Kestrel Nest EcoHut

07/04/2026

Celebrating our nocturnal environment and International DarkSky Week!

Set beneath clear, unspoilt night skies at Highfield Farm and
Woodland, this special event celebrates the magic of the
nocturnal environment.

Join us for an evening of connection and discovery as
woodland comes alive after dark. Enjoy a relaxed picnic dinner,
hear how Highfield Farm carefully balances ecotourism,
biodiversity, and sustainable farming, and learn why dark sky
preservation matters - including the impacts of light pollution
on wildlife.

Thursday 16 April
6:30 pm – 10:00 pm
Highfield Farm and Woodland,
Mount Adrah

Cherie White, on 0427 407 126
or email
[email protected]

20/02/2026

Staying with us in March? You might be interested in this two day event in Wagga Wagga!

04/02/2026

We are a 'reality' TV free zone.

We've been asked twice. And each time, we have proudly refused to be featured on MAFS or Farmer Wants a Wife. Furthermore, we've asked them to put us on their 'no contact' list.

04/02/2026

Your stay did this!

Your stay contributes to our environmental projects on farm and here is an example! 🌳

This is Jimmy's Creek. It used to be accessed by livestock but best practice for waterway health is to exclude them. 💦

Jimmy's has been fenced off and planted, and after several years, you can see the effect! 🌳

Your rest and revival here at Kestrel Nest helps us restore the land you stay on. 🏡

We set aside 20% of your stay fee for projects like this. 🌳 🌼

Join us on our Farming With Habitat Tour when you stay with us. We'll show you the ways your stay is helping us in our work. 🐄 🐑 🌳 🌼 🌸 🌟

* Certified by because we back our eco claims up 🌳

* Certified by because everyone is welcome here 🌈

* Certified by as Australia's first and so far only DarkSky Approved Lodging. Protecting our dark skies for your enjoyment and our wildlife. 🌟

03/02/2026

We are very excited to announce that we have been accepted as a research site to track the movements of the Bogong Moth! We are on the migration route of this endangered moth, and we are excited to help science learn more about them.

One of the reasons we sought DarkSky Approved Lodging status for Kestrel Nest was to ensure we were doing our best to minimise light pollution from our stay, helping the moths get to where they want to go. DarkSky certification is about much, much more than stargazing and human amusement! 🌟

If you are staying with us between March and May, and if you are interested in the project, you can help us with our task. Let us know if you are interested.

If you live near Jindabyne, Yass, Canberra, Murrumbateman, Tumut, Khancoban, Gundagai, Talbingo, Tumbarumba, WaggaWagga, Albury, Wodonga, Corryong, Beechworth, Myrtleford, Omeo, Bairnsdale, Mansfield, Corryong, Bungarby, Ingabriah, Bungendore, Braidwood, Cooma, Bombala and Crookwell, you too might be eligible to take part.

www.bogong.org

📸

31/01/2026

When you need a head shot for two speaking engagements that are coming up and you get two! After all, two heads are better than one!

No, the photographer didn't miss the brief, this is an out take from the session!

Darling Luca kept me company for the shoot and our wonderful photographer grabbed this snap.

Our three Livestock Guardian Dogs - Luca, Bella and Nico are our only farm hands. They do the valuable job of protecting our sheep and chickens from harm.

Thank you Ros for your work, kindness, humour and smarts.

31/01/2026

It's time. It's time to develop a Heatwave Policy, and we'd like your input. 🥵

Today, we are enduring the last day of a seven day stretch of daily temperatures, the coolest nudging 40c and some days well over. We are exhausted, like everyone else around here. 🥞

Over the last week, we gave our guests the option of not staying with us, instead rescheduling their stay for later in the year. This worked well. Our guests were relieved. We were relieved. We gave them options, and they took them up.

That meant a whole week at peak holiday time with no income! When we were booked wall to wall and when we had a waitlist. But we thought it best. After all, hospitality is about our guests being comfortable, enjoying their stay and everything we offer.

We've never had to think about a Heatwave Policy before - we've had hot weather - sure - but nothing like the extremes in temperatures and duration of this one.

