By Casey Neill
Yarra Ranges Citizen of the Year Lesley Porter was “a bit shocked, really humbled by it and really blessed”.
The Australia Day award recognised her work over the past 13 years at the Good Life Farm in Chum Creek.
The farm celebrates difference, builds resilience and connects teens with their community.
Ms Porter created the Good Life Farm to provide a farm-based therapeutic and educational program for young people, providing vital life and living skills, youth mentoring, psychosocial support and animal-based therapy.
Her award citation said some of the young people coming to the farm had experienced trauma, were disengaged from education, homeless, or faced other barriers in their lives.
“As a result of their farm stay, many children have improved at school, learnt important life skills, gained confidence and made friends,” the citation said.
In 2012, Ms Porter was awarded a Pride of Australia Victorian award for Inspiration.
She was 11 years old when she moved to Healesville.
“I had experienced a lot of trauma prior to that,” she said.
Ms Porter started working on a riding farm in Mt Riddell Road.
“They took my under their wing and gave me a real sense of belonging,” she said.
She saw results in herself and others who came to the farm – many from boarding schools who lacked a sense of family in the same way she did.
“The environment was so healing,” she said.
She said running the farm had been “an interesting journey”.
“When you work with youth you have to do a lot of self-awareness work,” she said.
“Working with vulnerable youth will set of a lot of triggers for yourself.”
Ms Porter said a former principal who had dealt with her when she was “naughty at school” now supported the farm.
“If you told me when I was a little girl that I would one day be doing this I wouldn’t have believed it,” she said.
“None of this would have been possible without the community that I moved to and the support from businesses that when I was really struggling let me run up a bill.
“There’s such a good community supporting me, and volunteers -we have some beautiful volunteers at the farm.”
Ms Porter defended her farm from the Black Saturday Bushfires.
She spoke to the Mail for our commemorative edition to mark 10 years since the disaster.
Read her story in our 5 February edition or on the website.
