00:09A small corner of the family farm at Washpool in South Australia's mid-north
00:16is changing everything for Justine Reynolds.
00:20Good morning.
00:22Good morning, Justine.
00:24This is her Wilga plantation,
00:26where she likes to give the young crop a few words of encouragement
00:30before getting down to business.
00:33One thing that we do when we come and harvest the Wilga trees is we thank them.
00:37So all the girls do that now every time we come and harvest.
00:40We thank each tree for their blessings and for what they give us.
00:46It's a gift that keeps on giving.
00:48That's it.
00:49In some parts of Australia, the hardy native is grazed by livestock.
00:54Here, it's protected from the sheep
00:56and harvested for its traditional use in Aboriginal medicine,
01:01where it's used to ease pain.
01:04Some research shows that the earlier leaves in some of these plants
01:07are more potent than the older leaves as well.
01:10So probably started stripping them when they were two, three years old.
01:13Are they quite quick to grow back?
01:15Yeah.
01:21Wilga is one of several native species Justine and her team
01:25used to make balms and teas.
01:30Inspired by ancient bush remedies,
01:34the business brings traditional knowledge to a modern market
01:37using minimal ingredients and processing.
01:42After running the business on her own in the early days,
01:46she now has six casual employees.
01:49Three Wilga oils, 250, four native apricot hydrosols.
01:54I wonder if anyone's going to Broken Hill.
01:56Just three years after launching,
01:58Justine's products are now stocked in more than 80 stores.
02:02From our first year, we actually made a profit.
02:05Not a big profit.
02:06It's only a little profit, but it's a profit.
02:07The second year, we doubled that,
02:10and this year, we're looking at doubling that again.
02:12I don't think I've been to the post office so much in my life
02:14since she started the business.
02:16Dropping parcels off her to be posted,
02:18and it's just gone.
02:20Yeah.
02:20No, it's unreal.
02:21No one predicted it, I don't think.
Comments