forrest] gave me an alpaca to lead. I knew he was fantastic and we needed to buy him. It took five years, but we eventually bought a half share with Janie.”

In its first decade, from 2003 to 2013, the StoryBook Alpaca herd grew from two to 300.

It was at this time that Coolawarra was formed, bringing together the industry leading Coolaroo and Illawarra herds of Janie Forrest and Dr Ian Davison. The Williams started to collaborate more and more with Coolawarra and in 2016 they purchased the Coolawarra herd.

The Australian alpaca industry was rocked to its core that same year when shipping of alpacas to the lucrative United Kingdom and European markets was stopped by authorities due to the potential of a Q Fever outbreak.

“Suddenly people who had made thousands and thousands of dollars by selling their top animals to the UK and Europe couldn’t do it any more,” Rubey recalls. “It wasn’t an option.”

The Australian industry had to respond in order to survive – and so the country’s alpaca fibre industry was born. The Waratah Alpaca Fibre Co-op was formed in 2018, with Mick a founding member, to help Australians sell their alpaca fleece to the world.

“There are over 1,000 registered alpaca breeders in Australia, but most are small operators,” Rubey says. “The average herd size is 28 alpacas. We hoped that, through the co-operative, if people could see that fibre could be a genuine concern and they could sell their fibre, they would want to participate in building the industry. They would buy better males and they would breed more. 

“It’s been slow, but it’s happening.” 

Alpaca fleece is valued for both its softness and its strength, and the co-operative now sells $2.5 million of it each year to buyers in countries including China, Canada and New Zealand.

Importantly, Coolawarra and StoryBook Alpacas is a very diversified business.

“It has to be,” says Mick, “because even though we are running over 1,000 alpacas, that is minute compared to the merino sheep industry. We have a breeding and siring program, we sell to other breeders, we export animals and fleece to overseas markets and we have an agistment business, where we manage alpacas for domestic and overseas owners. For example, we look after over 100 animals for a client in Qatar and more than 40 for a Chinese owner.”

While Australian breeders can still not export their high quality alpacas to the UK or Europe, there is strong demand from Asian countries such as China, Korea and Indonesia.

“They are used for breeding,” Rubey says, “but we recently sold 48 alpacas to a Korean buyer who will place them on an elite resort where they will feature in wedding photos and be part of a farmyard nursery. These animals will be living in the lap of luxury!”

Coolawarra and StoryBook Alpacas are now also involved in ecotourism.

“People around the world love alpacas and recently we won a contract with Disney. A group of American tourists come to Australia for about 10 days and, from Sydney, they spend a day in The Southern Highlands. They visit Kangaroo Valley and have lunch at the café in Berrima – but a big drawcard is coming to Coolaroo to see our alpacas.”

Mick and Karen both have MBAs and have brought a disciplined corporate approach to their business.

“We run it very commercially, very much like a sheep organisation. There was no point reinventing the wheel. All our animals have electronic ear tags, so we are paperless and there is no data entry. The tags record the animal’s full history, including its weight and all the husbandry information.”

According to the Australian Alpaca Association, the Australian alpaca industry has over 200,000 registered animals and is the second largest in the world, behind only Peru. Alpacas thrive in Australia, in small and large herds, and their soft footpads cause minimal soil damage compared with other ruminants. There is currently good demand for breeding, siring, fibre and agistment services and there is potential to develop a market for alpaca meat.

“Despite their appearance, they are a very robust livestock,” says Mick, “and they are much more intelligent than sheep, so they are far easier to work with.”

So what attracts a young woman like Rubey Williams to the alpaca industry?

“I grew up around them and they’ve always been part of my life,” she says thoughtfully. “Being around them and working with them is the place I feel most comfortable. The primary attraction is the animals themselves, but the social side is great. Alpaca shows are like a family reunion, it’s such a fun atmosphere and a great environment to be part of. The lifestyle it allows you to lead is something I hold in really high regard.”