And even though our hut is extremely well insulated, protected from the sun by a wide verandah, positioned on a little ridge that catches a breeze, has double glazing, ceiling fans and air-conditioning, this weather has been extreme. 🏡

We already have a policy for catastrophic fire warning days - we just close and offer guests a re-schedile. If guests are already in and we have a catastrophic fire day we will end their stay because it's too dangerous and we might need to be called out on RFS duty. 🔥

If we had extreme rain, we would inform guests, tell them of the road conditions and give them options. ⛈️

But now it's time to have a Heatwave Policy.

If you are a fellow host, do you have a Heatwave Policy? Let me know!

Guests? What do you think should be im a Heatwave Policy? How would you like to be informed of severe weather? How would you like us to handle such situations? How have other places you've stayed at dealt with extreme weather? What have they done great at? What's been rubbish?

📸

30/01/2026

28/01/2026

Your rest from the world at Kestrel Nest does more than do you good. It helps us with our projects of environmental repair.

We set aside 20% of your stay fee as soon as you book. This goes into our EcoFund that helps us fund our 222 hectare conservation area, protecting critically endangered habitat and supports our environmental projects on farm.

So when you stay with us, you become part of something much bigger - the recovery of the land on which you stand.

Your stay does more than offer you respite. It's part of a whole recovery plan for Highfield.

* Certified by because we back our eco claims up 🌳

* Certified by because everyone is welcome here 🌈

* Certified by as Australia's first and so far only DarkSky Approved Lodging. Protecting our dark skies for your enjoyment and our wildlife. 🌟

📸

28/01/2026

We've been keeping something from you. It's time to spill the butterfly wings.

What is it?

Well, since January 2025, for a whole year, we have been putting aside 20% of your stay fee into our special EcoFund invested in an ethical investment instrument.

We've been telling you that we've been putting aside 10% but that's not the case. We wanted to make super sure we could maintain the 20% amount. And now we are sure we can!

Not 20% of profits, 20% of the total amount of your stay! And we set that money aside each time someone books, not at the end of the financial year after the fund might get raided!

What will we do with our EcoFund?

Well, it helps us fund the maintenance of our 222 hectare conservation area, which protects for all time critically endangered habitat.

And, it helps us to fund numerous environmental projects on farm aimed at restoring degraded landscapes and enhancing biodiversity.

So when you stay with us, you are not only having a restorative stay, you are helping our small part of planetary restoration.

Take part in one of our Woodland Experiences when you stay with us to see what we are doing and learn more about our precious patch of habitat. Join us on our:

* Farming with Habitat Tour
* Bird Watching Tour
* Seed Collecting (Seasonal)
* Seed Bomb Making
* Wildflower Walk (Seasonal)
* Object Weaving

* Certified by because we back our eco claims up 🌳

* Certified by because everyone is welcome here 🌈

* Certified by as Australia's first and so far only DarkSky Approved Lodging. Protecting our dark skies for your enjoyment and our wildlife. 🌟

📸

24/01/2026

We are about to experience our second assault of extreme temperatures for 2026 with numerous consecutive days in the high 30s and low 40s and potentially to the mid 40s.

We've decided to reschedule the bookings for the guests staying over these days. Why?

Because even though our hut is supremely insulated, sits on a hill that catches a breeze, has great cross ventilation, double glazing, a wide and shady verandah, ceiling fans and AC, and while the hut performs extremely well, these are still ghastly temperatures that limit our guests' enjoyment of our stay and our farm.

And another reason? We will be spending the cool hours of the next week or so keeping our animals watered and comfortable. And we will be on the lookout for fires.

This is the reality of tourism in climate change, and that's why we are doing what we can here to calculate and reduce our emissions and offset our own emissions right here via numerous environmental projects.

We've signed the Glasgow Declaration - part of international tourism declaring a climate emergency. This commits us to reduce emissions by half by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2050.

And our stay is certified by
at Advanced Ecotourism and Climate Action.

So while we can't change the weather, we can change what we do and we can take some responsibility.

Hoping you and your loved ones stay safe over the next days of extremes. Put water out for the birds!

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