Monto’s Burnham family are proud to invest in the future of agriculture.
Carly and Grant Burnham and their four children Lily, Ruby, Knox and Quad are organic beef producers at their property Bonnie Doone, which is west of Monto in the North Burnett.
The family were thrilled to receive the 2025 Australian Government Climate Innovation Award at the 2025 Landcare awards on Tuesday, 23 September.
Judges noted the family’s experience in ecological agriculture and soil carbon sequestration.
“We were pretty amazed and delighted,” Carly said.
“It’s such a good story for agriculture that we can be producing healthy and nutritious feeds and be improving outcomes for the environment in a real way.
“It gives us so much hope for the future of agriculture.”
Lily and Knox attended the awards dinner on the family’s behalf.
“It was so special – the whole experience embodied how the next generation are so integral in this journey for agriculture to really have a positive impact on the environment,” Carly said.
The family were humbled by receiving the award and were surprised to be recognised amongst such a distinguished group of finalists.
“It’s all about doing better for the earth, the best we can while we’re here for the future generations,” Carly said.
The Landcare award is extra special to the Burnhams as Carly’s late father was himself a committed landcarer, having been a proud member of the Monto Landcare Group for many years.
“He’d be so proud of this achievement,” Carly said.
Carly and Grant both grew up in Monto, buying into a family business in 2002 before becoming independent in 2010.
“[That was] when we really got our toes in the soil and started on our ecological journey,” Carly explained.
In 2016 the family were approached to join a small group of farmers across Australia signing up for a 25-year government-led soil carbon project aimed at improving farming sustainability.
The project aligned with their sustainability-conscious thoughts at the time, seeing the Burnhams become aware of making their beef and landscape as healthy as possible.
The Burnham agreed to sign up for the project, which involved obtaining 300 core samples from a depth of 1.2 metres across their property.
As participants in the study the family had to change their practices and decided to intensify their cell grazing, as well as add more fences and watering points.
These changes helped improve their productivity with better pasture utilisation.
“With all of those grazing benefits, that for us was enough (…) we’d seen improvements already,” Carly said.
By 2021, the soils on Bonnie Doone were measured again and in those five years the property had sequestered almost 100,000 tonnes of carbon equivalent.
“This is a first in Australia, a first in the world (…) for soil carbon to be measured to this depth,” Carly said.
Bonnie Doone’s soil is measured every five years as long as the Burnhams are part of the project.
Almost a decade in, the family are already seeing benefits: their soils and landscape have become markedly more abundant.
“That’s pretty exciting because that’ll provide more confidence and more information for other farmers and graziers, the science world and for the government to understand the data,” Carly said.
“It’s exciting to be part of something so trailblazing.”
Their consumers have also recognised these conscious efforts: the Bonnie Doone team have been selling their organic beef directly to consumers for more than 13 years.
“People who eat our beef value the things we’re doing, the nourishing product and being connected directly to the farm,” Carly said.
“All these things happened because we wanted to make a positive difference.”
The Burnhams’ success with their pastures has also enabled them to be more generous with their time and resources and give back to their local community.
“We’ve had some really amazing wins, it just keeps us striving to give back more,” Carly said.
These days the family not only have their organic beef production, but also provide on-farm accommodation with their Bloodwood Cabin.
The cabin, built from hardwood timbers sourced from their Bonnie Doone property, has attracted hundreds of visitors each year and was a 2024 finalist in an Australia / New Zealand BNB awards category.
“It’s a real transformative experience; the guests get to be immersed in nature but also with our farming practices and learn about what we do,” Carly said.
“It’s a really surprising, unintended consequence of deepening the story and what we’re doing for the environment.”
The Burnhams have also dipped their toes into lumber production, sustainably harvesting timber from their property.
“A little bit of diversification has been essential for providing sustainability for the business (…) when it has been dry and the cattle prices are low, it helps it all be more stable,” Carly explained.
“That is the reason why we’ve been able to invest in the environment with things like the soil carbon project.”
Carly and Grant have been invited to share their story around Australia at agricultural conferences, with Carly having a goal to champion fellow women in agriculture.
“It’s really important to share our knowledge – we’re not necessarily doing anything special,” Carly said.
“When you have a good story to tell and inspire other people to make that first step (…) it can have a huge impact on someone’s life.”