Asked if she will definitely lead the next generation for Coolawarra and StoryBook, Rubey replies enthusiastically and without hesitation: “Oh yeah! I’m knee deep in it already.”

Palace of Dreams will show at Carriageworks as part of Sydney Contemporary from 8 to 11 September.

Tamara Dean’s career achievements include being commissioned in 2018 to create In Our Nature that was presented at the Museum of Economic Botany (Adelaide Botanic Garden) for the Adelaide Biennale. She has been awarded the Goulburn Art Prize (2020); Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize (2019); Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert Photography Award (2018); Meroogal Women’s Art Prize (2018); and the Olive Cotton Award (2011). Her work has been acquired by the National Gallery of Australia; Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra; Art Gallery of South Australia; Mordant Family Collection Australia; Artbank Australia; Balnaves Collection Australia; and Francis J Greenburger Collection (New York).

It is no surprise when you meet him to learn that Mick grew up in Inverell where his family had been breeding Fine Merino sheep and Poll Hereford cattle for three generations. He studied commerce and accounting at Charles Sturt University and worked for Toyota after he graduated. His wife Karen completed an MBA at Charles Sturt University and then worked in a variety of corporate roles.

They bought their first farm in 2002, near Bargo where Karen’s family were living, and Mick thought he would follow in his family’s footsteps.

“I had a plan to grow meat sheep with a self-replacing flock and then out of the blue Karen said: ‘I don’t want sheep, I want alpacas.’ I said: ‘Let me tell you a story about alpacas. I saw my first alpacas at The Sydney Royal Easter Show in about 1989. There were just two of them in a pen in the goat and pig pavilion. I knew what they were, but I said to my grandfather: ‘Pa, what are these?’ He said: ‘Son, they’re alpacas. Steer clear of them, they will be the feral goat of the 2000s.’

“I told Karen there was no fibre industry, no meat industry and no return on investment and that only iconic, well to do people could afford to have alpacas for their tax scheme. But despite everything I put forward, she said: ‘I don’t care, that’s what I want to do. They are such interesting and beautiful animals.’ And then she told me she’d done all this research and even spoken to Janie Forrest.”

Janie Forrest was an industry leader, having taken over the administration and management of Coolaroo Alpaca Stud in 1995 and then purchasing that business in 1998.

“We’d recently bought our first car and we thought we were so good because we’d saved up and paid for it in cash,” Mick recalls. “And then we bought our first couple of alpacas – and they cost more than the car.”

It was a very steep learning curve for the Williams.

“One of my great assets is ignorance,” Sharp says matter-of-factly while pouring us a cup of Irish Breakfast tea in his well heated kitchen. “I usually go into things completely and utterly unaware of what I’m up for. It’s only when I get halfway through that I realise that if I’d known at the beginning what I was going to end up doing, I wouldn’t have done it at all. But when you get to that point it’s usually too late to turn back.”

Sharp is certainly not turning back from any of the projects he has taken on since buying a 15 acre property four years ago from David Graham and David Kunde, known as The Two Davids and variously described in media reports as former restaurateurs, eastern suburbs developers and stylmeisters.  Known at the time as Rona Lodge, the property was advertised as a Grand Estate featuring wonderful formal and informal spaces, seven spacious bedrooms, a separate but adjoining two bedroom house, a billiard room, library, indoor swimming pool with spa and gym, tennis court and stables with dressage arena.

Asked if he has made many changes since he bought Rona Lodge four years ago, Sharp pauses for a moment before saying: “Like all these things, you start out thinking we’ll just make a little tweak here and a little tweak there – and before you know it you are doing lots of work and small jobs become enormous jobs.”

One easy thing to change was the property’s name. It is now called Thenford, named for the village in Oxfordshire where his great-grandfather was born. Other changes have not been as straightforward. As we walk through the house, Sharp notes that the walls and ceilings have been completely repainted, all the curtains replaced, a hallway removed, additional fireplaces installed, the veranda area reconfigured, several rooves have had to be replaced and the old stables have been converted into a laundry, cellar and gym.

