Mark and Lindy Withers live on Woodlands, which, with the adjoining property Manilla, comprise around 64000 Hectares of the country in the middle of the Anabranch. The Withers family are one of the earliest settlers in the region, with Mark being a 5th generation Anabranch farmer, and his grandchildren 7th generation in the mixed enterprise.

“We are primarily sheep and cattle, and do some occasional lake-bed cropping. We’ll chase a few goats when we see them so I guess we need to call them part of the operation as well, but we don’t really manage for them.”

The family’s Merino operation regularly shears around 15000 sheep and in addition, they run around 500 cattle in conjunction with another holding down at Keith in South Australia.

“We stuck with the Merinos, and will do whilst we can get good shearers. They have their moments with flies and such, but I love the product, and we have a really good crew of shearers at the moment so we’ll stick with them for a bit.”

With some time spent on the Wentworth RLPB prior to the creation of Local Land Services and participation in the local Landcare group, Mark is no stranger to Boards. He has been on the Anabranch Board effectively since its inception, participating in the decision-making since before the private irrigation area and the associated pipeline was developed.

“I was on the Anabranch Water Trust, and we started off with DAMP (darling Anabranch Management Plan) and that evolved into the current Board, so I suppose I’ve been there for pretty much the whole time.”