Making their way

By Peter Sweeney
A MINI-SIZED billboard in a paddock not far from the border of the Cardinia and South Gippsland shires, tells you everything Frank Hance and his sons Chris and Nick can put their hands to.
It’s actually easier – and quicker – to ask what they cannot do rather than read what they can.
When his sons gave him a voucher for Christmas, Frank Hance visited his signwriting neighbour at Lang Lang East and said “go for it”. Either Mr Hance is good with his imagination – or pretty talented.
After meeting him, you come to the conclusion it’s the latter – with maybe a tad of the former thrown in.
Not so long ago, this part of the world which Frank Hance has called home all his life was a no-man’s-land.
“The only inhabitants here before I cleared this place were wallabies and kangaroos. People from up Yannathan and Caldermeade wondered why we were worrying clearing it, but this land has gone ahead. I reckon it’s now more productive than up there,” Mr Hance said.
“It was all bush when I took it over in 1970. Nobody wanted to be here, we didn’t even have a road.”
A dirt track through sandhills was how he used to get to the property owned by his late father, Steve, which was, so to speak, up the road.
“Dad asked the local shire to put in a road, which they did. It was 1972 and soon after, a rule was brought in where people had to pay for roads to be put in.”
A saving of thousands of dollars was just one bonus. The other? Well the road was named Hance Road.
“Dad, who used to breed a lot of little dogs as pets, died about six years ago. Mum (Gelda) still lives up the end of the road,” Frank Hance, whose brother Ken operates a neighbouring farm, said.
“Dad was born on the property – and that’s where he wanted to die.”
It was Mr Hance’s grandfather who “selected” this part of the world many years back.
“He moved here from Menzies Creek. It was Crown land and he bought if off the government,” Frank said.
Frank and his wife Martess (the name is of Maltese origin and a cross between Maria-Teresa, “my mum came here (Australia) when she was 10 and my dad when he was 16”) own, or lease, nearly 150 hectares.
The couple run beef cattle, mainly Murray Greys, and rear poddy calves on the bucket.
About 90 per cent of his livestock is bought by a Kooweerup butcher, who wanted his stock fed naturally. “He started with a small amount … now he cannot get enough of it,” Mr Hance said.
“He has even got people driving from Melbourne to get our meat.
“For many years, our cattle ate grass that was fertilised by fowl manure. For the past seven or eight years, we’ve had crushed volcanic rock from Werribee on our farm.
“It’s full of minerals. We use it (crushed volcanic rock) on the potatoes and pumpkins we grow … and you can really taste the difference.
“I know there are farmers who don’t believe in it, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. Artificial fertilisers are full of weeds and spray and you’re forever chasing your tail with that.
“Weeds don’t grow on this stuff (volcanic rock). The cattle love it. I see every animal all the way through from start to finish here and you know what happens to them.”
Though he works closely with his sons, Mr Hance listens more closely to his daughter, Rebecca. Literally.
Bec Hance, 29, who splits her brothers Chris and Nick in age, is one of Australia’s leading country musicians.
Also a paramedic and the manager of the ambulance station at Murchison, Bec is a much sought after singer-songwriter and has performed at many of the biggest festivals in the land, including Tamworth.
“I might be a bit biased, but she’s as good as anybody,” Frank said firmly.
“She mixes her music up at shows. There’s a lot of singing, a bit of yodelling and she’s such a good teller of jokes. They’re short and sweet … and you never hear the same one twice.
“You hear something different at every show she does. I haven’t seen her perform for a while, but there’s a 10-day festival in Mildura at the end of September and she’s one of the main acts.
“We’ll go and have a listen.”
And just in case you’re wondering what’s on the sign in the paddock, there’s too much to mention.
However, some of the things the father and sons do in agricultural contracting include hay and silage making and selling, hiring and selling of Murray Grey bulls, slashing, pipe laying, pasture renovation and oversowing, fertiliser spreading, supplying fowl manure, rock dust and lime and the maintenance of truck and farm machinery.
As you can imagine, it’s a substantially-sized sign … but what they can do doesn’t end there.
Late last Wednesday, Mr Hancewas called to pull a bogged fowl manure truck out.
“Couldn’t finish it then, had to go back the next morning,” Frank said.