“You can’t just learn to farm alpacas,” says Mick. “You’re basically working with an animal that you have no idea how to do anything with. The plan was to generate income from our two black male alpacas through breeding and siring fees, but because they were so expensive we couldn’t afford to make any mistakes. So we bought five other alpacas, wethers and barren females, so we could learn from them. I had no problem with things like drenching and injecting, but we had to learn to get the order and processes right.”

The Williams took their business more seriously each year and, importantly, they invested in genetics

“I saw this male at the Sydney Royal Easter Show when he was nine months old. My daughter, Rubey, and I were in the Grand Parade and Janie [Forrest] gave me an alpaca to lead. I knew he was fantastic and we needed to buy him. It took five years, but we eventually bought a half share with Janie.”

In its first decade, from 2003 to 2013, the StoryBook Alpaca herd grew from two to 300.

It was at this time that Coolawarra was formed, bringing together the industry leading Coolaroo and Illawarra herds of Janie Forrest and Dr Ian Davison. The Williams started to collaborate more and more with Coolawarra and in 2016 they purchased the Coolawarra herd.

The Australian alpaca industry was rocked to its core that same year when shipping of alpacas to the lucrative United Kingdom and European markets was stopped by authorities due to the potential of a Q Fever outbreak.

“Suddenly people who had made thousands and thousands of dollars by selling their top animals to the UK and Europe couldn’t do it any more,” Rubey recalls. “It wasn’t an option.”

The Australian industry had to respond in order to survive – and so the country’s alpaca fibre industry was born. The Waratah Alpaca Fibre Co-op was formed in 2018, with Mick a founding member, to help Australians sell their alpaca fleece to the world.

“There are over 1,000 registered alpaca breeders in Australia, but most are small operators,” Rubey says. “The average herd size is 28 alpacas. We hoped that, through the co-operative, if people could see that fibre could be a genuine concern and they could sell their fibre, they would want to participate in building the industry. They would buy better males and they would breed more. 

“It’s been slow, but it’s happening.” 

Alpaca fleece is valued for both its softness and its strength, and the co-operative now sells $2.5 million of it each year to buyers in countries including China, Canada and New Zealand.

Importantly, Coolawarra and StoryBook Alpacas is a very diversified business.

“It has to be,” says Mick, “because even though we are running over 1,000 alpacas, that is minute compared to the merino sheep industry. We have a breeding and siring program, we sell to other breeders, we export animals and fleece to overseas markets and we have an agistment business, where we manage alpacas for domestic and overseas owners. For example, we look after over 100 animals for a client in Qatar and more than 40 for a Chinese owner.”

While Australian breeders can still not export their high quality alpacas to the UK or Europe, there is strong demand from Asian countries such as China, Korea and Indonesia.

“They are used for breeding,” Rubey says, “but we recently sold 48 alpacas to a Korean buyer who will place them on an elite resort where they will feature in wedding photos and be part of a farmyard nursery. These animals will be living in the lap of luxury!”

Coolawarra and StoryBook Alpacas are now also involved in ecotourism.

“People around the world love alpacas and recently we won a contract with Disney. A group of American tourists come to Australia for about 10 days and, from Sydney, they spend a day in The Southern Highlands. They visit Kangaroo Valley and have lunch at the café in Berrima – but a big drawcard is coming to Coolaroo to see our alpacas.”

Mick and Karen both have MBAs and have brought a disciplined corporate approach to their business.

“We run it very commercially, very much like a sheep organisation. There was no point reinventing the wheel. All our animals have electronic ear tags, so we are paperless and there is no data entry. The tags record the animal’s full history, including its weight and all the husbandry information.”

There is a memorial area dedicated to his father, who fought in World War II, and grandfather, who fought in World War I, featuring Lone Pines grown from seedlings from the famous Gallipoli battlefield surrounded by rosemary, which grows wild on the Gallipoli Peninsula and has become a traditional symbol of remembrance of Anzac Day. Fittingly, these plantings were the idea of his partner, Rosemary Cummins.

