The Good Life

Longfield’ is a 100-acre farm with a homestead built sometime between 1890 and 1905. Its wraparound bullnose veranda, dilapidated grandeur and prominent position on a north-facing grassy knoll make it a much-loved local landmark that has sat empty for forty years, decaying in the sub-tropical climate. 

Enter Mel Macpherson, adventure camera-woman, surfboat champion and now Longfield’s least likely saviour… 

Mel, with the help of her many interesting and innovative friends, breathes new life into Longfield, a project that will see the ‘Old Girl’ reimagined and brought back to life. The existing home is painstakingly restored, the long-neglected paddocks & pastures reinvigorated through regenerative farming and in the process, the establishment of a new Longfield agricultural brand.  But Mel isn’t a farmer, builder or businesswoman, so turning this property around is going test her limits.

Along the way Mel contends with the wettest summer on record, termites that are eating their way through her new home, timber shortages; a ghost that needs to be exorcised, lead poisoning, making a commemorative gin, new discoveries about herself and who and what she wants to be, growing a rainforest, learning to drive farm machines and manual cars, land rights issues, and how on earth she’s going to make 100 acres of farmland work. 

But this story isn’t as straight forward as simply saving a house or a farm.  The Good Life is also the story of how Mel, who just turned 40, lost her father and left her husband all in the space of a few years.  It is the story of not just how her life came apart but how she woke up to a new set of choices and desires.  Mel isn’t just rebuilding Longfield, she is rebuilding her own infrastructure as well.