The Surprising Gifts of Rewilding

A Love Letter to the Unexpected

When we first moved to this patch of land, I had no idea what I was doing. Truly no clue. I started by banging in stakes to plant a few trees—no plan, no technique, just heart. Within the first hour, soaked with sweat and questioning my life choices, an echidna waddled by, nodded as if to say, Keep going.  I’ve never seen one since. That quiet moment was the first sign that maybe, just maybe, this place had room for me too.

Since then, the gifts have kept coming. 

The birdsong in the early morning. Friendships sparked at seed-saving days and workshops. Many more birds arriving, the sky alive with their calls. And most of all, a growing sense of connection—something deep and almost wordless—between me, our farm, and the wildness that’s slowly waking up here.

I thought I was the one rewilding the land. But the truth is, the land started rewilding me.

It’s a shift I don’t fully have the words for yet. It’s more a felt sense: a deeper kind of listening, a slowness I didn’t know I needed, a way of being that’s more about presence than doing. It’s learning from the seasons, from the plants and birds, from the quiet rhythms that aren’t dictated by calendars or deadlines but by nature’s own pulse.

Some gifts arrive as awe; others arrive as humility. This season brought both. We’ve just emerged from the worst drought South Australia has faced since 1967. The earth was parched and splitting open. The river, once lively, had fallen to a faint murmur. And then, almost overnight, the river returned—swollen, rushing, alive. In just a few days, everything shifted.

It reminded me how small I am in the face of nature. That it moves in its own time, on its own terms. Beyond our control. Beyond our expectations. And still—it gives.

Even these moments are gifts. Rewilding isn’t always beautiful. But it’s always real.

Then, this weekend, something truly moved me. 

Neva—my close friend’s mum—gave me a gift that stopped me in my tracks: an intricate artwork of the diamond firetail, crafted from a photo I had taken the first time I saw one here. That moment was pure awe, a kind of homecoming. And now, through Neva’s hands, that moment returned to me as something tangible, beautiful, and deeply personal.

What makes Neva’s gift so special isn’t just the artwork itself. It’s the ripple beneath it—how the work I’m doing, quietly and often unseen, has reached into someone else’s life and inspired creativity - Neva telling me how the work I’m doing here, this quiet rewilding, had inspired her to create something.

That gift really got me thinking—about the importance of telling this story, of sharing what I’m doing here on this farm, in this patch of South Australia. Neva’s gift is, in fact, the very reason I’m writing this now. Because stories have power. They connect us. They carry the wildness in ways that a simple fact or report never can. Through storytelling, we can invite others to see, hear, and feel what rewilding truly is. 

Rewilding cannot just be about restoring habitat or increasing birdlife—though that is vital. It’s about making rewilding cultural. It’s about stories, art, connection, and inspiring people to feel this is their work too. Because deep down, most of us want a world where birds sing, where native plants flourish, where the wildness returns—not just on remote patches of land, but woven through our lives and communities.

That kind of cultural shift doesn’t begin with policy or plans. It begins quietly—in the stories we tell, the beauty we share, the attention we pay. It begins with falling a little more in love with the living world each day. That’s how the wild returns—not just to the land, but to us.

For me, these gifts are continuing to unfold and I feel them every day. The slowing down. The paying attention. Connecting—with people near and far. The gratitude for small miracles. The joy in dirt under my nails and birdsong at dawn.

Rewilding gives so much, in ways I never expected. Quietly. Unpredictably. And sometimes, all at once.

Check out Neva’s beautiful artwork - https://www.instagram.com/nevajonesart/