It is the middle of a particularly cold and wet Southern Highlands Winter and I can only imagine how magnificent the gardens will be in Spring.

We have completed our tour of the 15 acres Sharp bought four years ago and now we move to his latest venture. Two years ago, he bought an additional 200 acres from his neighbours, the McKennas, the original owners of Rona Lodge.

“I have managed to lose substantial sums of money running cattle,” Sharp says. “At The Moss Vale Show each year I joke that I should get the blue ribbon for the greatest loss per hectare in the district. So, when I bought this property, I decided I wanted to do something different. My manager said he knew a bloke named Tim Miller who might be interested in doing something with thoroughbred racehorses on my property. His wife is the daughter of friends of mine from Young, so there was a connection there. Long story short, we have a partnership and Tim runs it.”

Sharp grew up with horses in his home town of Young and his children, especially his daughter, were keen equestrians, but he describes himself as only a recreational rider.

So what exactly is his new horse business?

“We do horse breaking, so we take 12-month-old horses and prepare them to be ridden. And we do pre-training, which is taking horses that have never been to a race track and we put them on a race track. We have two race tracks here, one is 1,200 metres and one is 500 metres, and we have two sets of starting gates and barriers. This allows the horses to familiarise themselves with all that procedure.

“The third thing we do is rehabilitation work. We have an eight horse water walker, which is a pretty special piece of equipment. The horses walk around in a circle in a swimming pool with gates between them. It’s a bit like aquarobics for horses and it’s very good for their muscles and injury recovery. We also have an eight horse dry walker and a gallop speed treadmill, which is great for giving them exercise.

“The other thing we do is spelling – which is basically a horse holiday for a racehorse.”

Thenford Farm only started taking horses in February 2021, and there are currently 45 horses on the property. When all the work is finished, it will be able to accommodate about 100 racehorses. The amount of infrastructure is enormous and I ask how many kilometres of fencing he has installed.

“The original quote was for 10 kilometres, but we have ended up with 16 to 17 kilometres,” he says thoughtfully. That is a lot of posts and rails.

For Sharp, Thenford Farm combines bucolic charm with economic sense.

“As the value of land increases in The Southern Highlands, and it’s increased quite dramatically in the past two or three years, it becomes increasingly less economic to run cattle or sheep. So what do you do to maintain the farm-like environment? The best way is with horses, because they are usually expensive things and the cost of the land doesn’t matter as much with horses as it does with cattle and sheep. 

“You also retain a beautiful rural outlook featuring nice fences and green paddocks with horses sitting in them.

“The racehorse industry continues to expand and the historic infrastructure for the industry is now in heavily urbanised areas. The ability to expand that infrastructure, and even keep it, diminishes as time goes by. So the Southern Highlands is a great spot for the growth of the racehorse industry.”

There are also important employment benefits. “If I had 200 acres with cattle on them, I’d probably employ one person,” Sharp notes. “We already employ nine people and we will probably have 14 or 15 when we are fully developed. A lot of people in the racehorse industry make it into a career. They might start out as a stable hand and then work up to different roles, whether it’s a breaker or a trainer or a rider. It’s a great utilisation of the land for this district.”

When he was elected to Parliament as the first Member for the new seat of Gilmore in 1984, the electorate included The Southern Highlands. When the boundaries moved following a redistribution a decade later, Sharp moved to the neighbouring seat of Hume – retaining representation of The Southern Highlands. He has remained in the region since he retired from Parliament in 1998.

For Sharp, The Southern Highlands is home and perfectly located halfway between the two cities where he spends a lot of time – Sydney and Canberra. It’s also easy for his children to visit and stay, as they do regularly. He hates moving house and hopes he won’t be doing so again.

