Cypress Farm and Garden: Kingsley Dixon describes how Waroona bushfire destroyed his ‘healing’ property

Kingsley Dixon’s famous garden at Cypress Farm is unique in many ways. Not only does it have a rare Aboriginal songline that runs through it, and micro-climates that allow it to grow just about anything, but it is believed to be a special place of healing. When Professor Dixon was diagnosed with liver cancer about 18 months ago — which was believed to be terminal — he had told his husband Lionel Johnston where he wanted to be buried on the sacred land. But having survived the scary diagnosis, he put his survival down to the “magical” healing properties the garden holds. “The previous owner used to bring cancer sufferers here,” Professor Dixon told The West Australian during a visit to the property this week. “And the local Noongar community have brought their elders up here, and they say the ‘waters have healed us’. “This place just has this extraordinary energy. It’s the forest — the forest speaks to you ... it provides spiritual fulfilment, joy, silence, connection to nature.” But after a bushfire ravaged Waroona last week, their 12 acres of pristine gardens — which took nine years to create — were destroyed within minutes. Despite spending more than $40,000 on 25 sprinkler systems dotted around the property — for this scenario — it was not enough. The pair were forced to evacuate last Saturday as the blaze raged towards them. “The local fire brigade turned up and they were really panicking,” Professor Dixon said shortly after the blaze tore through. “I thought we were going to stay and defend because we had it set up, but when I saw the look on their faces, I thought I’d defer to them now. “We just looked around us and everything was lit up with the forward embers, our barn caught alight and our Japanese teahouse on the lake was burning when we drove through it all. “I’ve just never seen anything like it.” The accomplished bushfire scientist believes it is important for every Australian to see just how badly bushfires ravage the land. The couple arrived at the blackened landscape the morning after to find the garden reduced to ash, which had them “incoherently blubbering”. They lost five unique structures, including four guest accommodations that were dotted among the foliage and a Japanese tearoom that floated on the water. They also lost their “barrel sauna” as well as machinery. But thanks to local firefighters, their Japanese-inspired timber home still stands. “The loss of key parts of the garden is a wrench for us, but the biggest loss is all of our buildings, they are really beautiful ... they’re just unique.” “Our wildlife, we got our black cockies, some of the largest aggregation of birds. It took them three days to come back. “It’s all the other stuff too, we have quolls, dunnarts, skinks, parrots. We’re putting out seeds for the birds so they have something to eat now. “It’s just a numb feeling. I don’t understand that, I suspect it’s just self-preservation.” To put the enormous loss into perspective, the pair had tirelessly worked in the gardens every weekend for almost a decade. They say it’s not just an attachment to them, but their “heart and soul”. The couple had purchased the “dilapidated” property in 2015, and before they even had possession of it, they started planting cherries. “Everything had really collapsed ... there was just the barn which was also collapsing, we built all the houses, and the garden from nothing,” Professor Dixon said. “So this is nine years of hard work, a labour of love, the best gym membership you could ever have in the world.” What drew them to the property was the water sources, and what garnered national attention to the garden was the “magic” of being able to “grow everything” due to the micro-climates embedded in it. It boasted mangoes and avocados in one section, and then a huge collection of Japanese maple in another area which was cooler. “We grow everything here ... We grow peony roses, daphne, camellias, azaleas, best native gardens on earth, which is literally a 30-second walk up,” Professor Dixon said. “It became internationally well known. We had international gardening groups come, and what they love about it, is that it’s a garden in a forest. All other gardens, they clear the trees. “People felt like they were enveloped in the garden, not sitting on barren lawns, like on English parkland. You actually got the sense of being in the forest. “We’re in love with this place ... so Saturday night was grim.” But their resilience has prevailed over their heartache. The pair have written a “silver linings” list, with one positive being that they are going to “do it better this time around”. It is expected it will take six months to a year to get the garden back to its former glory. “We had a bottle of wine, sat down, and started planning ... all the mistakes we’d made ... we know what we’re going to do this time,” Professor Dixon said. “We read the bushfire emotional support book and laughed at it. The best thing to do is to just go straight back in when you can and grieve in the midst of it, just get it all out. “We’re moving on — we’re not wallowing.”

Cypress Farm and Garden: Kingsley Dixon describes how Waroona bushfire destroyed his ‘healing’ property

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