In Drought and In Plenty
If there’s one thing retired farmer of 42 years, Neil Pontifex knows it’s that life on the land is hard.
The summer/autumn seasons of 2024/2025 saw the broader Fleurieu farming community face some of the harshest drought conditions since the millennium drought. To Neil, this is a reminder of just how different life on the land is from any other career.
“In the average workplace, everyone thinks they’re responsible for their own success,” Neil said. “But farmers always know that just one bad season can undo all the good work they’ve done over the years.”
Everyone thinks they’re responsible for their own success.”
Despite numerous awards, accolades and a thriving business model in Kangaroo Island Pure Grain, the 72-year-old said, “There have been times that have been tough, very tough.”
When he and wife Rosemary bought the family property on KI in 2000, it was bleeding money.
“But I still felt we were meant to be there,” Neil said. Whether it was the land, the wildlife or the people, Neil knew he was being called to help and sure enough, he did.
Within a few years, things began to turn around; Neil and his sons had found innovative solutions to treating crops in waterlogged soil and by 2009, started KI Pure Grain, now considered a producer of some of the highest quality grains in Australia.
“That’s the secret, I think,” Neil said. “It’s having faith that the rain will come, it has to eventually.”
Neil knows that hardship, and the lessons he’s learned, are the key to some of his later successes.
When he’s not with friends or helping in his role as a hospital chaplain, you can find Neil at Victor Harbor Church of Christ on a Sunday morning.
Main Photo
Neil Pontifex and his wife Rosemary, at their home in McCracken.