It is no surprise when you meet him to learn that Mick grew up in Inverell where his family had been breeding Fine Merino sheep and Poll Hereford cattle for three generations. He studied commerce and accounting at Charles Sturt University and worked for Toyota after he graduated. His wife Karen completed an MBA at Charles Sturt University and then worked in a variety of corporate roles.

They bought their first farm in 2002, near Bargo where Karen’s family were living, and Mick thought he would follow in his family’s footsteps.

“I had a plan to grow meat sheep with a self-replacing flock and then out of the blue Karen said: ‘I don’t want sheep, I want alpacas.’ I said: ‘Let me tell you a story about alpacas. I saw my first alpacas at The Sydney Royal Easter Show in about 1989. There were just two of them in a pen in the goat and pig pavilion. I knew what they were, but I said to my grandfather: ‘Pa, what are these?’ He said: ‘Son, they’re alpacas. Steer clear of them, they will be the feral goat of the 2000s.’

“I told Karen there was no fibre industry, no meat industry and no return on investment and that only iconic, well to do people could afford to have alpacas for their tax scheme. But despite everything I put forward, she said: ‘I don’t care, that’s what I want to do. They are such interesting and beautiful animals.’ And then she told me she’d done all this research and even spoken to Janie Forrest.”

Janie Forrest was an industry leader, having taken over the administration and management of Coolaroo Alpaca Stud in 1995 and then purchasing that business in 1998.

“We’d recently bought our first car and we thought we were so good because we’d saved up and paid for it in cash,” Mick recalls. “And then we bought our first couple of alpacas – and they cost more than the car.”

It was a very steep learning curve for the Williams.

“You can’t just learn to farm alpacas,” says Mick. “You’re basically working with an animal that you have no idea how to do anything with. The plan was to generate income from our two black male alpacas through breeding and siring fees, but because they were so expensive we couldn’t afford to make any mistakes. So we bought five other alpacas, wethers and barren females, so we could learn from them. I had no problem with things like drenching and injecting, but we had to learn to get the order and processes right.”

The Williams took their business more seriously each year and, importantly, they invested in genetics

“I saw this male at the Sydney Royal Easter Show when he was nine months old. My daughter, Rubey, and I were in the Grand Parade and Janie [Forrest] gave me an alpaca to lead. I knew he was fantastic and we needed to buy him. It took five years, but we eventually bought a half share with Janie.”

In its first decade, from 2003 to 2013, the StoryBook Alpaca herd grew from two to 300.

It was at this time that Coolawarra was formed, bringing together the industry leading Coolaroo and Illawarra herds of Janie Forrest and Dr Ian Davison. The Williams started to collaborate more and more with Coolawarra and in 2016 they purchased the Coolawarra herd.

The Australian alpaca industry was rocked to its core that same year when shipping of alpacas to the lucrative United Kingdom and European markets was stopped by authorities due to the potential of a Q Fever outbreak.

“Suddenly people who had made thousands and thousands of dollars by selling their top animals to the UK and Europe couldn’t do it any more,” Rubey recalls. “It wasn’t an option.”

The Australian industry had to respond in order to survive – and so the country’s alpaca fibre industry was born. The Waratah Alpaca Fibre Co-op was formed in 2018, with Mick a founding member, to help Australians sell their alpaca fleece to the world.

“There are over 1,000 registered alpaca breeders in Australia, but most are small operators,” Rubey says. “The average herd size is 28 alpacas. We hoped that, through the co-operative, if people could see that fibre could be a genuine concern and they could sell their fibre, they would want to participate in building the industry. They would buy better males and they would breed more. 

“It’s been slow, but it’s happening.” 

Alpaca fleece is valued for both its softness and its strength, and the co-operative now sells $2.5 million of it each year to buyers in countries including China, Canada and New Zealand.

Importantly, Coolawarra and StoryBook Alpacas is a very diversified business.

