Aussie diggers writing a new chapter in the bush

When you think about what soldiers and farmers have in common, a few things come to mind: determination, selflessness, strategic thinking, and working together towards a better future.

It was some of these shared values that brought Army veterans Angelo Leonardi and Cody Dennis, as well as Salvatore Leonardi together to farm avocados in Cherry Creek of the South Burnett.

Angelo completed three tours in the Australian Army, serving in Timor Leste the week after he completed basic training, then going on to work in a military security detail in Baghdad, and a physically and mentally demanding year in Afghanistan.

Cody completed two tours of Afghanistan during his Australian Army career, and Salvatore was well into his 20-year mining career, having most recently worked in Papua New Guinea.

Experiencing firsthand the toll that serving and losing mates can take, Angelo, Salvatore, and Cody set about writing a new chapter.

“It’s tough, you know, we hear about veterans’ mental health in the news, but then it goes out of the media cycle,” Angelo said.

“For us who were there, it doesn’t go away. It can become all-consuming if we don’t do something about it.”

For Angelo, reframing how he viewed his time in the Army in the broader picture of life, and taking learnings from programs for veterans in the United States and United Kingdom is what started him on his next mission: agriculture.

“The Army is one chapter in a bigger book. We need to create the next chapter. It was time to find a new purpose and do something that was bigger than just us; that fostered the camaraderie we cherish,” Angelo said.

“In the bush, we don’t have the sensory overload of the city—which can be very overwhelming if you’re living with things like PTSD. For veterans who are grappling with the difficulty of city life, farming is the perfect antidote.”

Although he’d seen these programs overseas provide invaluable assistance for returned soldiers, he didn’t want to start an NGO (non-government organisation) or charity.

The group wanted to do something that was good for veterans, good for the economy, and good for the wider community.

Angelo had an idea about the potential of agriculture to achieve these three goals. Born in Toowoomba, he grew up on a cattle farm before his family moved to North Queensland in the 2000s.

But it wasn’t just a case of coming home from Afghanistan at the end of 2010 and walking onto a farm.

The strategy

Cherry Creek Estate was nearly a decade in the making.

The team took a strategic approach, getting qualifications in business, leadership and management, plant and machinery operation, as well as safety and emergency management.

With this knowledge under their belt, they decided that they wanted to pursue a commodity that had value add potential to diversify their revenue streams and protect themselves against fluctuations in commodity prices or poor weather conditions.

Then they began the hunt to find the sweet spot: A farm—or farms—that had the right commodity, right soil, right weather, and the right water… all at the right price. That’s not too much to ask, is it?

Building Cherry Creek Estate

In Cherry Creek, on the very southeastern tip of the South Burnett region, they found just what they were looking for. Avocado growers in the area had already begun the process of consolidating their farms, on beautiful volcanic soil.

Angelo is grateful for the generosity of the Clark family, who previously ran the property as The Green Nugget.

He said the Clarks “did a lot to help us get onto the land. They put in 30 years of care and maintenance of this property.”

Now, as Cherry Creek Estate, Angelo, Salvatore, and Cody are part of a team of 14 full time staff, tending to 400 hectares of managed avocado orchards, some ginger trials, 100 head of cattle, and a booming value add operation of their avocado crop.

As well as trading the fresh fruit, Cherry Creek Estate produces avocado oil, both natural, as well as garlic and chilli infusions.

Not only does Cherry Creek Estate oils feature on the menu of two exclusive Coolangatta restaurants—Siblings Kirra and Hanks—it is also receiving national and international acclaim.

The natural oil variety received gold recognition as the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show, with the garlic-infused oil receiving silver. The natural variety also received a Diplôme Gourmet at the 2024 AVPA (Agency for Valorization of Agricultural Products) Edible Oils Contest in Paris.

But success with the avocado oil production is not enough for the Cherry Creek team, who seek to build their product lines and manufacturing capabilities even further.

For Angelo, it’s all about the one-percenters and maximising every part of his crop and business.

“What else can we do with it before putting it in the bin?” he asks.

As well as producing the oil, the team also extracts the avocado wax, , with the leftover pulp making high protein cattle feed.

Back to basics

Although he was raised on a farm and had studied to understand how to best run his now burgeoning business, Angelo hasn’t always been a grower, and he’s acknowledged it’s a steep learning curve.

“It’s a lot of pressure to think of everything (needed to run the farm) and you don’t know what you don’t know,” Angelo said.

So, when he met John Targett, Growcom’s Farm Business Resilience Facilitator for Central Queensland, Angelo jumped at the opportunity to learn about tools and funding available to support his emerging agribusiness.

Hort360 has proven to be an invaluable resource for these new growers, giving them a bird’s eye view of every area of Cherry Creek Estate, making it easy for them to see where they can take their next steps in improving their business.

“Intergenerational farmers probably have their dad or grandfather still around the farm reminding them you’ve got to look after x, y, and z. It’s probably been drilled into them since day dot.

“But we’re starting from scratch, so having a central location to keep tabs on all the parts of the farm helps so much,” Angelo said of Hort360.

John was impressed with Angelo’s enthusiasm for the platform, saying he’d taken Angelo through the Farm Business Resilience module only to come back the next day and find out that Angelo had done 50 per cent of all the other Hort360 modules.

As well as Hort360, Angelo has been working with John on developing his farm business resilience plan to enable him to apply for funding support to grow Cherry Creek Estate’s manufacturing capabilities.

“The farm business resilience planning process has been really useful for us,” Angelo said.

“I think if government funding supports were more streamlined to recognise the value of these plans in the application process, it’d make life a lot easier for farmers and see more work get done on the ground.”

“Private enterprise wants to invest in the bush, but there also needs to be ongoing government backing of agricultural and manufacturing businesses out here so we can deliver stable employment and revitalise these important regional centres,” Angelo said.

The group always has their eye on what’s next with current plans underway to build a refinery in Cherry Creek and ensuring they have enough supply to keep up with demand.

The Farm Business Resilience Program is jointly funded through the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund and the Queensland Government’s Drought and Climate Adaptation Program.