TRADITION is a key to Seven Creeks Estate at Euroa, writes KIM WOODS

The Georgian-style mansion, historic garden and bluestone coach house of Seven Creeks Estate are simply stunning.

Look beyond them to the farm and there is not a pin out of place.

The historic 1619ha property at Euroa may be park-like on the surface but it has a sound financial base. Ross and Rachael Carrington bought Seven Creeks Estate almost three years ago.

The couple, working with manager Wayne Ellis, have renovated pastures, planted thousands of trees, renewed kilometres of fencing and added new bloodlines to the cow herd.

For Ross, taking over the reins at Seven Creeks has been like a home-coming. "I jackarooed on this place in 1974-75," he said.

"Every owner has made a contribution to the property in some way.

"I feel quite privileged in trying to continue that tradition."

In another life, Ross was managing director of Australia's largest airline pilot training school, General Flying Services, in Melbourne.

He owned a fleet of 72 aircraft - second only in size to Qantas.

"My parents farmed at Mansfield but when I came home from ag college in the early 1980s, the drought made things difficult," Ross said.

He turned to his other love of flying and ran the pilot training school for 25 years.

"When the business was bought out, the solicitor handling the legal work mentioned he was preparing documents for the sale of Seven Creeks Estate," Ross said.

"The whole thing meshed in and I ended up back here. The two years I spent here as a jackaroo were two of the best years of my life - it's funny how things turn out."

But agriculture had changed dramatically and Ross turned to manager Wayne Ellis and contractor Andrew Kelly for help.

"Thirty-seven years ago, there was no pasture improvement - it was all native grasses," Ross said.

"We now crop for two years before sowing new pasture, and this is giving us terrific results."

Seven Creeks Estate was first settled in 1835. It has the distinction of shearing the first bale of fine Merino wool in Victoria.

A marble marker stands in a paddock where the original owner, English-born doctor John Rowe, was killed in a horse fall.

Parliamentarian William Forlonge built the Georgian mansion on Seven Creeks in 1852.

Pastoralist Ian Currie owned the station from 1915 to 1970, earning a reputation for prime bullocks.

The bluestone coach house and chapel was added by owner Geoff Gabriel during the 1980s.

Dennis and Margaret Marks rebuilt the house in 2000 after a fire, as a replica of the original.

The Marks family owned champion racehorse and 1991 Caulfield Cup-Melbourne Cup winner, Let's Elope.

Today, the garden features the original nine-hole golf course and huge specimens of Bhutan cypress, blue atlas cedar and deodar cedar.

The gothic-style chapel is being renovated as an art and photography studio for Rachael.

The  country ranges from red loams to granitic outcrops with stands of remnant stringybark and is 80 per cent arable.

Set in a 700mm-rainfall zone, the farm is cut by the permanent Seven and Castle creeks.

Ross said his first step was to create a whole farm plan with manager Wayne Ellis.

"We wanted to improve the water and secondly, clean up the paddocks of vermin and weeds," he said.

"We dug out dams as they were too shallow.

"We then embarked on a cropping program, initially with oats and then wheat, to clean up an onion grass problem."

Many kilometres of fencing was renewed and internal laneways topped with gravel.

Up to 1000 native trees are planted each year along water courses and as shelter belts.

Seven Creeks runs a spring-calving 950-cow Angus herd based on Lawsons, Dunoon, Banquet and Witherswood bloodlines.

The station's run of 400 steers sold recently at Pakenham, with the tops weighing 347kg.

They topped at $844 and averaged $765, while 140 surplus heifers averaged $565.

"Spring calving places less pressure on the cows through winter and any magnesium deficiency doesn't knock them around," Ross said.

"From our point of view, we are not fatteners so we chose to sell the calves at eight to 10 months of age."

Heifers are joined at 14 months over eight weeks. All females are pregnancy tested with all empties culled.

Bulls are selected for structural soundness, high growth, carcass traits and adequate frame.

A flock of 300 first-cross ewes is joined to White Suffolk rams and strategically grazed for weed control.

The second-cross lambs are sold through the Shepparton market at 20-24kg carcass weight.

Wheat and canola have been sown on 202ha this year and the cropping paddocks are limed at 2.5t/ha.

Manager Wayne Ellis said pastures were being renovated to improve carrying capacity and oats were grown for hay.

This year, ryegrass varieties include drylander, camel, tenacity, bolton, matilda and platinum.

The new pastures were sown at 15kg/ha of ryegrass and 5kg/ha of clover with 80kg/ha of MAP.

Three new paddocks have been identified for next year's pastures, using a mix of ryegrass and clovers at 20kg/ha, plus one paddock of diploid tetila at 20kg/ha.

Away from the farm, Ross still enjoys flying.

He has his toy - a Cessna 210 - parked in a hangar on the property.

A runway has been slashed through a phalaris pasture.

All he has to do is dodge the odd flock of crossbred sheep.