“It has to be,” says Mick, “because even though we are running over 1,000 alpacas, that is minute compared to the merino sheep industry. We have a breeding and siring program, we sell to other breeders, we export animals and fleece to overseas markets and we have an agistment business, where we manage alpacas for domestic and overseas owners. For example, we look after over 100 animals for a client in Qatar and more than 40 for a Chinese owner.”

While Australian breeders can still not export their high quality alpacas to the UK or Europe, there is strong demand from Asian countries such as China, Korea and Indonesia.

“They are used for breeding,” Rubey says, “but we recently sold 48 alpacas to a Korean buyer who will place them on an elite resort where they will feature in wedding photos and be part of a farmyard nursery. These animals will be living in the lap of luxury!”

Coolawarra and StoryBook Alpacas are now also involved in ecotourism.

“People around the world love alpacas and recently we won a contract with Disney. A group of American tourists come to Australia for about 10 days and, from Sydney, they spend a day in The Southern Highlands. They visit Kangaroo Valley and have lunch at the café in Berrima – but a big drawcard is coming to Coolaroo to see our alpacas.”

Mick and Karen both have MBAs and have brought a disciplined corporate approach to their business.

“We run it very commercially, very much like a sheep organisation. There was no point reinventing the wheel. All our animals have electronic ear tags, so we are paperless and there is no data entry. The tags record the animal’s full history, including its weight and all the husbandry information.”

It is no surprise when you meet him to learn that Mick grew up in Inverell where his family had been breeding Fine Merino sheep and Poll Hereford cattle for three generations. He studied commerce and accounting at Charles Sturt University and worked for Toyota after he graduated. His wife Karen completed an MBA at Charles Sturt University and then worked in a variety of corporate roles.

They bought their first farm in 2002, near Bargo where Karen’s family were living, and Mick thought he would follow in his family’s footsteps.

“I had a plan to grow meat sheep with a self-replacing flock and then out of the blue Karen said: ‘I don’t want sheep, I want alpacas.’ I said: ‘Let me tell you a story about alpacas. I saw my first alpacas at The Sydney Royal Easter Show in about 1989. There were just two of them in a pen in the goat and pig pavilion. I knew what they were, but I said to my grandfather: ‘Pa, what are these?’ He said: ‘Son, they’re alpacas. Steer clear of them, they will be the feral goat of the 2000s.’

“I told Karen there was no fibre industry, no meat industry and no return on investment and that only iconic, well to do people could afford to have alpacas for their tax scheme. But despite everything I put forward, she said: ‘I don’t care, that’s what I want to do. They are such interesting and beautiful animals.’ And then she told me she’d done all this research and even spoken to Janie Forrest.”

Janie Forrest was an industry leader, having taken over the administration and management of Coolaroo Alpaca Stud in 1995 and then purchasing that business in 1998.

“We’d recently bought our first car and we thought we were so good because we’d saved up and paid for it in cash,” Mick recalls. “And then we bought our first couple of alpacas – and they cost more than the car.”

It was a very steep learning curve for the Williams.

“You can’t just learn to farm alpacas,” says Mick. “You’re basically working with an animal that you have no idea how to do anything with. The plan was to generate income from our two black male alpacas through breeding and siring fees, but because they were so expensive we couldn’t afford to make any mistakes. So we bought five other alpacas, wethers and barren females, so we could learn from them. I had no problem with things like drenching and injecting, but we had to learn to get the order and processes right.”

The Williams took their business more seriously each year and, importantly, they invested in genetics

“I saw this male at the Sydney Royal Easter Show when he was nine months old. My daughter, Rubey, and I were in the Grand Parade and Janie [Forrest] gave me an alpaca to lead. I knew he was fantastic and we needed to buy him. It took five years, but we eventually bought a half share with Janie.”

In its first decade, from 2003 to 2013, the StoryBook Alpaca herd grew from two to 300.

It was at this time that Coolawarra was formed, bringing together the industry leading Coolaroo and Illawarra herds of Janie Forrest and Dr Ian Davison. The Williams started to collaborate more and more with Coolawarra and in 2016 they purchased the Coolawarra herd.

