One Year in Queensland: An Honest Broadmeadow Park Update

This week marked one year since we moved to Queensland, and I wanted to share a very honest update on how that first year has actually been.

If I had to sum it up in one word, it would be: hard.

Not hard in a dramatic, everything-is-falling-apart way, but hard in the subtle, relentless sense of being constantly overwhelmed. It feels like we’ve spent the year catching balls, mostly dropping balls, and dealing with balls coming at us from completely left field. Cyclones. Work. Car accidents. Parenting. Dogs. Gardening. Property maintenance. Bills. Life. All of it, happening at once, in a brand-new place where even the basics parts of life take more energy than you expect.

Doing all of that in an entirely different environment takes its toll.

That said, after 12 months, we’re finally feeling more settled. Things feel calmer. More familiar. And while we’re keeping expectations very measured (because life can change in a moment), 2026 is looking quietly hopeful.

So here’s a proper update on Broadmeadow Park, with the main theme being this:

Trying to raise Border Collies while growing flowers on a property with almost no infrastructure is extremely difficult. 😅

Not that you can tell, butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths!

Dogs vs Flowers (Spoiler: Dogs Are Winning)

We have four dogs who have the run of about half an acre.

The young ones run through the flower beds. The boys pee on the bushes. The puppy digs holes. They tear up the garden. It’s… a lot.

On top of that, we’re in a big open space, with fences that enable you to see the entire neighbourhood. And this means barking. They bark at neighbours’ dogs. They bark at people walking past. Harvey barks at the jet planes that fly over from the nearby airforce base. Ahhhh the serenity!

Next door we have two very effervescent Shih Tzus who like to run the fence line. And nothing excites a Border Collie more than a fast-moving, high-pitched squealing animal. Managing that behaviour, and not letting it become rehearsed and ingrained, is genuinely challenging.

Halfway through the year we added a puppy — Gracie — who is an absolute dream of a dog. Truly stunning. But of course, having a puppy in the middle of all this chaos just adds fuel to the fire. It’s very ‘on brand’ for me.

Look at her! Can’t believe how fast she’s grown!

Gracie wants to chase the other dogs (especially the shih Tzus), gets FOMO when I’m training another dog, and generally brings puppy-level chaos into the house. This dog gives new meaning to term ‘zoomies’. What I desperately need are secure, functional spaces where I can put her and the other dogs when I can’t supervise — spaces that don’t involve chasing neighbour dogs or digging up my garden.

To currently cope, we have a temporary fence that divides the yard, a small colourbond fenced yard for the dogs, puppy gates and crates! I follow a complex routine of musical chairs (dog version) to manage it all! I wrote a blog on puppy management strategies and I still use all of them, except for the playpens, which Gracie is too big for now.

So yes. Many fun problems to solve in 2026. That’s what I tell myself.

Gardening in “Evil Nice” Weather

The climate here is… wild.

I actually love the heat. Winter is basically three mild, cool months, and then September rolls around and it’s suddenly summer again. Right now it’s hot, humid, and punctuated by intense thunderstorms with torrential rain. That combination makes gardening pretty challenging.

This year has been a crash course in things I did not know, like residual herbicides in purchased soil.

Here are my 3 beds back when I first planted the summer flowers.

I planted nearly $300 worth of dahlia tubers (my absolute favourite flower) across a couple of beds. Only about 50% survived. Some rotted. Some seemed to bake in the ground. The ones growing in soil from the landscaping supplier are twisted, gnarled, and unhappy, which Google suggests might be herbicide damage.

There are also large brown flying bugs on the flowers (friend? foe? no idea).

Long story short it’s nearly the end of January and my dahlias still aren’t flowering, which is honestly heartbreaking.

Many other things haven’t survived either:

• A macadamia tree
• A blueberry tree
• Several shrubs
• A gorgeous mandevilla
• A daisy garden that was absolutely demolished by dog zoomies

I planted two delonix trees at the front of the house, envisioning beautiful shade framing the property. They dropped all their leaves, looked dead, and I pulled them out… only to later realise they might have just been deciduous. Whoops! They’re now compost. RIP. I genuinely don’t know what I’m doing.

The good news?

I planted a eucalyptus tree just after we moved and it is nearly as tall as me! Which is very cool, cause it was tiny when I bought it.

The jacarandas are thriving. They’ve doubled in size since planting, and I have this long-term vision of them framing a country-style path to our aqua-blue front door. It’ll take ten years, but that’s the thing with trees you plant them anyway.

