Thousands of everlasting daisies turn grain farm into social media hotspot
In the golden fields of Western Australia's southern Wheatbelt, something pink is growing.
The community of Mobrup, about 300 kilometres south of Perth, is one of WA's oldest sheep and grain farming centres.
But for the past two decades, one farm has been growing something a little bit different.
Ms Egerton-Warburton and her husband Rob run sheep and grain on their 6,000-hectare family farm in the area.
But in 2004, curiosity and a stroke of providence saw the couple plant a trial plot of everlasting daisies in an empty field.
"I got some seeds from my past job and we just threw it on the ground to see how it went and it's just flourished," Ms Egerton-Warburton said.
The first harvest was a success, horticulturally and commercially, with the seeds sold to a mine site revegetation project.
What started as a passion project for Ms Egerton-Warburton has steadily grown into a national retail business.
"The second year we grew so much seed we supplied the wholesale market and we had a heap leftover," she said
"We got homemade stickers out of the printer and stuck them on ziplock bags and sold them at IGA and shops like that.
The business, Lucinda's Everlastings, was named for the Egerton-Warburtons' eldest daughter, Lucinda.
A second field of golden everlastings has been cultivated for her younger sister Zara.
"Zara is feeling a little down in the hierarchy because Lucinda is up here and Zara's everlastings don't do as well as Lucinda's," Ms Egerton-Warburton said.
More than 1,000 species of everlasting daisies exist in Australia, with the native flower deriving its name from its ability to retain both colour and shape once cut.
The site of daisies in bloom has turned the Egerton-Warbutons's farm into a magnet for creative types chasing a unique backdrop, including musicians, charities and people hunting their next Instagrammable moment.
Ms Egerton-Warburton said a recent open day that allowed people to photograph and pick flowers attracted hundreds of people.
The fields have also been the setting for various photo shoots and a commercial.
But the flowers don't just create special memories for others.
Years of trial and error in harvesting the commercial crop have handed Mr Egerton-Warburton the perfect reason to hold onto outdated equipment close to his heart.
"I've got an old John Deere CDS harvester," he said.
"I'd retired it and it was quite sentimental to me because it was one of my first harvesters, and I converted it just to harvest everlastings.
Those three hours of work have taken years to perfect and the exact nature of the modifications remains a tightly guarded secret.
"Grain works on the theory that you blow the chaff out and the heavy grain drops. Well, I guess everlasting is a bit different — seed is lighter than the chaff," Mr Egerton-Warburton said.
"We had to work out how to reverse engineer it inside to make it work.
"The first 10 years we got a really rubbish sample … but now we've developed the harvester to a point where the seed is about 80 to 90 per cent pure."
After harvest the seed is taken to a shed for drying, turned by loader, shovel and hand.
The process is repeated each day until the seeds puff up and triple in size, indicating they are ready for cleaning and packing to the farm's newly established shopfront.
It's part of a plan to help lighten the load for Ms Egerton-Warburton, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) a few years ago, but also as a base of operations for the expanding business.
"We bought a packing machine, which is huge, and we don't have the space at the moment in the shed for housing that," she said.
"As soon as we have a shed built, it's just going to make life a lot easier for all of us."
It's not just the Egerton-Warburtons and their customers who benefit from the seeds.
Kings Park senior plant breeder Digby Growns said growing native flowers in agricultural areas had a multitude of environmental benefits.
"The last two or three brutal summers that we've had have reduced the amount of flowering in our natural bushland and hence the seed set and pollinators aren't there either," he said.
With demand for native plants on the rise, Mr Growns said there were dozens of other species people could be targeting for the ready, waiting market.
"The revegetation industry is big and getting bigger and the impact on our natural areas is significant," he said.
"Small areas can be set aside for these different species and if people talk to the people who are trying to regenerate and find out what species they're after and put those in the ground, I think that's a real opportunity."
It's the same opportunity the Egerton-Warburtons took 20 years ago. But as their business grows, one thing has remained the same.
"They are just so beautiful and they last so long in a vase. I'm just happy for someone to pick some flowers and get the enjoyment we get out of them."
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