‘Small but mighty’ Mypo needs your vote in the 2022 Ag Town of the Year Awards
With the cut-off date looming, Mypolonga locals Mark Draper and Tracy Bawden are urging everyone to show their support.

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With voting for the 2022 Agricultural Town of the Year Awards closing in less than a week, Mypolonga locals are urging everyone to vote for the town.
Having been nominated for the third year in a row, the likes of Lime Hill Farm owners Mark Draper and Tracy Bawden feel as though this could be Mypo’s year.
“We want people to vote,” Ms Bawden said.
“Mypolonga is the best place in South Australia.”
The husband and wife team have become an integral part of Mypo’s foodie scene over the past seven years, growing produce including oranges, avocadoes, lemons, pomegranates, olives, and their specialty: finger limes.
“We are one of the only farms in South Australia that grow finger limes,” Ms Bawden said.
“I have a huge passion for native Australian produce; I feel it is so under-used and under-promoted.”

The couple bought their property in 2015, but only officially moved in last year after building an off-grid house and getting jobs in nearby communities.
She said there was a reason they had dubbed the town “small but mighty”, a tagline locals have taken up as a hashtag for the ag town of the year campaign: #MypoSmallButMighty.
“I grew up in the Riverland and lived in farming communities all over SA, but Mypo looked so different,” Ms Bawden said.
“It is such a little town, but it has so much diversity in what is has to offer.
“Mypo was hit so hard by the millenium drought; when you drive around, you can see the gaps that are still there … but everyone here is so good at recognising when traditional methods are not working, and they are not afraid to try something new.
“They get out there and they say ‘let’s have a go’.”

Ms Bawden said Lime Hill was unique not only for its produce, but for its approach to farming.
“We run a micro farm, which means that we grow to the environment and to the seasons; and our plot is smaller, we are not hundreds of acres in size,” she said.
“Everything is made on the property; all the picking, packing and preparing is done here; and there is no waste – whatever is about to spoil is turned into a jam or pickle.
“We also planted native plants around the property to attract bees and native birds.”
Those methods reflected Lime Hill Farm’s philosophy, she said, of being sustainable and sympathetic to the land and loving it.
“It’s about being good custodians, and leaving the land better than the way the last people left it and the people before them,” she said.

Mypolonga Progress Association chair Steve Hein hoped that the town’s award bid would gain a bit of momentum from being the only one nominated in the Murray Bridge district, and one of just three in the Murraylands.
Being named a finalist last year had drawn local people together, he said, “really kicked us on as a community”.
- Vote for Mypolonga: solsticemedia.com.au.
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