The Grundy family from Mundoo Island Station is proving it is possible to strike a balance between productive agriculture and doing the best by the environment.
Their farm - the last on the River Murray - comprises 1210-hectare Mundoo Island on the Younghusband Peninsula, along with Long Island and Ewe Island which add another 810ha.
It supports myriad birdlife, frogs and aquatic insects, but coexisting with them are a self-replacing herd of about 400 Angus breeders and about 250 White Dorper sheep.
Colin and his wife Sally are the fourth generation of Grundys to call Mundoo home, with their children Jessie and Jack the fifth.
They say farming on an island has its challenges, with the only road access via the SA Water barrage from Hindmarsh Island where they also own land.
But island life also has plenty of benefits, especially the swamps on Mundoo which provide valuable green feed for the cattle during the summer months.
It is a common sight to see cattle grazing up to their bellies in water.
This has traditionally made checking stock difficult but the Grundys have come up with a solution - drones.
"We can fly over and if we see they need to be treated we can saddle up a horse," Sally said.
Their Mavic Pro and Phantom 3 Pro drones are also used to help get cattle back onto higher ground after the autumn break.
The Grundys have been using Stoney Point Performance Angus bulls for many years.
They aim to turn off feeder steers to Thomas Foods International at 450 kilograms liveweight, while surplus heifers are sold to feedlotters or as future breeders.
During the Millenium Drought from 2007 to 2010 the Grundys were forced to install kilometres of polypipe and new troughs connected to SA Water mains.
"We weren't in drought ourselves but when the river level dropped the barrages leaked and the fresh water channels went salty," Mr Grundy said.
They have also fenced areas into smaller paddocks, enabling them to rotationally graze their pastures.
The Grundys are strong advocates of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, which they say has restored the health of the Coorong and Lower Lakes in the past decade.
They say any decrease in environmental flows coming down the River Murray would have a devastating effect on the local ecosystem, especially with 2018 one of their driest years.
"All of the nutrients and tonnes of salts must be flushed out of the river and the only place that can happen is at the Murray Mouth - the river must be allowed to flow from the start to the end," Mr Grundy said.
Tourism gives insight into Mundoo Island
Tourism enables the Grundy family to share their piece of paradise with an array of visitors, from those interested in the early history of SA when paddle steamers picked up wool on Mundoo Island to ornithologists looking for rare migratory birds.
For more than 20 years they have conducted historical station tours, bird watching tours and photography tours and also offer farm stay accommodation and waterside Coorong campsites.
"It is such a unique environment and being privately owned no one would be able to see it if we didn't open it up but we are also conscious of not putting pressure on the environment," Sally Grundy said.
She says they feel a strong sense of responsibility to look after Mundoo Island for the next generation.
In 2013 and 2014 they fenced off areas and planted 140,000 shrubs, trees and native grasses, including teatrees and saltbush, which are flourishing.
"Most farmers I know are ecologists, they all want to look after the land or they won't be able to keep making a living from it, but I guess we are a bit closer to it than a normal dryland farm," Colin Grundy said.
Details: mundooisland.com.au