The lime tree is alive but has scale and ants. The marigolds are thriving and self-seeding beautifully. Zinnias are doing okay, although a storm knocked many over which resulted in a big cull to remove the broken stems and I made a bouquet which I named: “chaos in the garden” cause that’s genuinely what gardening feels like right now.

I haven’t had zero flowers. I’ve had enough to make a regular bouquet, which you can see below, but the idea was to be able to head to the markets with cut flowers to sell and we are nowhere near this…

Weeds, Heatstroke, and Admitting I was Wrong

Weeds grow exceptionally well here. Exponentially. Keeping on top of them feels like a full-time job.

We also finally accepted defeat and bought a ride-on mower. I was adamant that we didn’t need one. “We can push mow. It’s good exercise!” I would say.

That decision was made after I push-mowed half the block on a 36°C day, refused to stop, and ended up with heatstroke: vomiting, delirious, and absolutely wrecked. That was the moment I decided to concede defeat and announce: “We’re buying a ride-on.”

I am happy to admit I was wrong.

Learning, Slowly

There are local flower farms nearby, and at some point — when I find the mythical thing called “free time” — I plan to politely stalk them and ask if I can work for free just to learn. I need hands-on experience. I have no idea what I’m doing, but I do work hard, and I ask a lot of questions.

2026 will also be the year I go deep on composting. Like… full compost goblin. I want excellent soil. I don’t want to buy it. And I definitely don’t want herbicide surprises ever again.

The Border Collies 2025 Extra-Curricular Activities Update:

Marshall

He started the year flyball racing for our new team Awesome Pawsome but due to very poor box turn technique he was benched in winter. Since then he has been in training to see if we can improve his turn on the box. He needs to slow down and use his brain a bit more, otherwise he risks injury. We’re hoping to get him back racing this year – probably second half of the year is realistic. Stay tuned!

I’m also starting to teach him obedience. I used to think he couldn’t do it. He can be a bit ‘frantic’ and I’ve found him to do things very fast. Turns out, I just needed to work on my training style because I’ve already got him heeling better and slowing himself down to pay attention to what I’m telling him. Such a good boy.

He will also father his first litter this year!

Taylor

We have three goals for Taylor:

• do Park Run with me
• compete in our first obedience trial
• have her first litter of puppies

Taylor had a rough time as a very young pup with an incident where a stranger frightened her very intensely. Combine that with not enough socialisation because we got her while were were trying to sell our house and move interstate and we have a very lovely dog who is a bit shy of new people.

Since the move Taylor has gone from level 1 to level 4 obedience, started flyball training and as a result, has dramatically increased her confidence.

Gracie

This little lady has grown so much!

She is a very happy, confident and friendly little dog! She attends Above and Beyond Dog Training Centre each week and is doing well with her training,

We also hit the confirmation show ring in November 2025 with the goal of achieving her Australian Champion Title. We’ve done a number of shows now and she gets better every time.

Show season kicks off this upcoming weekend and it’s going to be a busy year fitting in the shows around flyball and obedience trials.

Instagram influencer!

Also, in case you weren’t aware, we’re becoming instagram influencers!

It all started with a reel showing Gracie as a puppy. It went viral, along with a few others after it and our little instagram account has skyrocketed from under 200 followers at the beginning of the year to over 3400! We’ve now had multiple reels go viral including one where I’m learning to groom with Taylor’s breeder Dee from Kolorko Kennel! That reel has nearly hit 500K views! Wild!

Part of our 2026 plan is to make more content with the dogs and flowers as well as show you more of our home and how we live! I’ve got a big creative streak that is dying to escape and it’s time for some home styling! Watch this space!

The Good Stuff in 2026

Despite the chaos, a lot of good things are happening this year.

• Harvey and Marshall will be starting back at flyball in February
• Taylor’s obedience training starts back up this week
• Gracie starts the confirmation show circuit this weekend with the goal of achieving her Australian Champion title
• We’re planning dog runs, kennels and sheds on the property
• I’ve started a small side hustle building websites for local businesses and that income goes straight back into Broadmeadow Park — dogs, garden, infrastructure

And, we can’t forget that 2026 is the year we welcome our first litter of puppies for Beaustrong Border Collies! The “Reputation Litter” is due in the first half of 2026 and we cannot wait!

Overall it feels like we’re slowly building something. Imperfectly, messily, but 100% US.

Here’s to understanding this climate better, building better fences, trying again with the dahlias next summer and seeing what 2026 brings.

Chaos and all.

Kate x