The Australian alpaca industry was rocked to its core that same year when shipping of alpacas to the lucrative United Kingdom and European markets was stopped by authorities due to the potential of a Q Fever outbreak.

“Suddenly people who had made thousands and thousands of dollars by selling their top animals to the UK and Europe couldn’t do it any more,” Rubey recalls. “It wasn’t an option.”

The Australian industry had to respond in order to survive – and so the country’s alpaca fibre industry was born. The Waratah Alpaca Fibre Co-op was formed in 2018, with Mick a founding member, to help Australians sell their alpaca fleece to the world.

“There are over 1,000 registered alpaca breeders in Australia, but most are small operators,” Rubey says. “The average herd size is 28 alpacas. We hoped that, through the co-operative, if people could see that fibre could be a genuine concern and they could sell their fibre, they would want to participate in building the industry. They would buy better males and they would breed more. 

“It’s been slow, but it’s happening.” 

Alpaca fleece is valued for both its softness and its strength, and the co-operative now sells $2.5 million of it each year to buyers in countries including China, Canada and New Zealand.

Importantly, Coolawarra and StoryBook Alpacas is a very diversified business.

“It has to be,” says Mick, “because even though we are running over 1,000 alpacas, that is minute compared to the merino sheep industry. We have a breeding and siring program, we sell to other breeders, we export animals and fleece to overseas markets and we have an agistment business, where we manage alpacas for domestic and overseas owners. For example, we look after over 100 animals for a client in Qatar and more than 40 for a Chinese owner.”

While Australian breeders can still not export their high quality alpacas to the UK or Europe, there is strong demand from Asian countries such as China, Korea and Indonesia.

“They are used for breeding,” Rubey says, “but we recently sold 48 alpacas to a Korean buyer who will place them on an elite resort where they will feature in wedding photos and be part of a farmyard nursery. These animals will be living in the lap of luxury!”

Coolawarra and StoryBook Alpacas are now also involved in ecotourism.

“People around the world love alpacas and recently we won a contract with Disney. A group of American tourists come to Australia for about 10 days and, from Sydney, they spend a day in The Southern Highlands. They visit Kangaroo Valley and have lunch at the café in Berrima – but a big drawcard is coming to Coolaroo to see our alpacas.”

Mick and Karen both have MBAs and have brought a disciplined corporate approach to their business.

“We run it very commercially, very much like a sheep organisation. There was no point reinventing the wheel. All our animals have electronic ear tags, so we are paperless and there is no data entry. The tags record the animal’s full history, including its weight and all the husbandry information.”

It is no surprise when you meet him to learn that Mick grew up in Inverell where his family had been breeding Fine Merino sheep and Poll Hereford cattle for three generations. He studied commerce and accounting at Charles Sturt University and worked for Toyota after he graduated. His wife Karen completed an MBA at Charles Sturt University and then worked in a variety of corporate roles.

They bought their first farm in 2002, near Bargo where Karen’s family were living, and Mick thought he would follow in his family’s footsteps.

“I had a plan to grow meat sheep with a self-replacing flock and then out of the blue Karen said: ‘I don’t want sheep, I want alpacas.’ I said: ‘Let me tell you a story about alpacas. I saw my first alpacas at The Sydney Royal Easter Show in about 1989. There were just two of them in a pen in the goat and pig pavilion. I knew what they were, but I said to my grandfather: ‘Pa, what are these?’ He said: ‘Son, they’re alpacas. Steer clear of them, they will be the feral goat of the 2000s.’

“I told Karen there was no fibre industry, no meat industry and no return on investment and that only iconic, well to do people could afford to have alpacas for their tax scheme. But despite everything I put forward, she said: ‘I don’t care, that’s what I want to do. They are such interesting and beautiful animals.’ And then she told me she’d done all this research and even spoken to Janie Forrest.”

