In a vast paddock in Tasmania's Central Highlands, the ground unexpectedly vibrates beneath my feet. It isn't an earthquake. Rather, it's the effect of hundreds of hooves pummelling the earth as a scattered herd of White Suffolk sheep is rounded up and brought in by Billy, a nimble Smithfield-Collie cross working dog.
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I'm experiencing a day in the life of Curringa Farm, a 300ha farm-stay near Hamilton. With no neighbours in sight, it feels as remote as an outback station, yet it's only just over an hour's drive from Hobart.
Here, on gently rolling hills that border Lake Meadowbank, sixth-generation Tassie farmers Tim and Jane Parsons run a multi-faceted enterprise. This includes breeding prime lambs and growing medicinal poppies, as well as onions and other veg for seeds that are exported around the world. Continuing a tradition started by Tim's mother who opened a guest cottage on the property in 1984, they also offer accommodation options ranging from romantic studios for two to family-friendly cottages.
Those who come to stay can admire up to 3000 resident sheep (numbers peak when the lambs are born in spring), Highland cows, alpacas, chickens and ducks - as well as an abundance of native wildlife. Guests can also wander along two self-guided walks or join a small-group "shearer's smoko" tour (minimum four people).
The tour includes the unforgettable sheep round-up. After Tim and Billy alight from their farm ute, Tim whistles and Billy shoots off across the paddock where ewes are dotted in the distance like ants. As they start to coalesce into a mob, Tim says: "These mums are going to smell terrible of onions because they've been eating the onion trash."
It's the spot to settle into, kick back and watch 'farm television'.
What happens next is so mesmerising that bad sheep breath is the last thing on my mind. As Billy brings them closer and closer, Tim's whistles grow softer, more complex and bird-like and, before I know it, I'm practically eyeballing the horizontal pupils of those sheep.
They pause to take a frank look at us before swirling around me and a family holding their toddler. It's as though we're rocks in a stream and they're the steady woolly current. "Baa-baa!" exclaims the two-year-old, thrilled with his up-close sheep encounter.
We've all overnighted on the property, which is home to a resident sea eagle. Twitchers might also spot other bird species such as the hoary-headed grebe, cattle egret, boobook owl and pallid cuckoo. I check into the Echidna Studio, which sits several kilometres from the front gate, over animal grids and down a dirt road, within a quintessentially Australian landscape of gum trees and grasses.
It's an open-plan, timber-floored space with a kitchenette, a king bed topped with a mohair rug and a sheepskin-draped couch positioned in front of a picture window. At dusk and dawn, it's the spot to settle into, kick back and watch "farm television". Wallabies lazily hop past the window and I keep my eyes peeled for wombats and echidnas (no luck with those, unfortunately).
Although you can grab a pub meal nearby, it's more relaxing to stay in and cook your own dinner. There's also an on-site cafe and store, which sells local products including woollen rugs and socks, lavender and lanolin hand cream, and the farm's own honey, lemon syrup, raspberry jam and poppyseed chutney. Nearby is a climbable vintage tractor and the shearing shed where, when the ewes are due for a haircut, four shearers buzz through 150 animals each a day, producing some 10,000 kilograms of wool.
Tim brings a sheep into the shed to demonstrate the shearing process. He expertly wrangles the ewe into position and somehow clips off her wool in one piece.
Before throwing the fleece onto the lanolin-stained wool table, he points to where we should stand to take the best shot of what's about to unfold. I'm ready - but still surprised when the floof seems to expand infinitely towards me. This is one farm-stay that raises the baa.
Stays start from $260 a night. Katrina Lobley was a guest of Curringa Farm.
FIVE MORE FARMSTAYS
The distinguished 19th-century poet, writer and artist Louisa Ann Meredith once occupied the sandstone homestead on this 2832-hectare farm (pictured) near Buckland in Tasmania. Stay in the former stables or shearing shed, take a cooking class or workshop and hear about Sheila, the legendary wandering sheep who made world headlines.
This 40-hectare working farm near Sheffield offers two cabins with views of Mt Roland's snaggle-toothed silhouette, resident platypuses in the waterways, Barnevelder chickens, a kitchen garden and goats who don't mind a friendly pat. Guests can tour the farm, which is focused on regenerating and restoring bushland, and plant a tree if they wish.
Fly-fish for tiger, rainbow or wild brown trout in this Central Highlands farm's lakes and lagoons, watch the sheep being shorn in June, see the arrival of 5000 lambs in September, feed the horse, pig, rabbit, sheep and chooks, or take a night tour to see Tassie devils, quolls, potoroos and wombats.
Stay in restored convict cottages or farm barns in central Tasmania so you can play a round on what's regarded as Australia's oldest golf course. Ratho Farm's six "lost" holes have been restored so there's now a full 18-hole course featuring unusual hazards such as hedges and sheep yards.
Fancy brushing the shaggy coats of some good-natured Scottish Highland cattle? Head to Highland Getaway, in the Huon Valley south of Hobart, where you can walk among the cows and calves, and snap a selfie. Accommodation comprises two adults-only suites, and a three-bedroom house.