Janie Forrest was an industry leader, having taken over the administration and management of Coolaroo Alpaca Stud in 1995 and then purchasing that business in 1998.

“We’d recently bought our first car and we thought we were so good because we’d saved up and paid for it in cash,” Mick recalls. “And then we bought our first couple of alpacas – and they cost more than the car.”

It was a very steep learning curve for the Williams.

“You can’t just learn to farm alpacas,” says Mick. “You’re basically working with an animal that you have no idea how to do anything with. The plan was to generate income from our two black male alpacas through breeding and siring fees, but because they were so expensive we couldn’t afford to make any mistakes. So we bought five other alpacas, wethers and barren females, so we could learn from them. I had no problem with things like drenching and injecting, but we had to learn to get the order and processes right.”

The Williams took their business more seriously each year and, importantly, they invested in genetics

“I saw this male at the Sydney Royal Easter Show when he was nine months old. My daughter, Rubey, and I were in the Grand Parade and Janie [Forrest] gave me an alpaca to lead. I knew he was fantastic and we needed to buy him. It took five years, but we eventually bought a half share with Janie.”

In its first decade, from 2003 to 2013, the StoryBook Alpaca herd grew from two to 300.

It was at this time that Coolawarra was formed, bringing together the industry leading Coolaroo and Illawarra herds of Janie Forrest and Dr Ian Davison. The Williams started to collaborate more and more with Coolawarra and in 2016 they purchased the Coolawarra herd.

The Australian alpaca industry was rocked to its core that same year when shipping of alpacas to the lucrative United Kingdom and European markets was stopped by authorities due to the potential of a Q Fever outbreak.

“Suddenly people who had made thousands and thousands of dollars by selling their top animals to the UK and Europe couldn’t do it any more,” Rubey recalls. “It wasn’t an option.”

The Australian industry had to respond in order to survive – and so the country’s alpaca fibre industry was born. The Waratah Alpaca Fibre Co-op was formed in 2018, with Mick a founding member, to help Australians sell their alpaca fleece to the world.

“There are over 1,000 registered alpaca breeders in Australia, but most are small operators,” Rubey says. “The average herd size is 28 alpacas. We hoped that, through the co-operative, if people could see that fibre could be a genuine concern and they could sell their fibre, they would want to participate in building the industry. They would buy better males and they would breed more. 

“It’s been slow, but it’s happening.” 

Alpaca fleece is valued for both its softness and its strength, and the co-operative now sells $2.5 million of it each year to buyers in countries including China, Canada and New Zealand.

Importantly, Coolawarra and StoryBook Alpacas is a very diversified business.

“It has to be,” says Mick, “because even though we are running over 1,000 alpacas, that is minute compared to the merino sheep industry. We have a breeding and siring program, we sell to other breeders, we export animals and fleece to overseas markets and we have an agistment business, where we manage alpacas for domestic and overseas owners. For example, we look after over 100 animals for a client in Qatar and more than 40 for a Chinese owner.”

While Australian breeders can still not export their high quality alpacas to the UK or Europe, there is strong demand from Asian countries such as China, Korea and Indonesia.

“They are used for breeding,” Rubey says, “but we recently sold 48 alpacas to a Korean buyer who will place them on an elite resort where they will feature in wedding photos and be part of a farmyard nursery. These animals will be living in the lap of luxury!”

Coolawarra and StoryBook Alpacas are now also involved in ecotourism.

“People around the world love alpacas and recently we won a contract with Disney. A group of American tourists come to Australia for about 10 days and, from Sydney, they spend a day in The Southern Highlands. They visit Kangaroo Valley and have lunch at the café in Berrima – but a big drawcard is coming to Coolaroo to see our alpacas.”

Mick and Karen both have MBAs and have brought a disciplined corporate approach to their business.

“We run it very commercially, very much like a sheep organisation. There was no point reinventing the wheel. All our animals have electronic ear tags, so we are paperless and there is no data entry. The tags record the animal’s full history, including its weight and all the husbandry information.”